Bill Easums Observations

Next year, I’m planning on leading about 6 or 7 summits around the country. I’ve done my last two just outside of Palm Beach, Florida and really love the location. Bill Easum and Tom Bandy generally lead their summits in Port Aransas, Texas. I’ve decided, though, I want to start leading some seminars around the country. Since I live in Columbia, Missouri, which is equadistant between Kansas City and St. Louis, I was thinking one of those cities would be nice once in awhile for those who live in the Mid-West. I’d love to go back to Seattle (my home stomping ground). And I’ve never done much in the Northeast, so I’d love to get out there.

 Here are the considerations:

1. Needs to be within 30 minutes of a major airport.
2. Needs to be a “destination” site - somewhere church leaders would like to go.
3. Lodging has to be both comfortable and the cost has to be reasonable.
4. Lodging must be walking distance to restaurants. 
5. Must be able to cancel reservations within 2 weeks of event without having to pay anything (which rules out most retreat centers).

Would love to hear specific recommendations, but if you don’t have time to write a comment, here’s a survey that will help me out.

 Thanks! Bill T-B

Free Online Survey

This post has nothing to do with the church (unless human suffering is part of the churches agenda), but what the heck, it’s our blog so here goes (and I don’t pretend to be an expert on the following comments but it doesn’t take a genius to see the wisdom in the following). 

This is my latest prediction (you can see my first predictions in 1993 in my c book Dancing with Dinosaurs.Two issues are converging on the world that will cause major disasters across the globe if left unchecked- a growing water shortage  and global warming. 

The water shortage is even in the U.S. due to many factors.  Global warming is leading to a rise in the world’s oceans to the point that much of the present coastlines will disappear over the next 100 years or less.

Both of these issues could be dealt with in one broad stroke- sea water desalination.The problem is that water desalination would not profit as many individuals as would laying pipelines from one end of the country to the next. 

As you can see, this isn’t a tirade about the demise of the polar bear. As sad as that may be, it pales in comparison to what is happening to children all over the world and one day in the U.S. Thousands of children are dying each day due to polluted water. It’s time someone decided to do something about it.

Most churches make a fatale mistake when they hire staff- they hire them to maintain what they’ve got instead of multiplpying it. Take most Youth Directors for example.  Most churches think they need a youth director and they hire someone full time to take care of 25 youth.  They dont hire them to multiply the group, but to take care of them so the pastor doesnt have to do it.  Churches dont need full time Youth Directors unless they have 50 or more youth in regular attendance and the goal is to grow to 100 in two years.  A full time youth director should have at least 100 youth in regular attendance or you dont need the person.

The same is true with a Children’s Director.  You dont need a full time person here unless you have 200+ children or you have 100+ children and the goal is to double that number in four years. Otherwise use a Lay Mobilizer who is responsible for adults, children, youth, and small groups - not to do them but to recruit and equip the lay people to do it.

In other words dont hire unless the goal is to grow the group.

Apparently, we’re a nation of addicts and the list of addictive substances just keeps on growing.

• Drugs
• Alcohol (okay, it’s a drug, but it’s legal)
• Sex
• Relationships
• Food
• Work
• Video Games
• Porn
• and the newest entry: Blackberries.

If you think that the last entry is about fruit, you’re not suffering from the last addiction. That last one is about that little black box we call a phone, calendar, web browser, to-do list, contact list, games port, photo album, MP3 player, eBible, book reader, and so on. Of course, all of that is available on a number of different phones, but it’s the Blackberry that has probably created the most interest in the world of addictive phenomenon: the CrackBerry. People are checking the email via their Blackberries (and to be fair, a number of other “smart” phones) in bed, while driving, in the bathroom, during dinner, and (horror of horrors) during worship in church (12% according to an AOL poll). About the only “safe” place to keep away from this addiction is at a movie theater, which is arguably just another cross-addiction.

What’s the implication for the church? Well, besides the fact that pastors are now competing with the Blackberry for their parishioner’s attention, if the church is going to reach those of the techno-generation, it’s going to have to come out of the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, or even the ’90s. The church is going to have to embrace technology in a new, different, and big way. I remember hearing years and years ago from Bill Easum that the church needed to start upgrading technologically then … and in general, the church hasn’t made much progress.

Here are a couple questions to shake your church’s tech-tree.

1. Our church has a website.
2. Our church’s website is updated at least monthly.
3. Our church’s website is interactive - it includes opportunities for users that include a blog, private and public journaling, devotionals with commenting opportunities, a discussion forum, polls, and live chats/training.
4. Our church provides RSS feeds so web users can keep up-to-date.
5. Our church produces weekly podcasts.
6. Our podcast’s content is more than just an recording of last week’s sermon.
7. Our church has wireless Internet available for use in the sanctuary and in all classrooms.
8. Our church has an LCD projector or large screen monitors in the sanctuary.
9. Our church uses projection technology during worship for more than just projecting words.
10. Our church produces its own video shorts for use in worship.

Bill T-B

It wasn’t long ago that the word “mega-church”came into existence. The definition of a mega church usually refers to Protestant Churches over 2000 in worship. Prior to the 1970’s there were just a handful of mega churches.

Since the late 1970s the number of mega churches has increased. The past twenty years the number has escalated. Now the number is exponentially increasing, some 2 1/2 new mega churches every two days or so.  For more info on the mega church click here.

What is interesting to note is that when the mega church grows to more than 5,000 it usually starts growing faster.  So I coined a new word for churches over 10,000 in worship during an interview with the Washington Post in 2004 - the “giga Church.”

Over the next ten years we will more and more giga churches and will need another word for them.  I think”Tera Churches” would do (not my term). Tera churches are those over 50,000 in worship. So far in the U.S. there appears to be only one such church - Lakewood in Houston, TX. I think we will see many more of these churches as the multi-site concept spreads across the U.S. 

What implications do you see for the rise of the “giga” and “tera” churches?

By Bill Easum

Everyone knows how much and how fast everything is changing these days, or at least they should. But unless you have lived through the changes they may not seem so dramatic to you.

Last year I completed 50 years of ministry.  I preached my first sermon December 25, 1956 at Oak Hills Baptist Church outside of Austin, Texas. The text was John 3:16. It was an awful message, but it was my message and I can’t tell you what that hour meant to me.

In 1956:

·         most churches were still growing

·         Most pastors still hadn’t been to seminary

·         Most pastors were paid less than school teachers (average teacher’s salary was 5373.59)

·         the local church was often the hub of the community

·         people dressed up to go to church and found it impolite to talk in church (except the Pentecostals)

·         The cold war was in progress

·         The Middle East was embroiled in war (what’s new)

·         Very few women were pastors and most of those who were, were Pentecostal

·         No mainline church would be caught dead doing rock and roll worship

·         it wasn’t cool to cuss or call women a b…..( I still don’t think it is)

·         it wasn’t cool to ridicule Christianity, cool actually meant it was sort of chilly

·         there weren’t any Mosks in the country

·         Blacks (that was the preferred name then) had to drink out of separate fountains, set at the back of the buss, and enter through the backdoor (very sad)

·         No one had heard of terrorists or wormholes or space walks

·         9-11 was just another date in the calendar

·         TV was just catching on but you still had to view it through the snow

·         Very few homes had air conditioning except the window

·         We were just on the verge of the 60s but the church didn’t have a clue

·         The first Black person was allowed into my high school

·         Lawrence Welk was still the cat’s meow

·         Viet Nam was looming on the horizon

·         There was room for only four computers in the world (according to IBM chairman in 1943)

·         No one had heard of Iraq, Emergent, Multi site, religious right.

·         The internet wasn’t even a gleam in anyone’s eye

·         Commercial airline traffic was in its infancy

·         John F. Kennedy was a Senator that few people in my part of the world knew anything about yet

·         Motown was taking the country by storm

·         Email had never been heard of

·         Gas was 24 cents a gallon

·         A postcard cost a penny and a letter 3 cents

I could go on but you get the point- things have radically changed. Most of the basic things we use today weren’t in existence when I began my ministry.

The problem is most churches still have that 1950s look, even many of those that were started in the least twenty years.  Some people never learn.

I’ve tried to stay up with the change, in fact that has been the main stay of my ministry when I was a pastor and now as a consultant. I’ve spent hours browsing the headlines, reading hundreds of books a year, and listening to the voices of society as well as that still small voice.. I wish more people would listen to the sounds of change.

What do the above items say to you about the changes churches must address today in order to indigenous to the culture? If the word “indigenous” might be new to you why not search our site for the word www.easumbandy.com ?

On my next post I will share some of my comments and predictions about future ministry made back as far as 1993, 17 years ago, and see what has transpired since then.

From Tom Bandy

I do a lot of coaching, and one of the emerging themes is that clergy afraid to hold people accountable to mission. Often this fear is rooted in their own personal family history, where childhood experiences have made “accountability” a matter of retribution rather than redemption. Seminary training often ignored or failed to change that perception. Clergy cannot differentiate “accountability” and “confrontation” … and fear people will stop liking them. I’ve been brooding about this pattern.

So how to eliminate the “fear of holding people accountable”? I find that clergy need to take a much deeper look at how their personal family backgrounds influence their leadership habits. Next, they need to redevelop boundaries with their staff and volunteer leaders so that all can differentiate between “therapeutic” interaction and “missional direction”. Family church leaders are very “therapeutic” in their relationships, but as the church grows they must become more “missional” in their leadership development. Finally, clergy need to learn how to begin with mentoring mission alignment and spiritual discipline, and then talk about skills development. Otherwise, staff and volunteer leaders simply think clergy are accusing them of incompetence, or breaking off a friendship, and become defensive. Set in the right context, and with the right boundaries, accountability becomes “redemptive.”

TGB
Currently in Toronto

The other afternoon, I heard from a judicatory leader who shared a disturbing conversation she’d had with a young church pastor who was having a hard time with some “antagonists” in the church. He’d gone to several more experienced pastors to get advice, but hadn’t been able to solve the issue. So he mentioned the issue to the judicatory leader seeking her wisdom. She told me she’d listened to the pastor and then asked what advice he’d received so far. He told her, “They told me that pastors should expect to be abused by their congregation, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me.”

What a sad commentary . . . a pastor should expect to be abused. This story served as a reminder to me that many, many churches in North America are in a sorry state. In fact, abusive churches have become more the “rule” than the exception.

I know that’s hard to fathom, for some. Some of you reading this are in healthy, thriving churches that support their church leaders fully. But then there are the rest of you. And it’s you that the rest of this post is for.

First, abuse is not okay. Never has been, never will be, and there are a few things you can do about it if you are being abused. First, I invite you to read a couple of books. Start with Antagonists in the Church. Then read Clergy Killers. And finally, get your board, pastor-parish-relationships committee, etc. to work through Tom Bandy’s Kicking Habits. You’ll also want to read my article “Discipleship 101″ in the Sept-Oct 2007 issue of Net Results magazine (where I teach about dealing with Church Bullies and Church Terrorists) and Bill Easum’s article “Back to Basics” in the same issue. Finally, you simply must read “On Not Being Nice for the Sake of the Gospel.”

Second, if your church won’t put an end to the abuse, and if you can’t do it on your own, then run, don’t walk, to your bishop, DS, regional minister, area minister, mission associate, etc. and ask them to help you find another church or calling. But whatever you do, don’t allow yourself to be abused by the church because abuse is not okay.

Bill T-B

When it comes to online ministry, much has changed … and much has not. A couple weeks ago a group of computer programmers and web gurus told me about a cyber church in the Second Life world. As they described it, I became intrigued. First, the “people” that attend the church are actually avatars that are controlled by people sitting behind keyboards literally all over the world. The church service, Bible studies, discussion, etc., are in real time and are led by real ministers. There’s real music, real preaching, and real ministry going on.

At first, it would be easy to dismiss the phenomena as just another computer program attended by people who are addicted to computer gaming, etc., and that this isn’t a “real” community at all. It’s funny, though, that’s pretty much the same thing I heard ten years ago when the congregation I led took the plunge to get out from under our real estate and became a network of Seattle house churches. Having no building meant we couldn’t “really” be a church.

The first cyber church I reported on was the Alpha Church in Under the Radar by me (Bill Tenny-Brittian) and Bill Easum. That was several years ago and much has changed in the world of cyberspace. So much so, that a church that churches that treats their website like a Yellow Pages’ ad are falling further and further behind in their evangelistic effectiveness. Today’s church website must be both invitational and interactive. Sure, there are folks currently in our congregations who will never so much as fill out a poll on the church’s site, but the question is, what are we doing about those in our communities (both locally and cyber) who are looking for a safe place to explore the faith and/or ways in which to further their faith via the web? Today’s church websites can easily include blogs that invite comments, devotionals that include journaling options, prayer rooms that offer both live and long-term posting opportunities, training videos, podcasts (audio broadcasts), polls, and even spiritual self-assessment inventories that suggest the “next step” in their faith walk, based on their scores. There are scores of these “web-empowered” churches out there … you can find some at the Web-Empowered  Church website and the Examples page.

Churches that treat their website like more than an online newspaper ad with a map and service times are the churches that are telling the community “We’re here for today and are reaching into tomorrow.”

Bill T-B

Here we are again, trying our hand at blogging. This time, though, all
three of us (Bill, Tom, and Bill) will be sharing a single blog. Our
goal is to bring you news, views, and resources for church growth,
evangelism, leadership development, and so on. Whether you’re a church planter, a church transformer, an emerging church pastor, or somewhere
in between (or even somewhere else), we’ll do our best to keep you
in-the-know about tools, techniques, and so on.

Just in case you’re a little-bit techie, feel free to tap into our RSS
Feed for consistent updates every time we post. If you need to
manually add the RSS Feed URL, it’s:
http://ebablog.easumbandy.com/wp-rss.php.

Bill T-B