A few of us from our team at Gateway Austin had a chance to participate at The Art of Leadership Live with Carey Nieuwhof and 250 other pastors. It was a powerful time and insightful time If you aren’t learning from Carey through his podcast or website, I highly recommend him to you!
Carey Nieuwhof’s mission is to help pastors reverse the decline in the church.
A lot of insights from this come from the research and books by Warren Bird.
Decline is depressing, and growth is overwhelming.
Growing Fast + Needing to Scale
Churches that reach people structure bigger to grow bigger.
“I assume you are praying and reading the Scriptures. There are others in the Church to go to for discipleship and evangelism.”
The Scriptures include structure especially in moments of growth and when the leaders are overwhelmed. See Exodus 18 and Acts 6 as these
address structural issues.
85% of churches never break the 200 people in Sunday attendance barrier.
Most church plants do not make it to 5 years.
2% of churches never break the 1000 people in Sunday attendance barrier.
Do you run your church like a Mom and Pop Shop or a supermarket?
Most churches function like a Mom and Pop corner store. In these churches, the pastors do everything. In these churches, the pastors
are actually more of a pastor-centric church than a megachurch would be (even if they are featured in the videos and social media).
The 200 Barrier: Pastoral Care
Hospital visits, counseling, and weddings can become overwhelming.
“The church didn’t do anything” is often code for “the pastor didn’t do what I wanted or thought I needed.”
98% of pastoral care is having someone who cares. It does not have to be the pastor!
The pastor’s job is to raise up the people for the work of ministry (Eph. 4).
When you build teams where care is built in, then this will scale and you will have a caring culture.
The 400 Barrier: Hiring Doers, Not Leaders
We hire doers to make our problems go away, but this is short-sighted.
The best way to spot new leaders is to find people who are already leading something.
In legacy churches people in leadership roles aren’t actually leaders.
They are actually loyalists.
We need leaders, not just people who are loyal.
You can tell a leader by seeing if others are following them.
Many can switch to missional beyond just being loyal as people are
being reached and the church begins growing.
The 600 Barrier: Micromanaging Boards
The church is still small enough for the board to be involved in alot of the decisions.
A board is incapable of managing any complex organization. They can lead it, but they cannot manage it.
A healthy way to go:
Staff led, Elder guided, and People gifted
The elders are wise counsel to the senior pastor.
The people get to do the work of the ministry.
The staff equip the people.
The 800 Barrier: Bottleneck Decision Making
A leader who needs to know everything won’t grow anything.
Typically, the senior pastor and/or the executive team becomes the barrier at this point.
Is it on mission?
Is it on strategy?
Is it within the budget?
If “yes” to all 3 questions then no permission needed.
Then you don’t need to be involved!
Are you the kind of leader who can lead a church that scales?
Some of us prefer to be busy so much so that when we are constantly putting out fires it could be we are serial arsonists.
The 1000 Barrier: Complexity
Complexity does not scale. Simplicity does scale.
The problem with program-based churches is that what people become involved in becomes the mission.
The best way to get them on mission is to ensure everything you do is mission-centered.
Churches that reach people structure bigger to grow bigger.
