Bill Easums Observations

 Friends,

In a subsequent consultation, we encountered a classic mistake made by so many established churches. They mistake “property rental” for “Christian Mission”. (see my book “Moving Off the Map“) Churches assume that by renting or giving away space for community use, they are actually doing evangelism. They do not realize that authentic evangelism is about relationships, not property use.

It is an obvious dodge to avoid personal investment in hands-on mission. This mistake is usually compounded by an obsession with “depot” ministries (clothing depots, food banks, and other forms of “collecting things”). Church people think they are doing mission by warehousing goods, but they never actually come into contact or build relationships with the needy people they say they want to help.

Another manifestation of this mistake is the belief that hosting Boy or Girl Scouts, or housing non-profit organizations, is also Christian mission. It is as if the Cancer Society should decide the best way to use their facility would be to rent it out for pot luck suppers. The Cancer Society volunteers would have no place to meet and train, but, gosh, what a lot of fun and fellowship they could have!

Ironically, the mistake can be easily remedied. Leaders are trained to use space only in ways that 100% align to the mission of the church and nothing else. And they have a church policy that states “No property will be rented or used by outside groups unless a team of church members is actively involved in the planning and implementation of the program. Never rent property without sending a team. Relationships are the key. Now the team can shape the planning and implementation around specifically Christian mission. If the outside organization doesn’t want that (which is almost universally true for Boy and Girl Scouts), then the church does not offer property.

Tom Bandy

 Friends,

Swept away by travel and consulting, I’ve been remiss about posting from the mission field. Thanksgiving allowed me to catch up. This is from my notes …

A persistent question from would-be transformational leaders is this: Is it really possible to change the consumer, “Me First”, attitude into an authentic Mission Mindset? (see my book Fragile Hope).

My answer is yes, but it may take seven years of doggedly persistent and opportunistic leadership. This alone is hard for many established churches, because many pastors have no intention of staying that long. They are, in fact, driven by personal decisions (family expectations, school systems, retirement plans) or by career decisions (appointments by a bishop, moving up the ladder of success). That very reality reveals that the biggest difficulty about transforming a church attitude lies in the unwillingness of leaders to transform their personal attitude.

However, praise God that there are leaders ready for the challenge. They still ask: Can it be done?

My answer is yes (again), if you rigorously pay attention to the following leverage points and do not allow yourself to be sidetracked. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but it includes:

v      Begin by mentoring leaders;
v      Hold leaders accountable for mentoring volunteers in there sphere of influence;
v      Preach it;
v      Upgrade training for newcomers and all leadership teams (beyond skills to train attitude);
v      Clarify vision, mission, and core message;
v      Intervene to break control;
v      Seize opportunities or “mentoring moments” to illustrate the mission attitude;
v      Have courage, and build personal support, to endure stress;
v      Develop a profound, visible, prayerful, personal spiritual discipline.

The real key to changing attitude is not program development … unless we think of specific continuing education or mission action. It’s really about taking relationships to a deeper, riskier, level. The word “accountability” does not begin to cover it. It is about “intensity” more than “intentionality”, because it is the intensity of eye contact, behavior modification, personal reinforcement, and modeled self-sacrifice that is important. In the end, you need to embed a kind of “Ur” story … a paradigmatic story-line of death and new life … in the hearts of members.

Tom Bandy

Leadership Network is relaunching its books blog  . Tom Bandy and Bill  Easum are going to be regular contributors to the blog.  You should find it a helpful tool for discovering cutting edge books.  You can also find a long list of recommended books at our site in the Library.

“Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty god.” So stated the charter for the British colony known as Berkeley Hundred.  On December 4, 1619 Captain John Woodleaf held the first service of thanksgiving.  Berkeley Plantation continues to be the site of the official annual U.S. Thanksgiving event to this day.

As congress recognized the importance of the Thanksgiving observance, President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. He wrote,“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country…for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed…and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually…To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.”

We know it’s trite to say it but we have to say it anyway - “Happy Thanksgiving from EBA.”

Which do you think is the most important for the growth of your church - Advent, Christmas, or the Super Bowl?Well I rank them in this order, Super Bowl then Christmas. What happened to Advent? I wouldn’t even rank it because it is absolutely a waste of time.

Yet I bet in declining churches Advent is celebrated more than the other two combined. Why is that - because most declining churches are more focused on themselves than the world around them. Declining churches are more focused on churchy things than worldly things.  And finally, most declining churches blindly do what they been doing all along. In some odd way they think that they can continue doing what they’ve been doing and get something different than they been getting. Odd isn’t it. 

If you want your church to grow focus on the pagan calendar and forget most of the church events. That is the way to draw more people into your church. Focusing on the Church calendar just reinforces most churches tendency to focus inward instead of outward. But focusing  on the pagan calendar causes church leaders to think about what is going on in the world and what happens to be on most people’s minds at the time. 

Why not throw a Super Bowl party. Add extra worship services on Christmas Eve, wrap Christmas packages in the Malls for free during December, have a Haunted House at Halloween, throw a block party for Mardi Gras, but by all means please forget Advent. No unchurched, dechurched, or non-believer gives one whit about Advent or even knows what it  is.

Now having a Super Bowl party at your church must be a great idea because made the NFL leaders furious last year. Read the article about how the NFL forced a church to cancel their plans last year. You know it has to be a right on idea if the world wants it canceled. 

Go ahead and throw a party, have your pastor thrown in jail, and see how much great publicity you will get from it. I’m serious.The church didn’t have the party but another church in the same town decided to have the party. As a result the NFL gave churches permission as long as they didn’t charge.

Think of all the publicity those churches received when all of their papers ran the stories and there were several stories before it was over.

So, whose going to throw the first ball?

I just finsihed a consultation with a denomination that is considering planting some churches.  I told them they had to if for no other reason than to survive (of course that should never be the reason, shouold it).

We then discussed how to do it the easy way- find four churches that will put up $15,000 a year for four years as well as allow the planter access to all of their equipment and an office. Hopefully one of the four churches is growing and can offer some guidance along the way. But in any case the planter should have as much up front equipping as possible and the conference should hire a church planter coach.

I first heard of this method from Todd Wilson at http://www.churchplantingnetwork.com/. they are the ones putting on the Exponential conference next year. By the way you can hear me there.