…s3.amazonaws.com/flipyourchurch/arsenal/studyguide.pdf · 2011-10-24 · to quick decisions? 5....

Bill Easum ©2011

Bill Easum’s Arsenal for

Growing the Church

www.effectivechurch.com

www.nextlevelcoachingnetwork.net

www.billeasum.com

Bill Easum ©2011

Introduction to

Volume I The material in this Volume is designed to be used in several ways depending on your situation.

You can use it for your personal growth which means you will probably go through the material alone.

You can use it to grow both yourself and your staff which means that after reviewing a section you will share it with your staff and then do the Q & A together.

You can use it to grow yourself, your staff, and your church leaders which means that after staff goes through the material you share the appropriate material with your church leaders.

Another possibility might be using the material with a group of pastors who want to grow their leadership skills.

Finally, you may find that you want to add in one or more Skype Conferences with Bill Easum to allow for more personal Q & A time. This could be done with any of the options above. The cost for this service is $250 an hour with a one hour minimum.

Because of the importance of some issues they will be repeated in some of the videos. Take note of those that are repeated because that is telling you how important they are. Repetition is one of the best forms of learning.

We hope you will feel free to both giving us feedback on the helpfulness of the material as well additional material you would like covered in future volumes.

Finally, if when going through the material you need further clarification please feel free to email us at [email protected].

Good fishing!

The 21st Century Strategies Team

Bill Easum

Bill Tenny‐Brittian

Susan Williams

Bill Easum ©2011

Section One:

The Basics to Growing a Church and People

Bill Easum ©2011

Two Metaphors that Explain it All

The last twenty years our culture (US) has been moving from what I call a National Park world to a world that can only be described as a Jungle. You can use these comparisons to explain just about every issue. Consider the following comparisons and let your imagination run wild comparing the two worlds.

National Parks

• Are neatly laid out • Predictable and slow to change • Warn you about dangers animals • Provide adequate shelter • You are entitled to the experience because your taxes pay for it • National Parks can be traveled alone • You don’t need a compass or GPS • People aren’t totally broken • Christianity is King and Queen • National Parks are full of rule The overarching issue of the National Park World – National parks have lots of rules

Jungles

• Nothing is neatly laid out • Nothing is predictable and changes are fast • Predators are everywhere • You are on your own for shelter • Changes from day to day • You’re not entitled to be there‐ it’s not your world • No one goes into the Jungle alone • You have to have a compass or GPS • When you look up you can’t see the sky much less the horizon • Most people are basically broken • Values no longer are ultimate or universal • Christianity is nobody to the culture

The overarching issue of the World of the Jungle – There is only one rule ‐The Law of the Fittest which means those who can change the quickest with the least amount of angst will thrive.

For Individual or Group Study

1. What ideas immediately came to mind when you were first introduced to the two metaphors? 2. Did the two metaphors explain some cultural and age differences in your church? 3. Make a list of the ministries in your church that might need to change or be added based on the

two metaphors. 4. How will the world of the jungle change the way the leaders of your church function? 5. Are you willing to allow for all of these changes to reach the least, the last, and the lost? 6. Which is our church more focused on –Rules or Effective Decisions?

Bill Easum ©2011

Implications of Living in a Jungle World

1. What are you doing in your church that you don’t need to do or isn’t productive?

2. Do you agree that worship and small groups are the two basic keys of a church?

3. Is your church trying to do too much? If so, what would you cut?

4. Is your church able to make quick, decisive decisions? If not how could you reduce the barriers to quick decisions?

5. Do you know who Robert is?

6. How do we feel about change? Do we resist it? Ignore it?

7. Are we willing embrace risk or do we do our best to avoid it?

8. When was the last time we took a risk? How did it turn out?

9. How well do we handle conflict?

10. How often do we hear, “But we’ve never done it that way before?”

11. Do we rely most on rules or intuition? How do rules compare to Law and how does intuition compare to Grace?

12. Do you agree that intuition can be developed?

13. What did Bill mean when he said “if you watch enough TV you’ll never open worship with announcements?

Bill Easum ©2011

Four Core Processes that Grow a Church

1. Do you agree that the four core processes describes the essentials of a church? If not, why? 2. What does your church do to invite people to worship? What do you do to invite people to

worship? 3. How much time do you spend in the community to establish relationships and discover the key

to the community? 4. Do you have more people commissioned to work in the community as you do to work in the

church? 5. Do we know where God is working in our city? And if so, what are we doing to connect with it? 6. Do we know how many of our first time visitors return? How many are with us a year later? 7. Based on what was said about the first impression, what is missing in our church and what could

we improve on? 8. How long does it take us to respond to the first time visitor? Is it a personal response? 9. Is our worship indigenous to the community? Indigenous means worship is in the language,

technology, and culture of the surrounding community? 10. Do we have enough small groups to retain and disciple people? Are they bible studies or life

sharing communities? 11. Do we have a discipling process in place? 12. What do you hear when Bill says, “The church is a sent church?” 13. Do you agree that the biblical church is a sent church?” 14. Do we train our people that ministry is setting on a committee or sharing their faith with their

networks? 15. Which is the four core processes is weak in your church and what might be some things that you

can do to improve them?

Bill Easum ©2011

Section Two:

Increasing the Growth Potential

Bill Easum ©2011

Four Ways to Increase Our First Time Visitors

1. How do I end my sermon? Do I give them a “what now?”

2. Do I remind them at the end of my sermon to take time to think or pray about who they will bring next week?

3. How do you respond to first time visitors? Do you send them a form letter, an email, a personal handwritten note, or a Fed Ex package?

4. Have we tried the New Mover Outreach program from Outreach? If not, why?

5. Are we encouraging the timid Christian to use email or twitter or Facebook to share their faith?

6. Do we regularly do something like Bring a Friend Day (see I Love My Church)? If not, what is keeping us from doing so?

7. What other ways to increase your first time visitors can you add to Bill’s list?

Bill Easum ©2011

Responding to First Time Visitors

1. Do we personally respond to first time visitors within 24 hours? If our church is over 500 in worship do we have a paid person responding to the first timers?

2. How did you respond to the way Bill suggests you analyze how the first timer responds to your call? How can we implement that in our church?

3. If your area is not one that is friendly to a personal visit, how do you make a responds that is warm and personal?

4. When you get a positive response do you pass it on to an appropriate person such as a children or youth director?

5. How many responses the first week or two do we make in response to the first timer?

Bill Easum ©2011

Getting Your Members to Invite their Networks

85% of the people who come to church for the first time do so because a friend invited them. Isn’t it worth your time to give some thought about how you and your church could increase the number of people who invite their friends?

1. How often do you do a Double Day (now called I Love My Church Day) each year? If less than two, what can you do to increase the number of times?

2. How did you feel about ending the worship service by handing out two brochures announcing the next sermon series and then asking the people to write down the names of two people they are going to give the brochures to that week?

3. Do you small group actually invite new people to attend?

4. What would it take to becoming involved in Servant Evangelism on a weekly basis?

5. Do you give business cards to your leaders to pass out when they feel comfortable doing so?

6. How often do you encourage your people to pray about their neighbor to the point that God lays that person on their heart?

7. How many of your people have you trained to be backyard evangelists?

8. When you have a new Christian in the church do you immediate ask them to invite their networks to worship? Do you ask them to write out a list of their friends and begin praying for them?

Bill Easum ©2011

Section Three:

Leadership Development

Bill Easum ©2011

The Leadership Journey

1. Do you agree that the pastor must grow before the church will grow? If not, why? If so, what do you need to do to outgrow your present church?

2. Did seeing the pastoral journey set out before you help you understand some of the changes you need to make in order for your church to grow? How did it make you feel? Make a list of these things and begin to pray that God will help you make the changes.

3. What gets in your way of handing off ministry to others?

4. How well do you set out your expectations for the staff?

5. Do you value getting ministry done through others or do you base your effectiveness on what you accomplish?

6. Make a list of the resources or skill set you need to take the church to the next level?

7. If you’re in a church over 500 in worship, how did you feel about the staff becoming as important if not more important than the pastor?

8. What are you willing to do to change how you spend your time, your skill set, and what you value most‐ doing ministry yourself or getting it done through others?

Bill Easum ©2011

The Making of a Leader: Part One

1. Do you agree with Bill that leaders can be made? If so, search your soul and discover your strengths and weaknesses?

2. How did is make you feel when Bill defined “Leadership.”

3. Bill says there are two foundational clues to the making of a great leader.

a. An all encompassing call which allows them to set the agenda, not the church. Are you following your call?

b. Passionate about a few things and flexible over most of the things. Are you focused more on results than procedure? Are you focused on a few things?

4. Bill says the following must happen for a leader to go from good to great. Do you agree? If not, why?

c. They take care of themselves. You can’t give what you don’t have. Are you taking care of yourself? What do you do on a daily basis to improve your soul?

d. They set their own agenda and not the church? How would you describe the way your set the agenda? Or do you?

e. They remove all the barriers for growth‐church, staff, self. One way to discover the barriers is to the Complete Ministry Audit

5. How would you rate yourself with the following key issues?

f. Are you developing a culture in which people are transformed and equipped to do God’s will or are you gathering followers who do your bidding? How would you describe the difference between empowering people and gathering followers? What would that look like in your ministry? What would you have to change to make that a reality?

g. Are you setting the tone for the church?

h. Are these three primary roles paramount in your ministry – care of self, set the agenda, and remove barriers?

Bill Easum ©2011

The Making of a Great Leader: Part Two

1. Bill shares several reasons good leaders never become great leaders. They aren’t clear about their call. Do you have a laser‐like call? If not why? How did you feel when Bill shared Mark Driscoll’s call? Is yours that clear? If not, take some time to meditate on why it isn’t.

2. They have a church mentality instead of a Kingdom mentality. What do you focus on – growing the church or growing the kingdom? Do you guard your turf?

3. They spend too much time with people of lesser skills. Do you consciously hang out with people who are more talented than you are? How would you rate your willingness to learn from someone who a grown a church twice the size of yours?

4. They don’t set clear expectations to their staff. Do you or your staff have clearly defined expectations or goals. Are you held accountable to the expectations? If not, what do you need to do to set out these expectations and develop accountability? What do you do when a staff person constantly falls short of the expectations? Do you tackle the hard issues?

5. They work too many hours? Do a time chart on your work week and see how and where you are spending your time. Are you working less than 50 hours a week? Do you have time to dream and think about the future? Do you agree that your best asset is who you are?

6. They move from church to church too often or they can’t keep great staff. Do you keep most of your staff more than seven years? If not why?

7. They avoid taking risks. When was the last time you took a big risk? How do you feel about radical change?

8. They work in a command and control environment? Does the Board micro manage your ministry? If so, why do you allow it and what can you do to change the situation?

9. They confuse being lean with being fiscally conservative. Do you agree it’s not how much money your church has but rather how it spends it? Does your Board understand this? Take a look at your budget and ask yourself this question on each item, “If we spend this money on this item will it lead to either the growth of our church or our people?” If not, then ask, “Why are we spending it then?”

10. The fail to integrate their ministry into the community. When was the last time you evaluated the contextual nature of your ministry.

11. They focus on developing quality programs rather than developing quality people. Evaluate your time and your focus to see which of the two gets most of your time and the time of your staff.

12. They spend too much time fixing problems and putting out fires. Is your culture one in which people can’t help but grow? If not, which one of the issues Bill mentioned is a problem?

13. Failure to read the signs of the times. How has the world changed since you got out of school?

Bill Easum ©2011

The Making of a Great Leader: Part Three

1. Bill compared leadership in the national park to leadership in the jungle. Notice the difference. Do you agree with the comparisons? If not, why? Which world best described your leadership? If the national park, what do you need to change?

National Park Jungle

Skill Call Style Context Call Style Context Skill

2. By now you should have gotten the impression that your call and your ability to discern it and allow it to set your agenda throughout life are paramount in the emerging new world. Have you wrestled with this issue long enough that your call is laser‐like rather than merely generic? Generic is “God called me to be a pastor.” Laser‐like is “God called me to be a pastor that grows people and the kingdom.” Or “God called me to plant a 1,000 churches in my life‐time.”

3. Do you focus on the things that great leaders focus on? Do you have a kingdom mentality? Are you concerned more with your community than your church? What difference do you see between “reaching” the community and being “in” the community?

4. How good are you at releasing people for ministry? Do you enjoy doing ministry so much that you find it hard to empower, equip, and release your people to do the ministry? Are you a scout more than a player? What do you see when you look at a person?

5. Bill shared six key performance indicators of great leaders. How often do you ask these questions? If not weekly, how can you change to insure you are asking these questions weekly?

6. Where does mission fit into your ministry? Is it a part of it, or does it dictate everything? If you have a mission committee, why? Can you see how it hampers missions in your church? Is your theology shaped by mission?

7. How would you describe your heart and your basic passion for ministry? Is it more focused on transformation or methodology?

8. How much time do you spend focusing on leadership development? Do have people you are mentoring at the moment?

9. Is a prayer life part of the fabric of your life? Who are you obedient to? How did you feel when Bill said that the Call trumps everything including the family.

10. What limits your ministry? How did you respond when Bill said “if it’s possible, God is probably not the author of it?” When was the last time you pushed through the possible to the impossible?

Bill Easum ©2011

Creating Leadership Synergy

1. Bill shared three things he looks for when he consults with a church – leverage, focus, and alignment. Which of these three is the hardest for you and your church to make a reality? Is your church focused and aligned around a certain issue?

2. What is the one leverage piece that if you do it will make everything else easier for your church and your ministry? You might read Unfreezing Moves to see the nine major leverage pieces in every church.

3. Is your church focused on a handful of issues or is it all over the map?

Bill Easum ©2011

Helping Leaders Recognize their Potential

1. By now you should have realized that the primary role of a leader is to equip others rather than doing ministry. It’s not about what a leader accomplishes; it is what the leader is able to help others accomplish ministry. Which do you do best‐ do, or help others do?

2. Bill shared four biblical metaphors to show the importance of handing off ministry to others. Do any of these describe your ministry? If not, why? If so, which one best describes your role in the church? Which one least describes your style of ministry? Do you agree the role of the pastor is not to do ministry but to help others do ministry?

3. How did you feel when Bill said “You are the curriculum?” Do you have a handful of people who you hang out with as a role model?

4. What kind of expectations do you set for your staff? How high are they? Bill mentioned the Next Level Coaching Network and the Mission Mandate. If you wish to learn more about it go to www.nextlevelcoachingnetwork.net .

5. Did you agree with Bill when he said “You must expect the same standards of everyone‐paid and unpaid people?”

6. What ideas did the comparison of the “to do” list and the “to be” list?

7. What is the chain of accountability in your church? Do you hold people accountable for their behavior and their results? Do you agree that fruitfulness is as important as faithfulness?

8. How do your staff meetings compare to the kind of staff meetings Bill talks about? Which takes up more of the staff time‐ “to do” lists or “to be” lists.

9. Bill shares a list of questions that might be asked in a people centered staff meeting. Do you ask any of them on a weekly basis? If not, how can you change your staff meeting to focus more on people than programs?

10. How it make you feel when Bill described the pastor who taught the Bible study for twenty years?

11. How much time do you spend mentoring future leaders and holding accountable your present leaders?

Bill Easum ©2011

Hand‐Offs and Follow Up

1. Do you agree that handing off ministry to others is one of the most important things a pastor will ever do? Did you see the difference between abdication and follow up?

2. Discuss the difference between oversight and micro‐managing.

3. Do you keep tabs on the results and not the details?

4. Do you follow up on everything the church does and are you looking for results?

Bill Easum ©2011

Laity are the Tipping Point

1. Did you agree with Bill’s statement “I’ve never seen a church grow without a strong pastor?” If not, why?

2. Discuss how you felt about Bill’s opening statement about the laity being the tipping point? Did it raise any red flags?

3. Do you agree that laity can stifle or produce growth? Think about the past‐ which role did the laity play in the growth or non‐growth of the church? How does your lay leadership normally react to new forms of ministry or change in the church?

4. Do the laity normally support and participate with the pastor’s leadership? If not, what can be done to change that? Or do you not agree with Bill’s point here?

5. Do the lay leadership normally speak positive about new things the church attempts or do they grumble about it? Discuss this issue until you have clarity on the normal response of the laity to new ideas.

6. How did it make you feel when Bill said that the role of the laity is to “pay and pray” for the new ministry, even if it’s not something they participate in such as a rock and roll worship service?

7. Would you describe your pastor and lay leaders as a team? If not, what could be done to forge them into a team?

8. Discuss your reaction to Bill’s statement, “The biggest mistake laity make is to expect their pastor to focus on them?”

9. Bill makes it clear that laity, like the pastor, should be more focused on others than on themselves. How would you describe the way laity respond to the pastor spending more time focusing on transforming the community and reaching non‐Christians than on the actual membership?

10. Bill used two texts to explain how the church cares for one another‐ Eph. 4:11‐12 and Acts 6. Do you agree with the way Bill said the church should care for itself?

11. Is our church willing to free up the pastor to focus us on how to reach out to the unchurched and share our faith?

12. How did it make you feel when Bill said, “It’s not about me; it’s not about you; it’s about Christ?”

13. If you decide that the laity is stifling the growth of the church, what can be done to make laity a positive tipping point for growth.

Bill Easum ©2011

Sayings that Influenced My Ministry: Part One

1. Spend time discussing the following favorite sayings and how they apply to your church.

a. “Congregations grow when they reach out to others and they die when they take care of themselves.” Which best describes your church?

b. “Growth is not concerned with numbers but with meeting the needs of people.” Where does you church put most of its emphasis

c. “Attitude is the most important factor in church growth.” Why does your church do what it does‐ to grow the Kingdom or your church? Do you agree with bill when he says God doesn’t honor just growing the church?

d. “New life comes to you and me on its way to someone else. If we pass it on, we blossom; if we keep it to ourselves we whether and die.” Do you agree we are supposed to go and do as Jesus did?

e. “Worship is the building block of congregational life.” Do you do whatever is necessary to make worship the best it can be?

f. “If they constantly disrupt the church, show them the door.” How do you feel about that statement? How does your church handle people who are always causing trouble?

g. “God expects our very best.” Is doing our best an issue at our church or do we feel we are just a small church or “I’m just a lay person?”

2. Is your church ready to change the world through you life and the life of your church?

Bill Easum ©2011

Saying that Influences My Ministry: Part Two

1. Discuss the following favorite sayings and how they apply to your ministry or church

2. “Think small; go slow; and run with the flow.” How does your small group system compare to how Bill unpacks this favorite saying? Do you understand the reason for going slow and not being tied to one way to do small groups?

3. “Evangelism and social justice are kissing cousins. “ Do you agree that one without the other is immoral? How do the two play out in your church? Do you agree with the statement that a church isn’t a church if it’s not doing both? If not, why?

4. Bill then shares three sayings about money. Discuss how each one makes you feel.

a. “You must master your money instead of allowing your money to master you.” “

b. “Your standard of giving should determine your standard of living rather than your standard of living should determine your standard of giving”

c. “Money is never the problem.”

5. Discuss how Bill handled the doctor who wanted more out of his faith but wasn’t giving well to God.

6. “Cast your vision and see whose eyes light up.” Does your church have too many dead eyes? How would you describe your response to the pastor’s vision? Pastor, are you watching for those people whose eyes light up?

7. “When faced with a tough or important issue, apply the two year old rule.” How can you apply the two year old rule to your ministry or your church? What is the one thing you want for your church more than any other thing? Are you willing to play like a two year old to get it?

Bill Easum ©2011

Sayings that Influenced My Ministry: Part Three

1. Take time to discuss the following sayings and how they apply to your ministry and church.

2. “You are the curriculum” and “You get what you look for in life.” How would you describe the equipping and mentoring systems in your church? Do you agree that discipleship isn’t about classroom training but about behavioral change? Do you agree that every church has all the volunteers it needs it just doesn’t disciple them?

3. “People aren’t looking for a contemporary worship service; they are looking for a contemporary church.” Does this saying explain why your attempt to establish a contemporary service didn’t work?

4. “You’ll never know the edge of possibility until you push through it.” Do you believe that God is found most profoundly in the impossible? Does your church play it so safe it never attempts the impossible?

5. “The unmotivated are impervious to the obvious.” Take time to discuss the meaning of this statement for you and your church.

6. “Leaders love to tilt at windmills.” When was the last time your church tilted at a windmill? How does this compare to some of the other favorite sayings?

7. “You can’t transform people without first taking care of them; but you can take care of people without transforming them.” Which best describes your leadership?

Information on Bill Easum Bill Easum has a thirty year track record of growing congregations in two denominations. His last church, which he pastored for twenty-four years, grew to the largest United Methodist Church in South Texas. His record of “evangelization” and "social justice" ministries was acknowledged by Industrial Areas Foundation in New York as one of the finest examples in North America. Bill is also the recipient of the prestigious Donald McGavran award for outstanding church leadership. The past twenty years, Bill has served as a consultant to congregations and denominations. In 1986 he founded 21st Century Strategies which in 2000 became Easum, Bandy & Associates (EBA) www.easumbandy.com when he merged with Tom Bandy. In 2008, Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittian reformed 21st Century Strategies Inc. Together the two Bills serve the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, and South Africa. Bill has personally worked in over 700 congregations, some of which are the largest in the nation, and has taught hundreds of thousands of leaders (client list http://easumbandy.com/services/consultations/our_list_of_clients/). Bill is a regular contributor to Religious Product News, Net Results Magazine, and ezine On Track, and Co-editor of The Convergence eBook Series from Abingdon Press Bill is the author of numerous best-selling books such as Church Growth Handbook, How to Reach Baby Boomers, Dancing With Dinosaurs, Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers, The Complete Ministry Audit, Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Leadership On The OtherSide, Unfreezing Moves, Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First, Under The Radar, The Nomadic Church, Go Big: Leading Your Church to Explosive Growth, Go Big with Small Groups, A Second Resurrection, Ministry in Hard Times, and Preaching for Transformation, all by Abingdon, and Beyond the Box, by Group and Ten Most Common Mistakes of Church Starts by Chalice. Bill is a graduate of Baylor University, B.A., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, M.D., and Perkins School of Theology, S.T.M. Bill’s vice is fishing for Sail and Marlin and he releases all of his fish. Bill is married to Jan and they have one daughter, Caran. Bill can be reached at [email protected]

…s3.amazonaws.com/flipyourchurch/arsenal/studyguide.pdf · 2011-10-24 · to quick decisions? 5....

Documents