About Bill Easum

Bill Easum is the founder of The Effective Church Group. Author of 30+ books and the recipient of the prestigious Donald McGavran award for church leadership, Bill retired in 2019, but continues to share his insights with the Effective Church Group's team.

The Basic Law of Congregational Life

Over the past twenty-five years I’ve worked with almost seven hundred churches of all sizes and locations. Most in the U.S. but some in Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, and Ghana. And one overarching truth has emerged from my experiences in these churches – I call this truth  The Basic Law of Congregational Life. […]

Christmas Eve on Sunday

Christmas Eve, the most important time of the year to reach the unchurched (yes, it’s more important than Easter these days), is fast approaching and far too many pastors will be enticed by their church leaders to make one of the most fatal mistakes possible. And this year that enticement will be even more […]

Where I Am In Life and the Most Important Lesson I’ve Learned

Several friends have emailed me recently about my station in life and what my plans are for the future. Those who know me well know my health is fair for a 78 year old and that I’m finding it hard to sit on planes for very long (I’ve only been on a plane three […]

Thinking Like the Unchurched

I used to fish a lot. And one of the things I had to learn was to fish where there were fish. That makes sense. But to accomplish that I had to learn how to think like a fish. Fish don’t think, but if they did they wouldn’t think the way we do. If […]

It’s “That” Time of the Year Again

That dreaded time for most mainline churches is just around the corner. I’m referring to the fall stewardship drive. If your church is like 90 percent of mainline churches everything in October revolves around securing enough pledges to support next years budget. And for these churches the critical question is “What program do we […]

Five Steps to Revitalization

For the life of me I don’t understand why anyone would try to revitalize a church. But I did and I’m glad I did. Still, when I consider that the vast majority of pastors who try either fail or lose their job, I have to wonder why they would try, or why I tried? […]

The Number One Problem with Western Christianity: McGavran and Disciple Making

We all know 85% of churches in the West are in decline, so I wont go into that other than to say I know the cause for this decline. The number one problem with Western Christianity rests on its misunderstanding of the Church Growth movement and the liberalization of the Western Church. Let me […]

Our Changing World and the Church and Education

I was fortunate enough that my formative years experienced incremental change. I saw lots of changes, TV, commercial air travel, atomic bomb, A/C, cell phones to name just a few, but each of these changes took place slowly enough for me to adapt easily to them. I spent years watching black and white TV […]

Is it Time to Drop the Requirement: Part Two

My post, titled “Is It Time To Drop The Requirement,” resulted in several responses, which prompted me to do a little more digging into the subject of ordination. And after extensive reading on the subject I conclude there is absolutely no mention of ordination in the New Testament. By the second part of the […]