Episode 003: Debunking The 80/20 Rule (It’s Not a Rule; It’s A Symptom)

Intro: 0:01
Hey, this is Laurie Graham. Welcome to The Small Church Ministry Podcast.

Laurie Graham 0:15
Hey, welcome to episode three, and we are going to dip our toes into the realm of volunteer woes in small churches. Now, why are we just dipping our toes? Because I’ll just tell you there are about a million podcast hours I can fill with what I know and understand about volunteers. Including, why the word volunteer doesn’t exist in the Bible. Why everyone needs to quit looking for volunteers. Why volunteers quit. How most churches unknowingly set up volunteers to fail and so much more, but we’ve got to start somewhere. 

So here we go. 

We’re going to start by debunking the 80/20 rule. I’m sorry if I step on your toes here or shatter the mathematical way you make sense of the world, but the 80/20 rule, actually isn’t a rule at all. It’s not biblical. It is immensely important, but probably not in the way you think. And if you embrace the truth, it’s going to transform how you do ministry. 

Now have you heard of the 80/20 rule? If you haven’t? I’m pretty sure it’ll sound familiar as we start talking about it. 

I heard this many, many years ago when I first started working in ministry and this is it. 
In churches, they say that 80% of the work is usually done by 20% of the people. They call this the 80/20 rule. 

Now is that true in your church? 

Lots would say, yep, totally true. The same 12 people step up, show up and keep everything running. Not just in small churches, but in big churches too. 

Think about the difference between how many people step up to teach Sunday school versus how many people go. Or how many people arrive early to set up and get everything ready for the barbecue versus how many people come and eat and enjoy, or even stay to clean up, right? 
Or what about Vacation Bible School? How many people work countless hours, whether it’s in the prep or the setup or the decor or shopping or planning crafts, just to put on a daily event that serves lots of other people who drop off their kiddos, right, and enjoy the break. 

So before we move on, if you agree with this 80/20 rule, like that’s what it is in your church, how does it make you feel? How does it make you feel that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people? Does it make you feel bitter? Disappointed? Maybe even apathetic, like throwing up your hands, like, oh, well that’s the way it is. 

Or does it make you feel sad or deflated or frustrated or irritated? Maybe you’re part of the 20%, the ones that keep the church afloat and maybe it actually makes you feel proud. Yeah. I’m the 20%. And this is true, whether your church’s just hanging on or if it’s thriving. 

So hang on to that feeling for a minute, we’re going to loop back to it. But first, let’s actually talk about the 80/20 rule. 

So here’s where it came from. 

Way back in 1906, there was an Italian guy named Pareto, and he noticed that 80% of the peas from his garden came from 20% of the pea pods. Yep. This is a garden illustration. 

So let that thought simmer in your head a little bit. Because that’s what he did. 

And later on, he realized that 80% of the wealth in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. I think he was an economist. He just kept letting this idea simmer and it kept simmering. And honestly, as he shared it, other people kept thinking about it too. 

And it’s kind of interesting, but the 80/20 rule, even though that adds up to a hundred, that’s actually just a coincidence. There’s actually a hundred percent on both sides. 

There’s an input side and an output side. And so it could have easily been 70% of the wealth was owned by 50% of the people. So it doesn’t have to add up to one hundred. 

A few decades later in the 1940s, there was a management consultant named Duran and he expanded this principle to business environments. And before long, this principle that originated with peas is being applied to so many things like the percentage of sales that come from the percentage of salespeople. The percentage of products that are bought by the percentage of customers. 

And today you will hear the 80/20 principle applied to closets, carpets, computers, food, movies, media, managing your priorities, how much we exercise and how much it benefits us, and so much more. 

Now, one thing that even the business people are very quick to clarify is this 80/20 thing isn’t a rule at all. It’s really just a principle. It’s kind of the way things tend to settle out, but it doesn’t have to be. So catch this. It is not a rule. A rule is a law. A rule is something that’s followed – that has to be followed. It’s part of governance. It’s just the way it is, but that is not true for the 80/20 principle. It’s not a rule. Whether we’re talking about business, carpet wear, or your church. 
So, how do I know this? Because I’ve seen different. I’ve talked to people in churches who have a lot more percentage of people serving. I’ve been part of churches that totally break the 80/20 rule and flip it totally on its head. 

The 80/20 rule is also not biblical. 

Now I’m totally open to learning principles from science, from leaders in business, from psychology and applying it to my life and to the church, when they’re true, and they make sense.
I think that secular studies often are catching up with God and the way that He just made the world to work – like management, becoming more about relationships. That’s what Jesus was always about. Or the health industry starting to put stock in taking our thoughts captive and actually seeing the link between stress and negativity versus taking captive our thoughts and having hope. 

So I believe God speaks through science, and management, and through psychology, and through the world quite often. But when something spoken by the world isn’t true or doesn’t line up with scripture, I can’t adopt it. And neither should you. 

So let’s look at what the Bible says about the 80/20 rule. The percentage of people who should or do serve in the body.

The Bible talks a lot about the body of Christ, about our part in community, in the church. 

The biggest passage most of us would think of is in 1 Corinthians. There, God paints a real clear picture of the body, of His body, of the church. 

The illustration, of course, is that we are all different body parts. There’s a toe and a knee cap and a kidney and liver and an ear and a foot. And Christ is the head. 

Now God didn’t have to use this illustration. He could have used something totally different, but He chose to talk about the body and how the toe has its own function. And the ear can’t say to the foot, I’m better than you are because the body needs all the different parts, doing exactly what they were designed to do to be able to function. 

God could have easily used the illustration of a chariot, you know, with these powerful horses and dragging a whole bunch of weights along the back. So these two horses are pulling all the weight and all these weights across the back are just bouncing along. Can you picture it? The horses are working to exhaustion. God could have said, “Hey, this is the body of Christ.” But He didn’t. 
He could have used the illustration of a church to be like two people who are carrying a stretcher with a bunch of broken, damaged people on it. So a few people were carrying all the weight, but He didn’t. 

He used the analogy of a body with many parts. Parts that were designed to function as they were and parts that needed each other. So if the 80/20 thing was a rule, then what’s up with the body illustration? 

Now was God lying? Was He trying to trick us? Is this like a fantasy that He wants us to have in our heads, but something that would never happen or only happen in fairy tales?

I don’t believe God gave us the Bible to give us a bunch of unrealistic ideas that we could never work toward. The Bible isn’t fiction or fantasy. That would be like dangling a carrot, you know, in front of a horse or in front of us and we’re like running after it, trying to get it, but we can never even taste it.

So why did God use the illustration of the body? Because He meant it. He meant it when He said that every member is important and they all contribute. 

Now, if you’re thinking my church doesn’t look like that, and I’ve never had a church that looked like that, or it looks a whole lot more like the 80/20 principle than a body. 

I get it.

I’ve seen it. 

We all have.

But what’s more likely? That God used the wrong illustration? That He just couldn’t quite come up with the right picture? Or that we’ve got it wrong or we’re missing a piece? I think it’s more likely that we’re messed up. 

So we’ve taken this principle, this 80/20 thing that came up in 1906. This 80/20 principle that shakes out in the world of economics and business, and even in gardens. And we’ve applied it to God’s purpose for us as His church. When scripture says this earth is not our home and we’re aliens in this land and that God’s world looks a lot different than ours does – His principles and His laws and His ideals. Here’s the thing. There are different rules governing us, like turning the other cheek.

We are not like the world. We don’t get to take the Pareto principle about peas from 1906 and apply it to His church and excuse ourselves from functioning as Christ’s body. No. This description of Christ’s body, His bride, is really different. 

But before you throw out the 80/20 rule, don’t throw it out quite yet.

You see the 80/20 rule, which isn’t a rule, is actually a symptom. 

It’s a symptom that something’s not right. Like something’s off. 

So I have a little problem with my pinky. Sometimes my pinky aches, my littlest finger. Right? I know, I know I’m getting old. I turned 52 and I get these weird aches sometimes.
 
But when my pinky aches, I don’t say, oh, well, everybody’s pinky aches. I actually start thinking what’s wrong with me? Like, what can I do? I Google it even. I’m like, what if I don’t want it to ache? Because it’s a symptom. 

It’s an indicator to me that something’s wrong. Something’s just not quite right. But it’s not a rule. If it was a rule that my pinky was going to ache, I would just throw in the towel, let my body fall apart from here on outright? 

But this is what I’ve noticed. When I get achy, I’m not eating as well as I should be. If I go back to what I know to do, which is lots of veggies, more raw food, less sugar, or less white flour, right? Shock of all shocks. I’m actually less achy. I even get fewer headaches. I sleep better. And so much more. 

See, a symptom makes us stop and wonder. We look for solutions. We try new things. We take risks. A rule, totally different. Hands up – defeat, just throw in the towel we’re done. Right? Misery loves company. It’s just what it is. 

So for me, the 80/20, isn’t a rule at all. It’s a symptom and it actually leads me to hope. 

Now let’s loopback, just for a second, to the beginning of the podcast.

When I asked you, how do you feel about the 80/20 rule? Are you sad? Are you defeated? Are you frustrated? Are you bitter? Are you proud? Is it a bummer that your church seems to fit the 80/20 rule? Do you just throw your hands up, commiserate with the other people in small churches “stinks to be us.”

How about this one? I have to do it because no one else is. Other people are uncommitted. They’re too busy to serve. They don’t prioritize the church. 

So do you remember what feeling came up when I said, how do you feel about the 80/20 rule? 
Now, I want you to think about this. What if it’s not a rule? What if I’m right and it’s a symptom? What if there’s hope? What if there’s a fix? What if it could be something else? What if there’s a reason behind that pain? Behind the dysfunction? That may be just, maybe your church could function a little more like the body that is talked about in the Bible. Because here’s the thing; it can. 

Once again, what’s more likely – that God’s wrong, that He’s painting us a fantasy that He didn’t really mean, or He used the wrong picture. Or that we’re a little off. 

So let’s get to some solution. 

We have a Facebook group called Creative Solutions for Small Churches. If you’re not in there yet, come join us. We also have free online quarterly conferences for small churches. And a leadership program called The Small Church Academy. 

So I am around people from small churches, a lot, like every single day. People from small churches, all over the US and Canada and the UK, even in Poland and New Zealand and Australia and South Africa. Our community stretches over 60 countries and six continents. And no matter who I’m talking to, near or far, rural or urban, on the bigger side of small or the teeniest little house church, there’s something almost all of them have in common. 

The same people are serving on the edge of burnout, needing new volunteers. 

Now, if the 80/20 rule is a symptom, what is this common problem so many churches are facing? 
Most of the churches I’ve talked with, have one of the following four problems. The cause of the 80/20 principle in their churches. I’d like to say that all churches fall into these four areas because wouldn’t that be nice if we all just fit in a box, but if I know anything about God and the way He works, there’s always exceptions, and maybe there’s something a little different in your church that’s happening. But I do know that the 80/20 rule is a symptom of something else. 

So if your church doesn’t seem to clearly fit neatly into one of these boxes, that’s okay. None of us ever fit clearly into a box, but hopefully, this will give you a clue and something to start looking a little deeper into to ask God, to reveal to you what you can do differently. And then when you ask that, be ready to listen. And to make a change. 

But after talking to thousands of people in small churches, here are the top four reasons that I’ve found that make that 80/20 symptom pop up the most often. 

Number one, you are just trying to do too many great things. 

You know, small churches tend to try to do everything that big churches do. Sometimes we’re just doing too much. Whether you’re in charge of the kid’s ministry, or you’re the pastor of the whole church, think about what you’re doing. Because God didn’t call us to program the church, He called us to be the church. 

Now programs are great if they’re sustainable, if they lead to good relationships, if they lead to deeper discipleship. But often as small churches, we’re doing things that aren’t sustainable. They’re burning out our volunteers, they’re burning out us so people aren’t even spending time at the feet of Jesus anymore. They’re just on this hamster wheel, just spinning round and round doing, doing, doing, and ending up exhausted. 

That is not the way of Jesus. 

We think sometimes the church needs to have a kid’s ministry, a nursery, a women’s ministry, a tech team, a men’s ministry, and so on and so on.

But please hear me. I’m not saying we don’t need to have ministry to women or ministry to children or support for families, but ministry to women can look a whole lot different than the typical women’s ministry. 

So here’s the thing. If we’re doing too many things, we cannot sustain it. I believe that God has already given you all the people you need to do exactly what He wants your church to do.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is that my God will meet all my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. The problem is we try to do more. Too much. So we’re going beyond the things that God wants to meet. 

I know churches who are so frustrated, trying to do things that they actually don’t have the people for. Like in these days, when we’re trying to stream, you need a tech team of somebody to run the video, somebody to do the sound. But if you’ve got 12 people in your church, like where are all those people going to come from to do all those tasks? Because here’s the thing you don’t have to stream your service.

There are so many things like this in our churches where we’re just trying to do too much, and it is not what God has called us to. 

We need to think more creatively. How can we meet needs instead of how can we do these things that we see other people doing? 

Too many things. It isn’t just based on the numbers you have, but also on the capacity of the people in your church.

If most of your people are working 60 hour work weeks, or you’re in a rural community and you’ve got farmers and people dealing with harvest, you’ve got to look at that. Seasonally, in small churches, it can look differently too. You may have had several tragedies, some really big losses. People don’t have the emotional capacity or the physical capacity if your congregation is aging. 
So bottom line, if you have a culture of burning people out, because you’re doing too much, you’re shorthanded all the time, if volunteering equals stress, you won’t have volunteers. You may have some martyrs who end up looking like the 20% and they’ll do anything they can to hang on to what you had. 

In the midst of doing anything, oftentimes that 20% is neglecting their health, their family, their own priorities, their own discipleship. They’re getting burnt out in the process and just determined to hold up this church come hell or high water. 

But please remember your local church is part of a bigger church and the body of Christ is never going to fall apart because Christ is the one who holds it all together.

Children’s ministry does not need to look like Sunday, Sunday school, plus a separate nursery, plus a Wednesday night Awana’s group, plus outreach event. It doesn’t need to look like that at all. 

Sometimes in small churches, we need to be creative. Like how do we meet the needs of children in our community? How do we meet the needs of young families? You may even have people who want to help, but your church is doing so many things and the focus is so scattered, it’s confusing. Because the reality is people want to be in a boat that’s going somewhere, not in their own individual canoes paddling randomly across a huge lake.

So that’s one of the first things that I’ve seen that caused this 80/20 symptom to play out in your church is just simply doing too many great things. 

The second thing I want to talk about is just doing the wrong things.

And the wrong things don’t mean they’re wrong for everyone. They just mean they may be wrong for your church.

Sometimes we see this great idea and we’re really excited about it, but God hasn’t given you the gifts or the people, or the skills, or even the passion in your church to do that one thing. But we get, so single-minded that we’re going to do this. We need to do it this way, and you don’t have people stepping up to follow.

Now there are a couple of things that can happen when you have a vision for something and nobody else does. 

One is that you need to cast the vision better. You need to open your eyes and see the limitations or objections that other people have and let people know why you believe God may have put this on your heart.

But the other thing I want you to consider is it might just be the wrong thing. You might be excited about something, and it’s not really for you. 

That happens a lot in the Bible, actually. People have a vision for something, but they don’t get to see it through to the end.

A couple of clues that you may be doing the wrong things.

Number one, nobody is with you. Nobody shares your vision. People just aren’t excited about what you’re talking about. 

Another thing is there are actually physical limitations. You know, maybe you’re setting up tables every week and you want to have this outreach event, and most of the people in your church are over 60 years old and they don’t want to, or physically can’t lift all those tables.

So what else could it look like? With this dream or vision, how else could it look? 

Instead, I want you to think about this. I believe God puts desires in the hearts of his people. I believe your church already has some common passions. Think about who’s in your church. What do they love? Where are their skills? What do they value? 

You may have a church that is full of people who build and create. How could that work into what you’re doing? You may have a church that has a lot of educators. You may have a church that has a bunch of scientists, or people in healthcare. So look at what God has already done, what He’s brought, and where He is already at work, and join Him there instead of trying to push a different agenda through. That just is falling flat.

All right, so maybe you’re not doing too many good things and you’re not doing the wrong things.

Let’s hop into number three. 

How about this as a cause of the symptoms. Instead of asking and developing new people, you keep asking the 20%. This is basically proposing that maybe the 80% who aren’t serving actually want to help, but you’re not asking them.

Now before you think, “no, no, no. They really don’t want to help. They’ve shown they don’t want to help. They’re not mature. They don’t show up. I ask, they don’t show up.” I want you just to think about this. This is super common in most churches. It has been in my life, in my ministry. 
It’s almost something we have to kind of fight our instincts on because what we want, what most of us want are volunteers who are already proven, consistent, reliable, they’re going to show up. They’re talented enough, they’re mature and they’re ready. Like, who wouldn’t want that? 
Let’s say I’m starting a men’s ministry. I’m starting a worship ministry. I’m going to look for people who can do those things because they’re ready. They’re capable. They’re low maintenance. They’re not going to cause me a lot of stress, but you know what?

That is not who Jesus looked for. 

I want to encourage you to start looking for the unlikely and overlooked because that’s what Jesus did. 

So think about who Jesus invited into His posse, right? He was inviting stinky fishermen, tax collectors. He wasn’t looking for people who knew ministry or even were the Pharisees who had studied and knew the Word of God.

If you invest in training volunteers pouring into the unlikely and the overlooked, you have just increased the amount of people serving in your church, by a crazy amount. Yes, it is a slower route, but it’s what Jesus did. 

Start developing relationships, not with the objective of getting a volunteer. We have to be really careful in church ministry not to manipulate people and use people for what they have to give. But just start developing relationships like Jesus. 

“Hey, come follow me.” “Come try this out.” “Let’s hang out.”

Develop them, train them, appreciate them, invest in them. Because every human wants to feel significant. They want to make a difference. They want to be loved. They want to belong. 

Every single human.

That’s your 80%. 

So love them and teach them about why they’re significant, about why Jesus loves them, about why they are called to be salt and light, and not just the ones who are already serving. Teach them about their importance in the body of Christ, and you’ll see things change.

So we’ve gone over the top three reasons why that 80/20 symptom seems like it’s a rule.
The first one – you’re trying to do too many good things, so you’re burning everybody out.

Number two, you’re doing the wrong things. They’re just not right for your church. They may not be inherently wrong, but they’re just wrong for your church, and for who God has provided. Number three, instead of asking and developing new people, you keep asking the 20% who are already proven. So start looking for the unlikely and the overlooked like Jesus. 

Now this fourth one, it’s going to be a little bit tougher and you might not want to hear it, but it’s a common reason why you don’t have volunteers and it might just be this.

Nobody wants to work with you. 

Ouch. 

Now maybe people sign up, but they don’t stick around or maybe they avoid you. 

Now, this is a pretty tough one to diagnose because if you’re this person, you probably don’t know it, and you probably don’t think it’s you. You might be feeling a little defensive, I have before. We’ve all got our stuff that rubs people the wrong way. But if you don’t fit one of the three things I just mentioned, I really suggest you take a look at this one because we all have blind spots. And if nobody wants to work with you and maybe it’s just for a season, maybe everybody used to want to work with you, but right now you’re crabby. I don’t know what it could be. But there are two main things that go into this one. If nobody wants to work with you and neither one of them are permanent or inborn, you have a lot of influence over these. 

Maybe you love people and they know that you care, but your leadership skills aren’t great.
You waste way too much time at meetings. You frustrate people because you’re not organized enough or maybe you’re too organized on the other side. So you love people and they know it, but you’re just not leading well. 

On the flip side, maybe your leadership skills are stellar. Like you are an amazing leader. Maybe you’ve been amazing, you know, in the workplace, and in management or in other sectors, but your love needs a little work. Because if you’ve got all the leadership skills in the world and you know how to delegate, you know how to recruit and all this, but people don’t feel like you love them. It’s not going to work.

Are you frustrated because people aren’t committed enough? Are you burnt out from doing it all yourself? 

I have to tell you if these things describe you, people know it. If you are crabby and you feel like these people are uncommitted, they feel that from you. And they’re not going to want to work with you if you already don’t like them before they start. 

If you’re burnt out from doing it all yourself, it’s like this big burden is coming at people. Like help me. This is a horrible job. It’s so stressful. I can’t do it myself. Who wants to be part of that team? 
So if it’s possible that maybe nobody wants to work with you, take a look at your leadership skills and your loving skills. Right? 

A lot of this has to do with having some rest and some personal time to just sit at the feet of Jesus and also investing in leadership skills. And getting better at leading a meeting, at organizing time, at knowing how to utilize people and delegate. So that they feel needed and that they know they are. 

Because volunteers don’t exist to do ministry.

They are your ministry. 

As a leader, a teacher, a volunteer, a staff member, a pastor, if you’re experiencing the 80/20 rule, I want to invite you to take a step back. 

Because what if I’m right and it’s not a rule? What if it’s a symptom of something that’s fixable, something that could change with a little pivot. Just a change in your thinking. A different way of asking people, a different way of inviting, even just some investment in your own personal development. 

What if there’s hope for something different? No more burnout, exhaustion, frustration at the lack of commitment of other people. 

What if the yoke of Jesus really is light and easy?

I believe it’s not just possible, but I believe it is God’s desire and plan. 

Please hear me, I’m not saying we don’t struggle. I am not saying that we don’t have a hard time. I am not saying it is easy to be a disciple. But this part about the church, about the body being different parts and carrying the load together and functioning the way they’re gifted, that is completely 100% true because it’s in the Bible.

So which one might be behind your 80/20 symptom? And maybe it’s a mix. Doing too many things? Doing the wrong things? Asking the 20% over and over again, instead of the unlikely and the overlooked? Or are you a factor? Could you grow in your own leadership or your loving and your leading? Once you figure out the cause it’s a whole lot easier to work toward change.

Now in future podcasts, we’re going to be diving deeper into all these issues and so much more. Including, how to turn meetings into parties, so people actually want to come and you still get stuff done. How to stop wasting people’s time, meaningful appreciation of volunteers and why it matters, how to get rid of overwhelm and find the sweet balance of ministry and life.

How about this? The one thing every best teacher does well, or what to do when no one reads the bulletin. How to rock mixed-age Sunday School, the best way to support your pastor and so much more. 

I’m looking forward to the journey with you and I can’t wait till next week and come join us in The Creative Little Church Facebook Community.

We’re waiting for you. 

If you have a minute, please leave a review, share this podcast with somebody you care about in a small church. 

So go be a light in the world and we’ll talk again soon.