The 80/20 rule

There is a little mentioned but very true fact about church life in most churches. It is called the 80/20 rule. It states that 80% of the work in a church is being done by only 20% of the people. And I think that the ratio may be closer to 90/10 than it is to 80/20. Why is that? Why is it that the majority of people who are members of a local church are not doing anything in conjunction with the church's ministry? I have a couple of theories.

My first theory is that there are people who are strong leader types and they know the things that need to get done so they just do them. It is not necessarily out of a passion to do it well, just a sense of it needs to be done and I don't see anyone else stepping up to do it, so I will. Most of these folks are in the 20% that does so much. We are not talking about a bad thing. It is always good to see people doing things to advance God's kingdom through His church. The only thing about it is that it may be stopping someone who is not a strong leader from doing what they are truly passionate about. They figure if it is already being done by someone else, they must not be needed.

My second theory is that there are people who just don't know what to do in church. Perhaps they were raised without a strong church influence in their lives. Maybe they were brought up in a different religion where things were handled differently. Whatever the reason, they just don't know how to be helpful. And the sad part is, the pastor keeps telling them to get involved, but they don't know how.

I believe that team-based ministry that our church is currently taking on is the answer to both of these theories. We will put the strong leader types on a team with those who are not so strong. We will put those who just don't know on a team with those who do know. The idea being that the strengths of each person are then used shoulder to shoulder. Together we can conquer the 80/20 (or 90/10) rule. It is not the model of church given in the Bible.

Think of how great every church would be if all the people called by God to be in that church were working in their own strengths, the way God wired them, to accomplish His purposes. I believe God would richly bless a ministry like that.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
--Ephesians 4:11-13