By Franklin Dumond

Several versions of this important obituary have appeared. This one provides a fitting eulogy of this well-known member.

“Our church was saddened to learn recently of the death of one of our most valued members. After only a short illness Someone Else passed away.

Someone’s passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill. Else has been with us for many years and for all those years Someone did far more than a normal person’s share of the work. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend everyone agreed that Someone Else should do it. Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results. We often heard, “Someone Else can work with that group.”

It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most generous givers in our church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference.

Someone Else was a wonderful person, sometimes appearing superhuman. Obviously everyone expected too much of Someone and now Someone Else is gone! Someone left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who will do what Someone Else did?

When you are asked to help this year, remember we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore.”

The important role of Someone Else is often undertaken by a small minority of those folks who attend a local church.  A popular rule of thumb is that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the members. One significant growth barrier in a smaller church is that a workforce of 20% is just too small to sustain current ministry, let alone add new ministry endeavors. For example, in a church of 50 the 20% workforce is only 10 people!

Here are four pretty simple, but effective, ways to change the 80/20 rule.

1. Identify who is doing ministry. Pay particular attention to those who are double-dipping by undertaking more than one major ministry task and look carefully to find those often unnoticed servants who are busy behind the scenes.

2. Identify what ministry is being done. Pay particular attention to those ministry tasks that sustain the current program of the church and to those that engage the community. Look at the nominating committee report to see what assignments are being given. Check the church calendar to see what is happening.

3. Broaden your concept of who can do ministry. Once you have identified who is doing ministry start looking at who is not doing ministry. Many folks are very willing to help but they will not volunteer for a ministry assignment. Find a way to invite them to help on a short term basis. Use the strategy of “I do ministry—You watch me” then “You do ministry—I watch you” and finally “You do ministry and I cheer you on.”

4. Broaden your concept of what ministry is and how it can be done. Divide larger tasks into smaller units so more people can be involved. For example, fellowship events can involve a few volunteers showing up early and staying late or there could be a setup crew/person, a serving crew/person and a clean-up crew/person. One greeter could always be in place or several greeters could take turns one Sunday at a time.

Does every ministry have a prayer component? Organize folks who will pray for each class, for each servant, for each church program.  Jesus noticed in his day that the harvest was ready but the workers were few. Things haven’t changed all that much, have they?

Have you noticed other effective ways to change the 80/20 rule?  Click on ‘Leave A Comment’ at the top of this article to share your views and experiences with us!