Bill Easums Observations

For a long time I’ve encouraged would be pastors not to go to seminary. You can find a long chapter I wrote on the subject over ten years ago called Seminaries: Strangled by Creeping Vines .

Here is a short excerpt:“I keep getting asked if I really mean it when I say that seminary training is a waste of time. Yes, I mean that, at least the way seminary is today. I also mean it because I see so many authentic ministries being accomplished without it. Here are some of my thoughts in rough draft form. “ for more click here.

Today I ran across a blog by Greg Atkinson that says the same thing. Way to go Greg.

This does not mean that pastors shouldn’t be educated. No way. It means that the way pastors are being educated is changing to become more biblical. Instead of relying totally on what I call a “data dump,” pastors are being mentored and coached by people who have done what the would be pastor feels called to do. Like the Disciples who followed Jesus around, the emphasis is on on-the-job-training.

So quit wasting time going to seminary. Find a mentor who is doing what you feel called to do and latch on to that person.Bill 

A couple of fund raisers have responded to my blog and both of them are still finding success raising money. That’s great! One of them is my good friend Clif Christopher of Horizon Stewardship.  This is good news.  He says that it is more of a local issue than a national issue. So, temper my previous post with what is actually going on in your community among your people and don’t listen to the national news media.

My worry is that reality is might be smothered out by fear because the national news media continues to hammer away at the economic downturn to the point that I wonder if perception is more real than reality itself.  

Here’s a question- if the national news media had never mentioned the economic problem and reported mostly good news, would people be as scared as they seem to be?

bill

We’ve been having a lot of conversation on our advanced forum about whether or not to have capital fund drives during such a downturn in the economy.  I responded to one person by saying if I could wait I would.  This sparked a round of emails, some of which were not realistic. I believe in having faith that God will provide, but Im also realistic. if the money isnt there, it isnt there. And believe me today it isnt there. On top of that there is a lot of fear going around. It wont last long, but for now its there.

Unless those people with deep pockets contribute liberally (and they cant if they dont have it) the capital fund drive is a bust.  And one of the most demoralizing things that can happen to a church is spend four months in a capital fund drive only to fall so short of the goal that everyone is disappointed.

Raising money is about three things:

1. a good vision to offer  that touches the imagination and heart.

2. a good plan for raising it lead by someone who knows how to raise money

3. Money being present, both poor, middle class, and those who have more than one pocket from which to give.

So if you are going to do a capital fund drive at this time make sure your people arent relying on the stock market in order to be able to contribute.  A person may believe deeply in the vision but if the money isn’t there the drive will be a bust. So be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

One of the best capital fund companies I know is Horizon Stewardship. They will never lead you astray.

I’ve had three major mentors in my life - Nelson Mandela, Carlyle Marney, and Billy Graham. Each of them very different from my theology and political persuasions but nevertheless men from whom I learned aot.

Nelson Mandela taught me never to give up on what you believe even if it looks hopeless.  Carlyle Marney, a very liberal Southern Baptist, taught me it is okay to be a rebel. He also edited my first sermon when I was 17 and told me it was crap! And Billy Graham taught me the guarding oneself from the opposite sex while doing ministry.

 So on the 90th birthday of Billy Graham I felt the need to thank him for all he did for me even though we never met. I was privileged once to experience him in a large rally back in the 50s.  The man was larger than life then.

Did you know that when he traveled he reserved an entire floor of the hotel. Had all the TVs taken out and had guards at the elevator doors and exit entrances so there would never be the hint of sexual impropriety.

Of all the larger than life religious figures Graham is one of the very few who made it through his entire ministry without as much as a peep of scandel. We can all learn a lesson from that.

Happy Birthday Billy.

Bill Easum
www.easumbandy.com

I’m going to rant today so go ahead and forgive me before you start reading.Aren’t you glad the elections are over?  It seems as if they get more negative every year.

Aside from that……Have you noticed - debate in this country is no longer considered important?  Well, it isn’t.  I invite you to consider the following:

In the past Universities were places where learners could debate issues without fear of being labeled or criticized. But today, some issues are no longer considered debatable in universities or seminaries and those who wish to debate them are criticized or labeled.In politics debate has given way to accusation and innuendo. Politicians don’t debate real issues any more, instead they sling mud.  Today, it’s not good to have a clear position on anything political.

Newscasters are no longer unbiased in their reporting, and that really ticks me off.  Where can I find unbiased reporting today? Every major TV news broadcasters are clearly biased on the liberal side and Fox is clearly biased on the conservative side and some major newscasters have been replaced because they allowed their political position to influence their broadcast. One of the San Francisco newspapers ran a double-edged, gay-hate editorial on the Haggard affair. Who can you trust to give you the real news? No one. Where are the Walter Cronkites who tell it like it is?Now to the religious scene.  Didn’t think I was going to pick on this one did you? Mainliners denigrate evangelicals.  Evangelicals look down their noses at mainliners.  Liberal leaders think their conservative brothers and sisters are stupid and naive.  Conservatives feel as if their liberal brothers and sisters aren’t even Christians.Where does it all end?I’ve found that those who throw mud do so because they don’t have anything positive to offer.  I’ve also found that those who think they have God under their thumb are the farthest from the Kingdom. Liberal and conservative take notice.If the above has any truth, then we are indeed in a hostile world.  Most of us worry about terrorists.  And we should.  But something more sinister is destroying the heart of our country. Hate, bigotry, and fear is tearing us apart.

One of the characteristics of the emerging world is polarization. At the same time the world is coming closer together, it is also coming apart.  The isolation of ideologies is at the core of this fragmentation. We no longer debate different opinions or tolerate other faiths. Now we seek to do the other in, no matter what it costs.  The Crusades are back! Jihad is the mantra! Conservatives are bigoted! Liberals are not Christians.

Where will it end?The fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles gives us a directive for a time such as this.  When the Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin for treason, a Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel said,” …I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” 

Why can’t we take that position today? I think it is because most leaders today are too insecure to trust what they believe.  I understand why the Muslims flew the planes into the Towers - they hate Christian’s guts the same way the Crusaders hated the infidels. Both violated the tenets of their faith.What I can’t understand is how people of faith hate one another or how reporters can violate their profession and let their bias color their reporting of what is suppose to be news. It just doesn’t compute to this Simple Simon. One of the key issues of our time is how to be radical about ones faith or position without being a bigot filled with hate.  Hate, whatever form it takes, is evil. So the next time you are prone to run down a brother or sister who is at the opposite ends of the Christian pole remember, there but for the grace of God goes you.Oh, I already hear the email banging away with people who want to tell me how wrong I am. I wonder if it will be a debate or?

Well we have come to the end of this series. I hope it  has been helpful.

Perhaps you are asking, what can I do with all  of these conversations? Well, here are some places to begin.

1. Pay attention to the conversations going on today and see what you can learn from them. It may surprise you.
2. For those of you in spiritually alive congregations look for ways to mentor pastors in churches whose spiritual life is not so good.
3.  For those of you in dying churches, get out of there as fast as you can and quit wasting your life.
4.  Focus your people on the question - “What is it about my relationship with Jesus that the world cannot live without knowing?”
5. If you want your church to thrive in a pagan world you need to spend time with pagans. So get out of the office and help your members grow up spiritually.
6. Focus on growing people instead of growing your church.
7. Eliminate the missions committee and consider every leader a potential missionary to the West.
8. Focus on making your church so loving and warm people can’t help but grow.
9. Don’t encapsulate your people so firmly in church activities they lose touch with their pagan friends. Don’t extract them from the world.           
10. And above all, find ways to participate in the reproductive movements underfoot today.

The Primary Conversation of Our Time Becomes Clearer

Im coming to the end of this series and want to thank everyone who has contributed. Who knows you may find some of it in a book some day.

We are all indebted to the Emergent, Incarnational and Organic folks for so clearly calling to our attention the fact that Western Christianity is nowhere near what Jesus had in mind when he sent his disciples out into the world to build his church. We need to hear them. Moreover, we should be listening to why they feel so passionate about Western Christianity being either irrelevant or a counterfeit.  Doing so may help some of us change our ways or avoid some of the mistakes made by institutional churches.

Perhaps now you see why these conversations lie at the heart of thefuture of Western Christianity. If the basic mission of Christianity is not the health or growth of institutional churches but churches that contribute to the expansion of the Kingdom of God, then the vast majority of established Western Christianity is virtually dead. The acknowledgement of this condition is one of the reasons why this conversation is so important. If our churches were making disciples, transforming their communities, and actually bringing the Kingdom to bear on this earth, the conversation around the Emergent, Attractional, Incarnational, and Organic folks would not be necessary. But it is, and all of us had better take heart and listen to what God is saying in this conversation. 

However, the Emergent, Incarnational, Attractional, and Organic conversations are not the primary conversations in which we should be engaged.  The focus of our conversations should be on the multiplication of the Kingdom of God rather than the health or growth of the institutional church.  In the context of our society that means we must focus on what it means to be the institutional church that advances the Kingdom of God. As long as our society is based on institutions we can’t throw the baby out with the bath water.   

If we are listening to the conversation, we can’t help but be impressed by the enormous potential awaiting the church if it frees itself from its institutional bondage and becomes engaged in Kingdom ministries like churches planting churches, multiple-site churches, Organic churches, and yes, Incarnational ministries that leave behind the institutional church as we know it, and even the Emergent folks who ask all kinds of uncomfortable questions.

We are witnessing the birth of what I call the ‘Untethered Church”- the church free to be the church wherever two or three are gathered together, a pub, a night club, a strip mall, a neighbor’s home, a parking lot, a shooting gallery, a soup line, a biker club, a coffee shop, and even an institutional church whose primary mission is to those who aren’t yet part of the Kingdom of God.

The emerging world is shaping up to be wonderful riot of expressions of authentic Christianity. Something we haven’t seen for some time. The question is – Will you be a part of it? One more post to come on What Can I Do with these Conversations?

Well the house voted to bailout the economy. So here are my thoughts. I think you can find biblical basis for most of them.

1. this was a much for main street as for wall street. the vase majority of americans caused this mess, not just wall street.

2. its time we once again learned to live within our means.

3. its time to once again require 20% down before a person can purchase a house and we must do away with floating interest.

4. Its time for some CEOS and Bank Presidents to go to jail for telling people they can afford a $300,000 house when all they can afford is a $150,000 house.

5. Its time to either tear up our credit cards or pay them off every month.

6. its time to tithe to our church and to our retirement account (or start one if you dont have one).

7. its time to make sure what money we have is in an insured account.

8. its time to make contributions to our retirement account because the market will go up again some day.

9. But in the end its time for the american consumer to wake up to the fact that you buy things only if you have the money. This seems like such a simple suggestion but it is the heart of all this mess. Another word for it is greed on both sides of the street, both Wall Street and Main Street. Now its time for all of us to get back to what we do best- be Americans and that means pulling together.

The Reproductive/Multiplication/Movement 

So far our we’ve looked at several conversations – Emergent, Incarnational, Organic,  and  Attractional/Incarnational.  Now it’s time turn to another major player in this ongoing conversation- the one, I think, which should be occupying most of our time and energy- the Reproductive/Multiplication groups. 

The primary difference between the effective attractional/incarnational folks and the Reproductive/multiplication folks is that the reproductive/multiplication leaders focus almost exclusive on the process of church planting and/or multiple sites as opposed to growing their own church. Their focus is not on their church but on advancing the Kingdom. I know most of the attractional/incarnational folks would say they believe in church planting, but that’s not their primary focus. Reproductive/multiplication leaders focus primarily on reproducing churches that reproduce churches. Reproductive/multiplication leaders also realize that Western Christianity is in the tube but aren’t willing to give up on the institutional church.

We are seeing leaders emerge whose primary mission is the advancement of the Kingdom rather than the growth of their church. This is what separates these pastors from all the others (I would have to say that Hugh Halter has a similar mission). The primary ways they advance the Kingdom is through developing church planting and multiple sites. Instead of a new faith or new Christians they are calling Christians back to the primary mission of the church- to “go make disciples.” 

The impact of this reproductive/multiplication movement is growing exponentially. One example is the recent Exponential Conference. Three years ago a group of reproductive/multiplication leaders, led by Todd Wilson, started a church planting and multiple site event called Exponential. Three hundred people attended.  This past April (2008), over 3,000 people attended the event. Church planting churches and multiple site churches are now one of the fastest growing segments of western Christianity. Many voices head up the Reproductive/multiplication movement. I can only mention a few. 

GlocalNet http://www.northwoodchurch.org/glocal/glocal.html is an organization founded by Bob Roberts, pastor of NorthWood Church http://www.northwoodchurch.org in Keller, Texas.  GlocalNet is establishing church planting centers all over the U.S.  Robert’s goal is to resource these centers so that far more churches can be planted than if his church continued to focus on church planting.  

Dave Ferguson, pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois  http://www.communitychristian.org, has developed New Thing http://www.newthing.org/index.htm, whose purpose is “to  be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches relentlessly dedicated to helping people find their way back to God.”  

Wayne Cordeiro, pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu http://enewhope.org, has established New Hope International http://www.enhi.org for the sole purpose of raising up 21^st century church planters throughout the world.   

Todd Wilson, pastor of New Life Christian Church in Centerville, Virginia and founder of Passion for Planting http://www.churchplanting4me.com has joined with Dave Ferguson, founder of New Thing Network to form Leading Edge Ministries, (www.leadingedgeministries.org), an alliance of many leading organizations whose purpose it is to make it feasible for any church to take part in the church planting movement.  They offer all of the supporting resources and coaching for planting a church. 

What’s so interesting about Reproductive/multiplication leaders is that they openly embrace the Incarnational people. These leaders have made one thing clear- you don’t have to be incarnational or Emergent to spread the Good News.  They realize that reaching the world will take the combined effort of all forms of Christianity. 

The reproductive/multiplication leaders incorporate the best of the incarnational, the attractional, the organic, and the Emergent values. They believe we must plant as many churches as possible in as short a period of time as possible in any way possible. But their emphasis is not the institutional church; their emphasis is on planting churches that will plant other churches. The emphasis is not on the church but on the process of planting. These leaders also realize that in today’s world big may not always best, so they embrace the multi site route as well as the Emergent and Organic, and House Churches. 

My prediction is that Reproductive/multiplication leaders will do far more to shape the future of Christianity in the West than will all of the other voices taking part in this conversation.  

So here are my questions to the Reproductive/multiplication leaders. When are all of you going to get together and bring about one huge movement that will change the course of the world? What’s keeping you from forming a Reproduction Bank where people of all persuasions can donate money to the cause of planting church planting churches?  When are any of you going to truly become a movement?

Folks, there is only one sermon you must preach Sunday and its about what happened today on Wall Street and the implications to our economy. The market dropped some 777 points (almost 10% of the dow) Over the past two months, many people lost upwards of 20-30% of their retirement and savings. If you are saving for your pension, it was hit hard today. If you want to have any credibility with the public you must address this issue. It is the most serious issue facing our world since the Great Depression

Here’s some of what they need to hear

First, they need to know the end of the world has not come.  This will have little effect on the everyday economics of our country. Business will go on. People will still buy. People who can afford to get credit will get it and people who can’t wont. Tell your people to look around Monday and see that the stores are still open and the world is still turning.

Second, they need to know that God is always a source of comfort when things dont feel comfortable especially if they are retired. These are the folks who will be hurt the most.

Third, they need to know you understand the situation and are addressing it.

If I were picking a text it would be “The love of money is the root of all evils.”  There are several culprits in this situation.

1. the wall street wheelers and dealers

2. the CEOs of major corps. who cooked their books

3. the governement for eliminating all of the regulations

4. the public for thinking the market can always go up and up

5. the press for blowing it entirely out of proportion

6. the politicians who voted based on how close a race they were in at the moment.

7. the people who bought more house they could afford.

All of these groups have pursued money at the expense of truth and honor and the public good.
I would stay away from the so-called bailout. Its too emotional and none of us are smart enough to know which is good. I favored the bailout as long as the CEOs were punished and the tax payers had some hope of recouping the money. but then what do i know. I think it is blown out of proportion unless someone or some corp needs a loan and doesn’t have good enough credit. then they shouldn’t get it anyway.

Wall street has long been an example of bogus books and shadowy figures and greedy characters. And what makes it worse is the politicians aren’t helping. Partisan politics will be the ruin of this great country (my editorial, I wouldn’t suggest using that)

Of course this could all be settled by Sunday. Even if it is, people will have lost part of their shirt and they are smart enough to know the problem is far from over. So stay alert and be ready to adjust your message at the drop of a hat.

Here is some podder for the sermon

 Greed is  one of the 7 deadly sins. if you are preaching on it you might want to brush up on the 7 deadly sins

This is from Wikipedia

Greed (or avarice, covetousness) is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to the acquisition of wealth in particular. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was “a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things.” In Dante’s Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. “Avarice” is more of a blanket term that can describe many other examples of greedy behavior. These include disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason,^{[citations needed]} especially for personal gain, for example through bribery . Scavenging and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed. Such misdeeds can include simony, where one profits from soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church.

here is the url  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins