Bill Easum, Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers: Ministry Anytime, Anywhere, By Anyone. Abingdon Press, 1995.
Referenced in:
- Strategies for Congregational Renewal – Easum and Bandy’s Diagnostic on Thriving Congregations
- Empowering Leadership
- Involvement and Gift-Based Ministry
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This was Bill Easum’s first attempt to describe permission-giving, servant-empowering, team-based congregational ministry systems. Easum’s more thorough treatment of this subject is Unfreezing Moves. I recommend Sacred Cows as a supplement to Unfreezing Moves, as it contains some helpful unique pieces. One is his section on permission-giving leaders, which provides an excellent series of contrasts with 10 other leader types such as helter-skelter, do-it-yourself, career, touchy-feely, chaplain, crash-and-burn, etc. Also helpful are the chapters on discovering one’s spiritual gifts, permission-giving networks, self-organizing ministry teams, and the steering team.
Unfreezing Moves is vintage Bill Easum. Many find his suggestions more applicable to larger churches that have the critical mass to act upon his suggestions. He also is quite directive, with a contemporary, high-relevance, “get on with it” bent (especially with regard to worship). As such, it is not the first book to put before fear-oriented, command-and-control leaders. However, used alongside Unfreezing Moves and Thom Bandy’s Spirited Leadership and Christian Chaos, it is an excellent description of how to shift toward a more empowering missional movement in one’s congregation. Each of these and more are featured in the resource guide on the Easum and Bandy Series.
From the Publisher
This book shows how an atmosphere of permission-giving, which signals the end of leaders as enablers, can help church leaders transcend bureaucracy and enhance spiritual gifts rather than assign them. The ‘sacred cows’ of control and regulation can be devoured, as leaders and people are converted to a new style of ministry.
About the Author
Bill Easum is Senior Consultant with 21st Century Strategies and is one of the most highly respected church consultants and Christian futurists in North America. Bill has been a pioneer in the church growth movement, with 35 years of pastoral ministry in four churches and two denominations. During his 24 years at Colonial Hills Church in San Antonio, the church grew from 35 in worship to over 1,000, with 2,200 members. His record of evangelization and social justice ministries has been acknowledged by the Industrial Areas Foundation in New York as one of the finest records in North America. Bill is a graduate of Baylor University, B.A., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, M.Div., and Perkins School of Theology, S.T.M. Bill and his wife Jan have one daughter, Caran. Bill’s main vice is he loves to salt water fish and then let the fish go.
***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***
See Resource Guides on Related Areas:
- Missional Perspectives, Introduction
- Missional Church Resources, Introduction and Index
- Church Leadership and Renewal, Index to Resources
See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Ministry Leadership: