"Overcoming Barriers to Growth: Proven Strategies for Taking Your Church to the Next Level," Michael Fletcher (Bethany House, December, 2006)

Michael Fletcher lends his real-life experience in leading a church from 350 to 4,000 active members to a book full of practical advice on key leadership transitions.

It isn't new theory—but rather 40-year-old church growth theories that have been put into practice in congregations in the United States and around the world. In many ways the theories have repeatedly proven true as small churches struggle to grow to medium-size churches and those of medium size churches seek to become large. 

Fletcher boils the barriers down into the 100-200-member barrier and the 700-800-member barrier. These, as noted by C. Peter Wagner, who wrote the foreword for the book and who is a household name in church growth, are the two primary barriers that have been proven over time.

Fletcher's focus on barriers is further narrowed by his prescription to overcoming them: internal leadership restructuring. He posits three key ideas of church development that include: 1. how the elders relate to ministry, 2. who actually does the ministry, and 3. how decisions are made.

These three elements of church governance and action differ according to the size of the congregation, according to Fletcher. So when a church begins to grow, a leadership tension naturally emerges that dictates a change in the roles and functions of elders, staff, pastor and lay leaders.

However, Fletcher's book goes far beyond theory to offer specific advice for leaders of congregations struggling to break through a growth barrier. For small churches, Fletcher suggests three changes that must be made for a congregation to be able move beyond the 100-200 barrier: 1. The people must accept that they will not be able to know everyone in the church, 2. The people will have to become inclusive of others and unwritten rules supplanted with clear methods of communication, and 3. the pastor will have to switch from a "Shepherd Model" to a "Rancher Model."

For anyone who has taken even a cursory glance at church growth material, this will not be news. However, for lay leaders, Fletcher's book may serve as a short and sweet introduction to leadership principles that move a congregation toward growth or decline. In fact, Fletcher recommends the book to elders or other boards for study and discussion.

However, the first shift in leadership structure must take place in the mind of the pastor.

"The pastor must embrace the idea of sharing leadership and ministry with others," Fletcher writes. He acknowledges that for many pastors that is a frightening idea.

"Many pastors are fed emotionally by having all the people look solely to them," Fletcher  writes, noting that unless they change their leadership paradigm such people are destined to forever be small church pastors.

The elders in a small church have to make a significant leadership shift as well. Those who want too much control won't be able to make the transition to growth. However, if the pastor and elders can change the internal leadership structure, the church will naturally grow.

Fletcher offers practical suggestions for these changes, as well as answers to the frequently asked questions he receives regularly in church conferences: Who to hire first? What to do with an elder who won't transition? How to train new leaders?

One example is the realization leaders facing the 700/800 barrier have that things are falling through the cracks, i.e. longer meetings, phones that ring nonstop, counseling appointments that pile up, and other challenges.

According to Fletcher, the solution is for ministers to stop trying to be managers and become equippers instead. "Releasing more people into ministry will keep the church in its pattern of growth," Fletcher writes.

Fletcher also recommends churches review their vision regularly and set some reasonable, measurable goals, to be checked at least semiannually.

His advice is simple—and at points overly simplistic. Entire books, scores of them in fact, have been written on some of the topics Fletcher covers in a hefty paragraph or two. How to see the vision for your church? How to pick leaders? Fletcher clearly gives the short answer to these sorts of questions. He writes of them as though they were tangential to his main point about restructuring leadership. To the latter he devotes several chapters.

For small and medium-sized congregations that are sensing some tensions, Fletcher's book will be a welcome diagnosis and remedy to overcoming the barriers to growth. For consultants, too, the practical diagnosis and step-by-step remedy for inclining leaders toward growth is a welcome update and summary in church growth theory.