Ministries across the country are experiencing growth. In fact, church growth expert John N. Vaughan reported that a new megachurch is born in the United States every two or three weeks (Church Growth Today, www.megachurches.net). Although that kind of growth is exciting, it also presents a unique set of challenges that most have not faced in the past.
Will these ministries just be a blip in the continuum of time? Will they make a big impact today but fade in their ability to maintain the pace of growth, or will they build the types of ministries that will allow sustainable growth for years to come?
The irony of ministries or businesses that experience rapid growth after their launch is the strengths that led to initial successes may actually be detrimental to ongoing growth in the long run. In other words, it often takes a different set of talents and systems to maintain growth for the long haul. The lesson businesses have learned is that as an organization you have to grow ahead of growth to maximize expansion efforts and ensure continued success and profitability.
Dave Ferrari, the founder of Argus Management Corporation, which specializes in turning around failing businesses, explained what leads to most business failures:
"Ninety-five percent of the failures are due to internal problems. I can't tell you how many companies I've been to that have the fast-growing-company plaque on the wall and are about to go under. They don't have the systems and the people in place. Accounting is lagging. Purchasing is not done in the most efficient manner. Inventory gets out of control. All of a sudden, all these mistakes compound, and the least little burp kills them." (Stephanie L. Gruner, "Death by Unnatural Causes" available from Inc.com)
You've probably seen examples of this in ministry organizations as well. Everything is going strong for a time -- people are meeting Jesus, lives are being transformed, and then one of two things happens. Either the ministry plateaus and paralysis sets in, or, in the worst-case scenario, the ministry implodes. What went wrong?
One of the keys to sustaining growth is growing ahead of growth. It's about recognizing what God has called your ministry to accomplish and taking steps to lay the foundation for future exponential growth.
Noah demonstrated it. He acted on God's calling. When warned about the coming rains, he didn't wait for the first drop of water. Instead, he took action "when warned about things not yet seen" (Hebrews 11:7). Noah built the ark before it rained.
That's the lesson for today's growing ministries. You can't wait for growth to happen and then take action. If you know God's vision for your ministry, you have to act on it today. You have to grow ahead of growth. You have to build the ark before it rains. Because when it rains and you haven't started building, it's too late.
In his book, Pour Your Heart Into It, Starbucks Coffee chairman Howard Schultz writes about the early years of Starbucks. For three years in a row during the late 1980s, Starbucks lost money. They lost $330,000 in 1987, $764,000 the following year and $1.2 million in 1989.
The board of directors was obviously concerned with the losses and the direction of the company, but Schultz understood the strategy that was necessary to fulfill the dream of becoming a nationwide coffee retailer. He told the board:
"Look, we're going to keep losing money until we can do three things. We have to attract a management team well beyond our expansion needs. We have to build a world-class roasting facility. And we need a computer information system sophisticated enough to keep track of sales in hundreds and hundreds of stores."
Today, Starbucks has more than 47,000 employees worldwide, and its net sales for the most recent fiscal year exceeded $2 billion. Schultz helped Starbucks grow ahead of growth, and it paid off.
Key Growth Areas for Ministries
So how does this principle translate into your ministry? There are four key areas for ministries to address in order to sustain growth. These include leadership, infrastructure, technology and systems.
Leadership. This includes not only the number of leaders, but more importantly the capacity of the leadership. And in ministries, it includes both paid and volunteer team members. You need leaders who not only share the same passion as the people who launched the ministry, but you need leaders who have the capacity to build teams and systems to take the ministry to the next level. You need people to help make the shift from a purely entrepreneurial organization to a professionally managed organization that retains the same commitment to the ministry's mission, vision and values.
Ideally, you'll find people who have experienced not only where your ministry is today, but also where your organization needs to be in the next phases of growth. Sometimes that experience will come from people familiar with other larger ministries. Other times that will mean tapping leaders who have experience in the marketplace and are ready to answer God's call to ministry as both paid and unpaid servants. It is easier to take on the next mountain if you have someone on your team who has scaled it before.
Leadership also requires an investment. At Granger Community Church (GCC), we've always placed a high value on getting our people the best available training. That includes bringing top-notch training opportunities to our campus and also sending our leaders throughout the country to learn more about what it's going to take to reach the next level of success. You can read Rick Warren's book, but there's a far greater value in visiting Saddleback Church and hearing, seeing, and experiencing his Purpose-Driven ministry philosophy in action. If you want to experience success, learn from those who are already successful.
Infrastructure. When you start to generate momentum in ministry, it's amazing how quickly your infrastructure creates barriers to continued growth. At various times in the life of our church, growth has been slowed momentarily due to a lack of seating in our auditorium, lack of parking spaces, lack of additional entrances to our campus, and lack of auxiliary space for children's ministries. At any given time, one of those critical areas can stifle our ability to reach more people.
With this in mind, we are continually planning for future expansions. We know we have a responsibility to make investments in our campus development today to allow for continued ministry growth tomorrow. That's why we are in the initial stages of our fourth building campaign in the last nine years.
Do we need the additional land today? No. Do we need the additional seating and parking capacity today? No. Do we need the additional children's space today? The answer is still "no." However, we can look at our history and current trends and know that in the next 12 to 18 months we will be at a plateau if we don't make investments now. Just as Starbucks unleashed its ability to expand with the addition of a world-class roasting facility, there are infrastructure investments your ministry needs to plan and build in order to continue growing.
Technology. It takes 21st century technology to reach a 21st century culture. In our case, that includes having technology that allows us to communicate with the weekend crowd in our auditorium with state-of-the-art sound systems and media capabilities. It means developing and maintaining a Web site to inform, minister to, and resource people both inside and outside of our ministry. It also means equipping staff and volunteers with the appropriate technology to effectively serve.
If you haven't noticed, the rest of the world is wired with laptops, Palm Pilots and cell phones. Business is transacted 24/7 through the Internet. Students carry on conversations with five or six friends at a time using instant messaging. Ministries can't afford to continue operating with 486 computers, a calculator, and an answering machine. Technology, particularly through the Internet, is going to be the vehicle that helps us introduce the lost to Jesus. Is your ministry wired to reach the world?
Systems. Finally, your organization needs to grow in the area of systems. These include internal systems to handle such things as purchasing, financial controls, personnel functions, communications and resource scheduling. In our ministry, it also includes systems for connecting people into the membership of the church, into community and into a ministry.
This is one of those areas that can make or break an organization. The entrepreneurs in the crowd will flee from systems as much as possible because they don't want to create policies and procedures that end up snuffing out the innovation and energy that helped launch the ministry. As an organization grows, however, it is necessary to build systems in order to release, or empower, your people.
Without policies and procedures, all decisions tend to rise to the top of the organization. On the other hand, with guidelines that have been established and filtered through the organization's mission statement and core values, decisions can be handled on the front line. This frees the people actually doing the ministry to be innovative in their approach to decisions and activities and assures everyone that the ministry's integrity will not be compromised.
How big is your vision? Is it a God-sized vision? If so, it will require a God-sized growth plan. As you're developing strategic plans for your ministry's future, make sure you include investments in leadership, infrastructure, technology and systems. Don't let your success outpace the ability of your ministry to respond. Grow ahead of growth. Build the ark before it rains.
Tony Morgan, who transitioned from a career in local government administration to church leadership, is the Pastor of Administrative Services at Granger Community Church near South Bend, Ind. In addition to his role at Granger, Tony has helped resource other churches through training and consulting experiences and is the "cheerleader" for WiredChurches.com, Granger's ministry to church leaders. You may contact him at tmorgan@gccwired.com.
