How do you structure a church so it just keeps on growing and does not plateau?
I believe there are 10 essentials you must focus on as you structure your church.
1. You must develop an unshakable conviction about growth. First and foremost,
you need to settle on the idea that God wants his church to grow.
How do you structure a church so it just keeps on growing and does not plateau?
I believe there are 10 essentials you must focus on as you structure your church.
1. You must develop an unshakable conviction about growth. First and foremost,
you need to settle on the idea that God wants his church to grow.
And he does not want it to stop growing!
You do not ever need to apologize for wanting your church to grow. God wants
his church to grow; it is his will and command. The reason churches must grow
is because people are going to hell without Jesus. As long as there is one person
within driving distance of your church who does not know Jesus Christ, you must
keep growing.
2. You must change the primary role of the pastor from minister to leader.
You can grow a church to 300 with pastoral skills or ministry skills, but for
it to grow beyond 300 will require leadership skills. As a leader, you must
learn to communicate your vision in very personal and practical ways. You also
must learn to motivate your church through your messages and understand that
it is easier to motivate a group than to motivate individuals.
A leader also equips others for ministry. Otherwise, you will burn out and
the church will not grow. An expanding ministry also demands you learn how to
raise money. Those who write the agenda must underwrite the agenda. And you
must learn to manage your time. Effective leaders know where their time goes.
3. You must organize around the gifts of your people. The team God gives you
will show you how to structure. Organizing around the gifts of your people will
allow the church to focus on ministry, not maintenance. A gifts-based ministry
encourages teamwork. It also makes better use of the talent around you – and
why do you think God brought this talent into your church?
Building structure on the gifts and talents in the church promotes creativity
and allows for spontaneous growth. Ministries bubble up, rather than waiting
on a meeting to dissect every possibility. Decision-making becomes more efficient
while the structure grows more stable.
4. You must budget according to your purposes and priorities. The budget of
the church shows its priorities and direction. I would suggest you take the
budget items and ask of each item, “Which purpose does this fit under?”
This will help your people visualize what you are trying to do and what you
are doing with Gods money.
5. You must add staff on purpose. Build your staff by first adding generalists
and, then, specialists. First, you want to add people who can do lots of things
because you are only going to have one. Then, as you go down the road, you can
add more and more specialists.
When do you want to add staff? As soon as you can – immediately –
as quickly as you can. You want to build as many volunteers as quickly as you
can and also add staff as quickly as you can. Anytime you add a staff member,
that is a faith step and allows the church to grow.
6. You must offer multiple services. To expand the structure, you will have
to multiply; and to multiply, you have to offer multiple services. Why? Because
more hooks in the water mean you can catch more fish.
At what point should you add a new service? I would say when you could have
at least 75-100 people in that service. If you are trying to reach new people,
you have to have a large enough crowd so that when they walk in, they do not
feel like everybody is looking at them.
7. You must create affinity groups to enhance community. The more affinity
groups you have, the more ways you have to connect with people. You want to
avoid your church becoming a single-cell anemia; so, deliberately structure
your church so it will not become one big group that does not reach out to other
people.
8. You must intentionally break through attendance barriers with big days.
Crowds attract crowds! People like to be around crowds. When you have big, special
days – maybe Easter or a Friend Day – there is something about seeing
an extra 100 people (or 1,000) that expands your congregations vision.
They see what the church can be, and they see what it can look like. Special
days help a church see itself bigger and growing and vibrant.
9. You must add surplus seating space and parking. When it comes to building
a facility, most churches build too little and too soon. And then, the shoe
begins to tell the foot how big it can get! You want to build as big as you
can, which means having more than enough seating and more than enough parking.
Sometimes, that means you will have to wait to build until you can build big
enough. Do not limit yourself by building too early.
10. You must continually evaluate your progress. Take a regular and honest
look at what is going on in your church – and where your church is going.
If you try to study everything, you will end up with the paralysis of analysis,
so decide to track three or four significant numbers, such as attendance or
small groups.
Then, compare the numbers of where you are now with where you have come from
and where you want to be. Do not compare yourself with a church down the road.
That will not help evaluate the health of your own church.
Finally, decide on a standard for measuring the health of your church, and
shoot for it. The process is constant; you may hit the mark you have set today,
but tomorrow is a new day. Continually evaluate your progress and make adjustments
to grow healthy while growing larger.