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How to help your church grow through clarity of vision and unity of leadership

by: Dr. John Jackson, president of VisionQuest Ministries

Athletes often describe hitting a "wall" of performance. It is a barrier where no apparent amount of effort appears able to push through the pain of the moment. Athletes who hit such a barrier either surrender to the lid or they devise new understandings of the mind and disciplines of the body to help break through the barriers of their efforts.

Churches and church leaders face similar barriers. Often, it is a barrier that exists because of repeated patterns of behavior. Church consultant Lyle Schaller calls this behavior, "path dependency." He writes in his book, "The Very Large Church," that once people/institutions travel down a certain path, it is difficult to choose a new road.

Having gotten what we’ve always gotten, we continue to do what we have always done. How many times have we constrained ourselves to destructive patterns in the church that prevent our growth? God wants our churches to grow—to reach new people for him and to impact our culture for Christ!

Barriers to your ministry vision do exist! Some of them you know about, others are perceptible, but others hide under the surface and threaten to damage your ministry leadership. A "growth barrier" is a set of qualitative factors that create a ceiling to quantitative progress. In this respect, a number of observable barriers relate to various size plateaus. Schaller has suggested the following size groupings as a way to categorize church ministries:

Small -100
Midsize 101-350
Large 351-750
Very Large 750-1800
Megachurch 1801+

Of these, the 200 barrier is the most notable in that 85 percent of churches in North America stay below it. The dynamics that relate to this barrier are mostly predicable, and, from the leadership perspective, mark the quantitative divide between small churches and large churches.

Each size has a different DNA and size constraint. In my observation, there are several fundamentals that will help you and your church break through ministry growth barriers. Let’s look at two:

Growing churches have a heart for reaching people for Jesus Christ. If your vision is to care for the contented, then you will not produce passion in your people to reach those outside the boundaries of the church family. Walt Kallestad's book entitled, "Turn Your Church Inside Out" is probably the easiest reading and clearest reference that I have read in years on this topic. Clarity of vision must answer the question, "Who does my church exist for?"

One of the exciting dynamics of having a clear vision is recognizing the need to be present in the community. Rather than waiting for the community to show up on the church’s doorstep, churches that break growth barriers practice what some call, "Presence Evangelism;" being present in the normal network of society, being present in the ministry to physical needs of people, and being present in the spiritual battle for people’s souls.

"Churches that are effective reaching people for Christ see the needs of the unchurched, establish ministries that allow the church to be present in the community, and have a process by which they are able to draw these unchurched people into the safety of Christ and a local church," Gary McIntosh and Glen Martin wrote in their book, "Finding Them, Keeping Them."

Leaders of growing churches know who they are, why they are and where they are. They have learned to operate out of their strengths and to mitigate against their weaknesses. They know what their key role is and how to parlay that role into motivated ministry. Finally, leaders in growing churches know where they are going and where they are now. Leaders in growing churches build bridges to the future while they are walking there.

Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Community Church in the San Diego area, has written a great book entitled "The Unity Factor." While it is a small book (like Kallestad's), it has a powerful message: "Get the key influencers in your church to share a common vision. Sacrifice today for the promise of tomorrow in these people’s lives." Without leadership unity, there will be no lasting ministry growth that breaks through barriers.

Don Nelson, a committed leader in a local church said congregations should not underestimate the importance of leadership unity.

"At our church, my wife and I are giving time we don't have and tons of money because it's important. Do you think we are going to let sick people kill that work and investment? Heavens no! It's costing us way too much!

"For every sick, agenda laden, divisive, contentious person in our church we aren't willing to confront (out of fear we say ‘oh that's just the way they are,’ or ‘I don't think God wants us to treat people like that’), there are 10, 20, 100, 1,000 people out there to be won to Christ that won't be because they sniff out the contentiousness and will go somewhere else.

"Do we want to stand before God and say we did the math wrong, or that we didn't have the guts to make way for 100s more to come to Christ by not tackling these problems decisively?"

Where are you and your church with these two fundamentals? Is the vision clear? Has God written the vision on your heart? How about unity of leadership? Is the leadership team in your ministry united in passion, purpose, and process?

God wants you to break through growth barriers. Take the steps necessary to see those growth barriers removed from your local church ministry today!

Dr. John Jackson is the president of VisionQuest Ministries and the founding and senior pastor of Carson Valley Christian Center. Dr. Jackson has written the books, "PastorPreneur," and "High Impact Church Planting." You may learn more about breaking growth barriers and creative approaches to church ministry by visiting the VisionQuest Ministries Website at www.vqresources.com.

This article is copyrighted to Dr. John Jackson, © 2004, and was reprinted on www.ChurchCentral.com, with his permission.