Volunteering and the 80/20 Rule

As long as I've worked in churches, I've heard about the 80/20 rule.  In fact, it came up in a conversation last week with a pastor who serves a church in another state.  The 80/20 rule is simply this- in any given church, 20% of the people do 80% of the work.  The rule has to be true- at least in some places- or there would not be enough evidence for it to be a rule- and a popular one at that.

I've always felt that Hillcrest was different (read better) than the 80/20 rule.

But I recently read this book that suggested a different 'rule' or parameter to shoot for- what the author calls the 30/50/20 rule:

• 30- at any given time, 30% of your church should be sitting on the sidelines, not currently serving anywhere.
• 50- at any given time, 50% of your church should be serving one hour per week.  This service could be anything- worship teams, greeting, ushering, children's, youth ministries, etc.
• 20- at any given time, 20% of your church should be involved in some kind of evangelism or outreach ministry.  Could be actively inviting friends to church or participating in an outreach initiative such as serving at a homeless shelter or reading with an under-resourced 1st grader.

When we compare Hillcrest against the 30/50/20 rule, we see:

• 38% of Hillcresters not active in volunteering  
• 52% of Hillcresters serving on a consistent basis (not necessarily weekly, but at least 1-2 times a month)
• 10% of Hillcresters involved in evangelism or outreach ministry.

Of course, these numbers are specific to serving with or through Hillcrest and don't account for volunteering people may do through their kids' schools, workplaces, or neighborhoods.  If you factor those in, my hunch would be the 38% number would decrease some and the 10% number would increase some.

I'm not necessarily saying the 30/50/20 rule is the rule to shoot for.  But if you want to move away from the 80/20 rule, you have to use another benchmark.  And if not the 30/50/20 one, then feel free to suggest or come up with something else!