{"id":3231,"date":"2013-07-08T19:51:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T23:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/?p=3231"},"modified":"2013-12-06T23:45:22","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T04:45:22","slug":"8020-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/2013\/07\/8020-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"The 80\/20 Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the 80\/20 rule<\/em> an undeniable fact of life?<\/h1>\n
<\/h5>\n

A couple of months ago, as an illustration of faith after a painfully detailed ministry potential assessment presentation, Pastor Guy Weatherly quoted from the book of Joshua, Chapter 13, recounting the story of twelve spies sent to collect intelligence and report back to the people after surveying the land God had promised to give them.\u00a0 Of the twelve, ten came back whining about how hard it would be, if at all possible, to possess this land.\u00a0 They compared themselves to grasshoppers, too weak and impotent to challenge the current inhabitants. Only two, Joshua and Caleb, focused on the great bounty of this land with the understanding it was already theirs because God had ordained it.\u00a0 That got me thinking\u2026 ten of twelve, or 83%, lacked the vision God intended.<\/h4>\n

Was the 80\/20 rule at play here?<\/h2>\n

<\/h5>\n

\"paretto<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n

Was the 80\/20 rule<\/b> in fact a biblical principal? Is it really a 90\/10 rule as some would say? I continued to consider this and look for examples thinking it would make a great study, but as I began to research the subject, I was pulled in a multitude of different directions.\u00a0 As I begin to write this piece, I have no idea what conclusion I will come to, but I have amassed a tidy stack of interesting facts, so let\u2019s just see where it leads.<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Remember the story of Jacob\u2019s twelve sons?\u00a0 Joseph was Jacob\u2019s favorite.\u00a0 Joseph\u2019s ten older brothers (83%) were jealous of him, so they sold him into slavery and lied to their father to cover their devious actions.\u00a0 Rather than seeking the positives, looking at their own shortcomings and striving to emulate the behaviours Joseph displayed that delighted Jacob, they conspired to get rid of him.\u00a0 Had this not happened, and Joseph had become a great manager and administrator for his own people, rather than the Egyptians, his family may have greatly benefited.\u00a0 The jealousy of the brothers however, caused them to take the “easy” path to get what they wanted.<\/h4>\n

Another example of the 80\/20 rule jumped out from the \u201cLife Application Bible Notes\u201d commentary on 2 Kings.<\/h3>\n
\n

\u201cOnly 20 percent of Israel and Judah’s kings followed God. The evil kings were short sighted. They thought they could control their nations’ destinies by importing other religions, forming alliances with pagan nations, and enriching themselves. The good kings had to spend most of their time undoing the evil done by their predecessors.\u201d<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"the<\/a><\/h4>\n

Throughout the period of the kings, the people could only count on Godly leadership from one king out of every five.\u00a0 Without Godly leadership, the relationship between the people and God suffered. More than that, the bad kings misdirected the people by introducing idols back into the culture.\u00a0 With this kind of leadership, it is not surprising that 83% of God\u2019s people, 10 of twelve tribes, ended up in rebellion, and finally \u201clost\u201d.<\/h4>\n
\n

1 Kings 16:13-19 (NKJV)
\nNow when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!” So Israel departed to their tents.\u00a0 But Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.\u00a0\u00a0 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of the revenue; but all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem.\u00a0 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Examples of the 80\/20 (or 90\/10) rule in the ministry of Jesus on earth.<\/h3>\n
\n

Luke 17:12-18 (GW)
\nAs he went into a village, ten men with a skin disease met him. They stood at a distance and shouted, \u201cJesus, Teacher, have mercy on us!\u201d\u00a0 When he saw them, he told them, \u201cShow yourselves to the priests.\u201d As they went, they were made clean.\u00a0 When one of them saw that he was healed, he turned back and praised God in a loud voice.\u00a0 He quickly bowed at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (The man was a Samaritan.)\u00a0 Jesus asked, \u201cWeren’t ten men made clean? Where are the other nine?\u00a0 Only this foreigner came back to praise God.\u201d<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This clearly illustrates that 90% of the people receiving a miraculous blessing, don\u2019t recognize, appreciate, or give thanks for what they have received.\u00a0 Sadly, I would guess that is not too far off from the level of appreciation we find today.<\/h4>\n

<\/br><\/h5>\n

Although all of the twelve disciples denied Jesus to some extent as the final chapters of His life unfolded, two are brought to our attention in scripture.\u00a0 Judas in his betrayal, and Peter in his denial.\u00a0 In this case, the actions of the 20% are the negative actions, but they are the players that are about 80% culpable in the events that follow.<\/h4>\n

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\"the<\/a><\/h4>\n
<\/br><\/h5>\n

That brings me to a point where I think we need to look a little closer at how the 80\/20 (or 90\/10) rule is perceived in our society, and there are a variety of perspectives to consider.\u00a0 In business, 20% of the people reap 80% of the financial rewards, while the remaining 80% split up the rest.\u00a0 The top 20% of a conpany’s clients generate 80% of the profit.\u00a0 Also in business, 20% of the people accomplish 80% of the actual work done, though not the same 20% as are collecting the lion\u2019s share of the financial rewards.\u00a0 In church, 20% of the people serve the church for the other 80 percent who are consumers.\u00a0 (According to \u201cThe Relational Way\u201d, \u201cThese people are the best candidates for leading small groups. However, they don’t have time because they are so involved in various church activities – committees, ministries, and other church programs.\u201d)\u00a0 When asked to lead, 20% of leadership candidates will put their heart and soul into it, while 80% will do just what is necessary to get by.\u00a0 In general, 80% of mankind is destined to follow while 20% are called to lead.\u00a0 It has also been observed that for any task, 80 percent of the value is contained in 20 percent of the activity. If you concentrate on the 20 percent of the job that is worth 80 percent of the value, you will accomplish more.<\/h4>\n

<\/br><\/h5>\n

I do not see a biblical principal emerging from all of this, only a glaringly obvious affirmation that the 80\/20 and 90\/10 rules have been at work throughout human and biblical history, and that the stories of the bible are a reminder that it is human nature to do what is easy, rather than what is hard.<\/h4>\n

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Leadership is hard, no question about it, yet great leaders are required to move humanity in a positive direction, toward, rather than away from God.\u00a0 I would offer that if we can learn to better leverage what we know about the 80\/20 rule<\/span>, and refuse to accept it as our human standard, it presents us with an opportunity to raise the bar.\u00a0 Imagine if we could change the norm to 70\/30, how much more we could accomplish for good and for God.\u00a0 That would be a 10% improvement.\u00a0 Imagine the impact of a 10% improvement in giving, in participation, in attendance, in discipleship\u2026 that would be huge!<\/h4>\n
<\/br><\/h5>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

So, I will leave you with the thought that Pastor Weatherly left us with.\u00a0 If we, like 10 of twelve spies, insist on seeing ourselves as grasshoppers, we will not have the power to impact our community for the Kingdom, BUT\u2026 We do have the power because we are God\u2019s people.\u00a0 WE ARE NOT GRASSHOPPERS!<\/h4>\n
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Are you?<\/h4>\n

<\/br><\/h5>\n

Blessings and Adventure,<\/h4>\n

<\/br><\/h5>\n

Lynn \u201clynnibug\u201d Rios<\/h4>\n

<\/br><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor Guy Weatherly quoted from the book of Joshua, Chapter 13, recounting the story of twelve spies sent to collect intelligence and report back to the people after surveying the land God had promised to give them. Of the twelve, ten came back whining about how hard it would be, if at all possible, to possess this land. They compared themselves to grasshoppers, too weak and impotent to challenge the current inhabitants. Only two, Joshua and Caleb, focused on the great bounty of this land with the understanding it was already theirs because God had ordained it. That got me thinking\u2026 ten of twelve, or 83%, lacked the vision God intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,104,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-2","category-history","category-tlr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}