Bill Easum on "the hand-off"

Insightful.

The Lilly Foundation recently did a study of seven hundred church plants in which they compared those plants that exploded with growth to those that limped along. One of their findings was that in all of the churches that exploded the pastor had mastered the art of the hand-off.

The “hand-Off” is best explained this way – other than teaching, pastors need to give away as much ministry as they can. The more a pastor hands-off the faster and larger the church has the potential to grow. But the real plus of the hand-off isn’t the growth of the church. The real plus is the growth of the persons receiving the hand-off. Pastors rob their congregation of the joy of ministry and fulfilling their God-given role in creation when they refuse to hand-off the ministry of the church.

One of the surest ways to keep a church small is for the pastor to not understand the one biblical mandate for pastors –“to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12). The more actual ministry a pastor does the smaller the church remains. Instead of a “hands- On” approach to ministry pastors need a “hand-Off” approach. The difference is mind-boggeling. ~ Bill Easum