Two years ago we went from having one child to two. It has been quite the adjustment. Just when you thought you were about done with diapers, bottles, and being up all night…here it goes again. What is more, coordinating two kids is entirely different than just managing one child. It takes a lot more communication, a lot more intentionality and a lot more work to pull it off. The same is true with churches. The more people you have the more coordination and communication it takes to hold it all together. If you aren’t used to it and have grown from being a smaller group or a smaller church into a larger one the change can be harder. You know what worked to get you where you are at and so our guy tells us to keep doing all those things that used to work. When the church was small you could be more pastoral with less people. With more people comes a great need for more people to be pastoral rather than just one central figure or group of elders.
One person who has written about his own struggles with this is Ben Lamb. I appreciate Ben’s openness and honesty in the following post as he highlights the adjustments he has had to make and continue to make in order to address the challenges of growth. And we are not just talking about changes in strategy…we are talking about personal adjustments as well. Have a read of Ben’s post The Not So Fun Side of Gracepoint Growing.
