Bill Easums Observations

I just read one of the best books todate on small groups. The book is The Relational Way by M. Scott Boren.  I’ve followed Scott’s ministry for some time now after some of his earlier books on small groups began to appear (Two of the best are Where Do We Go From Here and Making Cell Groups Work).

In his book The Relational Way Boren describes why  some small group  systems work and some don’t even though they follow the small model and tactics.  The answer- small groups aren’t about Bible study or growing the  church or community building, or retention of  members, or interest or affinity groups.  Small groups are the way the church of the  21st century mimics the way of life in the first century church. Small groups are Kingdom building places where people are taught how to live the Christ-like life in the world so that their faith becomes contagious.  Small groups are about spreading the Kingdom way of living throughout the world.

Most pastors I run into are still thinking of small groups as the best way to retain the members they have. But that is not what God has in mind for small groups according to Boren.

the book is built around a number of myths that Boren debunks. Here is one example upon which all  of the others are built:

Myth 1: Doing the right thing (a small group program) without consideration  of the right way ( the relational way) will produce community.

The Relational Truth: God’s relational  kingdom is a product of leaders who establish a way of living that stands in contrast to the culture.

If you are doing or considering doing small groups in your church, you MUST read this book. Of course after you have read my book (along with John Atkinson) Go Big: Eleven Steps to an Explosive Small Group Ministry.

Two of the metaphores I use alot are National Park for the 20th century and Jungle for the 21st Century. You can let you imagination run wild or you can click on one of them to see the comparisons.

 The journey from the National Park into the jungle will change most things from now on. Having a firm grasp on the key leverage pieces to the future is incredibly important. So here goes.

Assuming you have your DNA and spiritual life underway in your church, there are three things that must occur in the 21st century jungle to cause a church to flourish. Here they are

First, We all know the first one is indigenous worship. But just what does that mean in the jungle. It sure doesn’t mean Praise music anymore. Indigenous worship must be in the language, technology, and culture of the people you are trying to reach. So, if we are truly in the jungle then the following applies.

1.If it isn’t hard rock it probably won’t feed people much past the next five years.
2.If it doesn’t wow people it probably won’t have much retention.
3.If it isn’t loud it probably won’t motivate and if the teaching isn’t basic and down to earth, it probably won’t grow people. (I know the emergent folks don’t always feel this way, but remember I don’t think they will be a major player in the new world, at least not for the next 30-50 years. For now they will be only one nitch among many.)

4.These services will not be as linear as in the past and they will be different from week to week which means the need for stage props and setup and tear down teams.
5.Teaching and music are no longer THE important elements; now you have to add ambiance, fun, and the unusual. The more kids play video games the harder it will be to provide them a worship setting where they can experience faith.

Second, a children’s ministry that is designed first: to provide atmosphere, second to provide fun, and third to help children grow in their relationship with Jesus rather than God or Christ. This means the classroom and printed curriculum are out and the large venue and video is in. It also means fewer teachers and a need for some degree of competent acting on the part of the leaders of the children’s ministry.  So instead of Sunday School it is children’s worship designed for children both to worship and to learn. You can see some of these examples on our website . The more kids play video games the harder it will be to disciple them at church without embracing their culture.

Third, intimate settings/groupings will be essential for the 21st century person to find their true destiny. This could mean small groups, ministry teams, coffee house environments, missionary journeys, market place ministries, you name it.  I think it will be far more eclectic in ten years than it is right now. It would be more eclectic today if small groups weren’t working so well that churches don’t feel like experimenting beyond what they know is working.

Folks, one of the things that surprises me about people is how hard it is for most folks to concentrate on leverage. I know prayer is important and that should be a given in anything we do.  I know spiritual development is important and should be part of anything we do. But what I constantly see people do is to focus on these things and never get around to the one thing that has to happen if growth is to take place- indigenous worship. Prayer is essential but it is never the kind of leverage I talk about in my book Unfreezing Moves.  Spiritual development is essential but it is never leverage. You can pray all day and all night and no one will be transformed in irrelevant worship. you can grow people spiritually until the cows come home and it wont grow a church. want to know why? Ill tell you a story.

There once was a pastor who took his people deeper and deeper into the faith. Night and day he prayed for their spiritual development. every Sunday he preached his heart out while praying that aunt susie didn’t die while playing the organ oh so sloooooooow.

One day he went to church and found that half of the congregation was missing. when he began calling those who werent there he found that they had tried another church that morning. when he asked why, they said, “because our worship no longer feeds us. it doesn’t address our issues; it bores to tears the friends we bring with us who need God. We love you and we thank you for taking us deeper in our faith, but we need a place of worship where people can experience God.”

You see, if you take people deep into their faith they will always begin to think about the spiritual condition of others- that is always the result of biblical faith- those who  dont feel that way havent yet discovered the depth of God’s heart. So when you take people deep, they have to worship, not just sit in a  pew and soak, but experience a moving moment with God. that is why worship is the leverage.

So this pastor prayed hard and developed spiritual giants and lost his congregation. Give it some thought.

Keep this post in context.  worship is the main  leverage piece. Leverage means the one thing that makes everything else rise or fall. Sure small groups are important. but here’s the kicker. Willow didn’t have a small group emphasis until they had several thousand in worship. In the early years they focused on having the most relevant worship they could possibly have.  the church I go to now and then, bay area, didn’t focus on small groups until they had 3000 in worship.

The primary reason most pastors dont grow churches is they cant get their heads around this one simple point- if worship doesn’t shine, nothing else matters.  it that plain and simple. if worship doesn’t shine, it doesn’t matter what you do with small groups, Sunday school, single ministries, period. If you want to grow a church this is what you must do.

Here is where the water hits the wheel - pastors who  dont get this dont see the desperate need for a full time worship leader. so they hire a youth director, or childrens director and the church doesn’t grow. both youth and children are important but they aren’t the primary leverage- eveything is a support to worship, everything. that doesn’t mean they arent important. it just means they arent the primary leverage.

I just returned from Venezuela. If you’ve never been there you can’t begin to imagine the filth that exists in such a rich and beautiful country. The stench from the port was so bad it burned my nostrils. Venezuela, or I should say, Chavez has more oil than the Saudi’s but his people live in abject poverty. Most of the professional people have either left or will leave soon. How could any leader live as Chavez lives and see the plight of his people every day.

Then along comes an idiot like Sean Penn and heralds Chavez as a great leader doing great things for his people. It just doesn’t make sense.  I hope none of you see Penn as a model figure.  Would it help you to know he has been arrested twice for assualt? Well, he has. Penn is not even close to anyone’s role model.

I know there are worst conditions throughout the world, but none of those countries have OIL, lots of oil. You can say what you want about the Saudi’s but they do take care of their own.I decided to never see a Sean Penn movie again as well as to never watch Oprah again since she thinks Penn is one of the great thinkers and humantarians of our time.  I doubt if Oprah has been to Venezuela.

Friends,

The “penny dropped” for many pastors and lay leaders during my workshop this weekend as we talked about the synergy of church growth. This is the flow of thriving church life from life-shaping worship, to adult spiritual disciplines, to mission team action, and back again to life-shaping worship.

For some, the “aha” came from benchmarking this flow. 80% of the members attend worship regularly; 60% of the worshippers are found in mid-week small groups, mentoring relationships, or accountable spiritual disciplines; 40% of the people in mid-week spiritual disciplines are also doing hands-on mission that is built in and around their lifestyles. 30% of the newcomers in worship are there as a direct result of experiencing the mission-service of the members.

For example … in a congregation with 250 adult resident members, 200 would regularly show up in worship; 120 would be involved in serious adult spiritual growth. Of the 120 in spiritual growth disciplines like small groups, 48 would be intentionally involved in hands-on mission outreach in which they simultaneously did good stuff and shared their faith. Average total worship attendance would be about 260 (i.e. 200 members plus 60 seekers who were invited or inspired to come out of the mission field).

Now we all know that these are ambitious benchmarks, and it may take some years before an established declining or plateaued church could do it. And we also know that there are many contextual issues that might lower or raise these benchmarks. But these benchmarks provide a standard for evaluating your current congregational situation.

For example, many churches claim 500 adult resident members, but only expect 150 to worship at any given time (only 30%). Of these, perhaps only 10 are involved in an accountable spiritual discipline (.07%); and of these only 2 or 3 are actually involved in mission embedded in their lifestyles. Not surprisingly, nobody at all shows up in worship as a direct result of mission.

The very idea of benchmarking this synergy of growth seems startling to many church leaders. They have been so busy developing and protecting program silos that they have not paid attention to the “connectivity” of church growth. Every piece leads to something else in overall personal and missional growth. Worship is useless unless it leads to spiritual discipline … which is useless unless it leads to mission action … which is useless unless it leads to worship.

What we are really measuring in the synergy of growth is not the numbers within any given worship service or program, but rather the percentages of people who move on to the next step. Inevitably, this causes church leaders to ponder how they foster this “connectivity”. And inevitably, they suddenly realize that you have to deploy staff explicitly to do this, and train volunteer leaders specifically to do this. Leaders now become interventionists and mentors, who “move people along”, rather than administrators and managers who (“keep people doing tasks”).

Tom Bandy

The first part of this blog was posted on September 19 of this year. I’m a bit late in adding Part Two, but better late than never.

The story of my first book, The Church Growth Handbook, is amusing. It took five years to get it published in 1990 because as the publisher said “We don’t think there is room for anymore books on church growth.” Can you believe that? In 1985-1999 there wasn’t room for any more church growth books! I would guess today there are more books written about how to grow a church in one year than in all of the decade of the 80’s.

My best-selling book to date was published in 1993, and continues to sell-

• We were reaching the end of the effectiveness of adult Sunday School. The official women’s organization of the Southern Baptist Church used the book a year or two later for their “study of the year” and the fir flew. I wish I had kept some of the not-so-nice comments I received.
• Small groups were becoming the future discipling method of the church. At the time there were a few books out about small groups and most new churches were still pushing adult Sunday School. Today, most church plants, including new Southern Baptist churches, prefer small groups that meet in homes over adult Sunday School. Websites such as http://smallgroups.com/ are now popular sites.
• The style of worship is drastically changing in growing churches. Just check out the church I attend off and on- Bay Area Fellowship. Concert driven worship is now prevalent in just about every thriving church in the U.S.

Now we are entering a dangerous, yet exciting, period in church history.  Things are underway (church planting and multiple sites) that could spell a religious awakening AND things are underway (terrorism and nuclear threats) that could spell trouble for institutional Christianity. Either way God and the Church will do well; but I do have worries for democracy.

Anyway, keep a sharp eye out for the yin and yang described in the above paragraph.  

This past weekend we had a lively debate on our advanced leadership forum on liberal vs. conservative labels.  It was a helpful discussion, but I’m really tired of all the talk about conservatives vs liberals.  Labels have soooooo much baggage. I doubt if God cares much about such things. So here’s my take on the issue

Let’s do away with labels and just ask this question - “Are you passionate about bringing people to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and transforming you city?”

Isnt this ALL that matters? You see if one can say yes to the above, I say “Give me your hand and let’s walk together.  At least now we have some concrete way to evaluate ourselves.

I will tell you the one thing that pushes my button - the press who label any serious Christian as the “religious right.” I resent that. Im serious about transforming individuals and people taking responsibility for thier lives but I’m not in the religious right camp. I am a born again Christian, but not the kind that Barna always writes about and does ALL of his studies with.

But look, I’m the way I am because at the age of 16 I had never heard a bible story and easter was the only time we darkened the door of a church and we were Methodists. And guess what - when we did attend on Easter NO ONE from the church ever darkened our door or asks me about my spiritual well being.

I had to run into someone who cared about my soul on the golf course who wouldn’t let the issue rest until on the third hole of Hancock golf course I surrendered my life to Christ - surrender is the only workable term in my case.

So why don’t we drop the labels and just ask about people’s relationship with Christ and thier city?

In my last post I talked about the multi-site part of the current edition of Outreach Magazine. Today I want to make a small comment on the mega church which is the heart of this issue. Note: I have put the list of the top ten largest churches and the top ten fastest growing churches for 2007 on our home page and in our FAQS.

If you look at each of these churches you find one thing missing from the list most of the time- liberal churches.  I have my theory about why the vast majority of liberal churches tend to be declining. I’m sure you have yours. Here’s mine, what’s yours?

One of the common denominators in almost every thriving church I’ve worked in over the years has been they are NOT liberal. Why is not being liberal almost a given in thriving churches? I have my theory- it is because liberals are seldom passionate about personal salvation and when that passion is missing the primary dynamo for reaching people with the Good News is missing.

Liberal pastors tend to put more emphasis on social justice without the personal redemption part, doing good, and serving the community much like the lions club. Often liberal pastors assume that since God loves everyone there is no need for personal redemption.

The pastor who replaced me at Colonial Hills Church (appointed by the United Methodist Bishop) told the music staff at the very first meeting that she would not tolerate any songs that referred to blood or the atonement because she did not believe in the atonement. And what happened? the church lost 3/4 of its attendance in five years. You see God will not honor those who scorn the basic work God has done in this world. However you interpret the cross, biblically it is central to the Christian story and experience.

The current issue (October) of Outreach Magazine just came out with a list of the 100 largest and fastest growing churches in the U.S. ( you find the lists on our home page). One of their findings is the multi-site trend is no longer a trend- it is becoming the norm for the mega church.

Well, they are correct.  But some of us have been saying that for two years now.

Most people wait till a trend becomes the norm before they jump on the band wagon.  But, the secret to staying ahead of change is to read the signs of the times before they become clear to most people.

Of course doing that can also cause one to have to eat crow like I did when the mega church trend continued and I was saying it looked like it was coming to a close (2003). I was wrong but I was also correct. I just didn’t see the whole picture.

So, let me SHOUT an observation/prediction I made in 1997 in my book (along with Tom Bandy) Growing Spiritual Redwoods that a lot of people po-poed but will become the norm because it already happening in the secular public - The mega church of the future will be the virtual church.

Consider what has happened since 2000- Facebook, Myspace, and the Alpha church, and now secondlife.com. By the mid 2050 it wouldn’t surprise me if 25-30% of all christians went to church virtually.

The trend toward the faceless world of avatars and virtual  communities will continue to escalate in a fragmented world like ours.

However, there is one good thing about it- it will be easier for a person to  confess their sins since they dont have to actually do  it face to face. but then, avatars do have a face, don’t they?

And what can we say about JohnNasbitt and his ”high touch”?  Well, I don’t think he anticipated ”high touch” would be replaced by “virtual touch.” You heard the phrase “virtual touch” here for the first time. i dont understand it but then Im not a ten year old. They do. Is it healthy? Was the jitterbug or the watusi?  

So stay tuned. No telling what the next technological and sociological mergers might bring. Could it be that the Virutal Church of the Resurrection is just around the corner? LifeChurch.TV thinks so.

Lately I’ve (Bill Easum) had a rash of consultations by mail - that’s where people fill out The Complete Ministry Audit and mail the data to me and I analyze it and mail them recommendations based on the data.

Granted, audits by mail are not as effective as an onsite consultation but they are much less expensive and can be done quicker than scheduling an onsite consultation.  The cost is between $750 and $1,000 depending on the size of the church and you recieve advice from someone (Bill Easum) who has personally conducted more than 600 onsite consultations ranging from three to five days.

If you’re new to our blog and need to know more about Easum, Bandy and Associates just click here.

If you would like to pursue a consultation by mail or an onsite consultation email susan@easumbandy.com