Over two million copies of books authored by the father of church leadership, Lyle Schaller, have been published since 1965. “The dean of church consultants” has authored or edited 96 books to help pastors, church and denominational leaders, and church board members. (That's not a typo: 96 books!)
Good news! You don't have to read all 96 books to benefit from this storied thinker.
Warren Bird, editor and compiler of this jam-packed toolbox, has sifted Schaller's wisdom into just 159 page-turning insights (plus appendices). My job today: sifting the sifter! Yikes.
Warren Bird says that there are 10 ways Lyle Schaller will change your ministry. Here are just three:
- “Give you hope that you can be an effective leader and that the best is yet to come for your congregation.”
- “Help you shift your focus from teaching to learning.”
- “Expose you to multiple choices for various decisions where you think you have only one or two options.”
One leader called Schaller a “precursor to Twitter.” He added, “Schaller could always deliver profound ideas and predictions in 140 characters or less.”
Example: On the question (one of 25 big issue chapters) of “How Do I Build on the Strengths of a Large Church?” Schaller tweets:
“The day of the generalist has been replaced by the demand for specialists.”
“To grow beyond 700 in average worship attendance usually requires a new rule book for a new staff configuration.”
“One facet is the shift from 'doing it' to 'making it happen.'”“More important is the shift
from staffing to perpetuate yesterday
to staffing to create new tomorrows.”
The book has two parts. Part One introduces “America's best-known parish consultant,” with insights from
Fred Smith,
Bob Buford, Carl George, Chuck Smith Jr., Carol Childress, Mark Sweeney and others.
Most readers will jump immediately into the tempting second section that spotlights 25 tough questions, sifted from Schaller's three million words. Most chapters run about five pages and begin with an in-the-trenches story from a pastor helped by Schaller's books or consultations. Examples:
Chapter 5: How Should I Approach My First Year in a Pastorate?
Chapter 6: How Do I Follow a Long-Term Pastor?
Chapter 7: What Are the Most Important Staffing Mistakes to Avoid?
Chapter 12: How Do I Build on the Strengths of a Very Large Church? (story from Rick Warren)
Chapter 16: What Are the Land Mines to Avoid in a Merger?
Chapter 19: What Are the Most Important Strategies for Change?
Chapter 21: How Can Leaders Create Dissatisfaction With the Status Quo?
Chapter 24: What's the Biggest Issue When a Church Thinks About Relocating (story from Randy Pope)
Chapter 25: Should Our Church Become Multisite?
Chapter 29: When Do I Know It's Time to Resign?
Schaller has been called “George Gallup without the numbers.” Others compare him to
Peter Drucker. Thankfully, Warren Bird has done the hard work for us—sifting Schaller's wisdom:
- When changes are made when following a long-term leader, “A common result of this changing of the guard is the creating of the AAOEL group. ...The initials of this informal, ad hoc, unrecognized group stand for alienated, angry, older ex-leaders.”
- “The first trait you're looking for in staff is character above skill.”
- “As a general rule, the part-time specialist is more productive and requires less supervision than the full-time generalist.”
- Make “a distinction between hiring staff to do ministry and choosing staff who focus on challenging, motivating, enlisting, training, placing, nurturing and supporting volunteers.”
- “The person who is discontented with the status quo in any institution or organization has five choices.” His fifth option: “Go out and create the new.”
- “Whoever frames the issues influences how people will respond.”
- “Planned change always begins with discontent with the status quo."
- “Today few pastors can depend on ordination, title, and office as sources of authority. Today authority must be earned . . . by vision, competence, performance, skill, character, knowledge, creativity, hard work, wisdom, productivity, initiative, and verbal skills.”
“One of the most difficult tasks in this world
is to enlist support for change
when everyone is contented
with the status quo.”
Bird's easy-reading short chapters feature four succinct sections: The Story, The Sayings, The Summary, The Sources.
Warning! “The Sources” notes prompted me to buy another Schaller book. The summaries are short and sweet: "Wanted: The most serious shortage in our society is for skilled transformational leaders who possess the capability to initiate planned change from within an organization.”
On my Top Books Scale of one to five (5 = most pages underlined), this is a five. Schaller's phraseology is still fresh:
- “the awkward-size church”
- churches that are “too large for the grapevine to be a reliable communication channel”
- and for his frequent reminder to churches that “no two are exactly alike,” he adds, “Act your size!”
In my first out-of-seminary job in a denominational region, I savored the first and every issue of
The Parish Paper, then written by Schaller. I read his early books. Now, with a growing number of local church clients, I'm revisiting Schaller's wisdom again.
I have 50 to 100 more underlined insights from this book—but it's closing time. So here are two options:
1) Read and learn from this book yourself.
2) And/or give it to your pastor or church board members. (They will thank you profusely!)
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