How do you structure a church so it just keeps on growing and doesn’t plateau? I believe there are 10 essentials to 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 doesn’t want it to stop growing. You don’t ever need to apologize for wanting your church to grow. God wants His church to grow; it’s His will and His command. The reason churches must grow is because people are going to hell without Jesus Christ. As long as there is one person within driving distance of your church who does not know Christ, you must keep growing.
2. You should 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 personal, practical ways. A leader also equips others for ministry. Otherwise, you’ll burn out and the church won’t grow. An expanding ministry also demands you learn how to raise money and manage your time. Effective leaders know where their time goes.
3. You must organize around the gifts of your people to allow the church to focus on ministry, not maintenance. A gifts-based ministry encourages teamwork and makes better use of the talent around you. Building your structure on the gifts within the church promotes creativity and allows for spontaneous growth. Ministries bubble up, rather than waiting on a board meeting to dissect every possibility. And decision-making becomes efficient while the structure grows more stable.
4. You must budget according to your purposes and priorities. Obviously the budget of the church shows the priorities and the direction of the church. I’d suggest you ask of each budget item, “Which purpose does this fit under?” This will help your people visualize what you’re trying to do, and what you’re doing with God’s 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’re 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. Anytime you add a staff member, the faith step allows the church to grow to the next level.
6. You must offer multiple services. Obviously to expand the structure, you will have to multiply and 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’re trying to reach new people, you have to have a large enough crowd so that when they walk in they don’t feel like everybody’s looking at them — the new people who just walked in.
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 structure your church so it won’t become one big group that doesn’t reach out to other people.
8. You must intentionally break through attendance barriers with big days. Crowds attract crowds. When you have special days, there’s something about seeing an extra 100 or 1,000 people that expands your congregation’s vision. They see what the church can be, helping them to see the church as growing and vibrant.
9. You must add surplus seating space and parking. When it comes to building a facility, most churches build too little 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, and sometimes you must wait until you can build big enough. Don’t 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. If you try to study everything you’ll end up with the paralysis of analysis, so decide to track three or four significant numbers, such as attendance of small groups. Then compare the numbers of where you are now with where you’ve come from and where you want to be. Don’t compare yourself with a church down the road. Frankly, that won’t 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’ve set today, but tomorrow is a new day. Continually evaluate your progress and make necessary adjustments to grow healthy while growing larger.
Rick Warren is pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of the award-winning “The Purpose-Driven Church” and “The Purpose-Driven Life.”
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