GROWING

I had the grand privilege once again of meeting with two church staffs in Milwaukee today in the second installment of the Life Development Network, helping churches who want to thrive instead of merely survive. It was a great day with two great pastors and two tremendous teams.

It’s all about team. In fact, growing churches do ministry in teams. Teams are replacing autocratic and Lone Ranger style leadership.

Growing churches expect every leader to develop personal mastery and take personal responsibility for becoming effective in their ministry. In the old system the boss told you what you needed to know to grow. Today, YOU have to figure out what to do to become good. Everybody on our KFA team is an expert of sorts at what they do. If I want to know about certain things, I’m going to go to certain people on our team for certain answers because they know better than I do.

Growing churches understand and manage their church culture. Within every church or organization there exists a specific, discernable culture. You know it moments after you walk in. Their set of norms, values and behaviors all contribute to the understanding of how things get done in that setting. Culture refers to "the way we do things around here." The specific culture of your church may not be written down, but it gets expressed in everything that happens - what you call things - where you advertise - how you communicate - where you spend your time and money - what gets taught - how members interact -- all communicate organizational culture. Ever hear someone say, “That’s NOT the way we do things here?” That’s culture, too.

We can keep the vision God has given us alive and fresh. We can make a pact to avoid personal, spiritual decay. Generally, the reason a church or organization moves into the ‘aging stage’ is because leadership gets there first. We can’t let that happen. We have to keep growing so our churches can grow. We can keep the mission of Jesus alive in our own hearts. We can avoid a status quo mentality and keep pressing forward. We can remember who God called us to reach.

And we can be a growing church.

And be blessed.