Alan Hartung has blogged about an article he published at THEOOZE, looking at the 80/20 rule. Basically, the 80/20 rule says that, in any church, 20% of the people will do all of the work of the church, while the other 80% just attend services, without being more actively involved.

He starts out talking about “traditional” approaches to this problem, but then he takes an unexpected twist. He posits that this ratio is fundamentally embedded into existing church structure. After all, there are only so many “jobs” to do for a Sunday morning worship service, and, as long as that service is the primary focus of church, then churches actually need those 80% in order to keep the 20% busy!

While I think that may be a bit extreme, I do think he raises a serious point. It echoes what my wife has been saying to me about worship taking too great a role in the life of the church today. Now, before you start the fires to burn me as a heretic: I’m not saying that worship is unimportant – it is important. But so is service outside of the church, and study, etc, etc.

As Alan points out, a lot of those 80% like not having any responsibilities, and will probably leave the church if more is expected of them. That’s to be expected. The more significant point he raises, however, is that you’ll probably also lose some of the 20%! They like being needed and at the center of attention, and may, at some level, resist change which takes that away. They may say, and even believe, that getting others more involved is a good thing, but then attempt to block changes that might help accomplish it. A few of those 80% leaving might be painful, but expected. Losing even one or two of the 20%, however, might scare the leadership into rethinking their position.

Of course, we could take this a step further. Maybe the 80/20, rather than being embedded in the church’s structure, is embedded in our human nature. After all, most organizations and institutions have a few leaders, and many members. So perhaps that’s not inherently a bad thing.

So, what do you think? Is Alan right? Is the 80/20 rule implicit in our church structure? And, if so, is that a problem?

We’re having a New Year’s Eve party at our house. Everyone’s invited. The festivities will be starting around 8PM, and will go until whenever. We’re hoping that the weather will cooperate, and we can have the pool heated and ready for a “first swim of the new year.” The hot tub will be going in any case.

An RSVP would be appreciated, though don’t let a failure to do so keep you from showing up. Let me or Wendy know if you need directions. (If nothing else, you can use my “Contact Me” page )

BTW – parking near our house can be a serious problem, unless you don’t mind a bit of a walk. Car pooling is always a good idea.

I guess I really need to start watching Steve Colbert more. In this video he picks on the Pope. I broke out laughing several times.

(HT: Stupid Church People)

Update: In the comments to this post at SCP, there was a link to another video at YouTube that literally had me choking it was so funny, so I had to add it. (Warning – not entirely office-safe. There’s a brief flash of a man’s behind.)

These “Mac vs PC” parody videos are wonderful! I burst out laughing several times.

I have an idea that I think would go a long way toward increasing voter turnout in elections. It seems so simple …

We have the V Chip in televisions which can block out inappropriate content. What if we set up a system so that, when you vote, you get a “proof of vote” code that you can put into your TV to block political ads? Especially in places like Texas that allow early voting, that’s a huge benefit to voting, don’t you think?

Now it’s just a matter of how to implement it. But that’s just a matter of technology.

Anybody else with me?