nickblevins.com

In ministry it’s important to plan for growth to allow growth. In this post I’ll share some thoughts and questions about how we can ensure our Programming allows for growth.

Many churches are defined by their programming. It’s easy to allow programs to define the church rather than the mission, vision and strategy. As programs dominate the church it’s harder to realize when they are actually becoming barriers to growth or when something within the program is becoming a barrier. Here are some things to think about when evaluating your programming to see if it’s a barrier to growth.

• Does every program fit with your mission and vision? It’s easy to make almost any program sound like it lines up with the mission and vision so be watch out for where you’re making excuses.
• Does every program fit with your strategy? This narrows it down even more. Where does this fit in your strategy? Every program takes away resources from the other programs.
• Are there any programs where you are  experiencing huge challenges? Challenge doesn’t necessarily mean you should give it up but it may mean it’s not a good fit at the moment.
• Are there programs you wish you didn’t have to attend? If you don’t want to attend others may not either.
• Are all of your programs staffed (from a volunteer perspective) at least 70% of what is needed? If not, you may be spread too thin. 100% is wishful thinking, but 85-90% is great.
• Is each program leading people to take another step in involvement or growth? Programming should lead people somewhere, not collect them.
• Are there steps in getting involved that are too huge? A large gap could mean you’re losing people at some point in the process and they could eventually fall away all together. Be mindful of where you’re asking people to take a really big step. For instance, the step from attending a service to plugging into a small group in some one’s house is HUGE. Something in between is good.

How is your programming helping or hurting growth?

In ministry it’s important to plan for growth to allow growth. In this post I’ll share some thoughts and questions about how we can ensure our Systems allows for growth.

Andy Stanley says that systems create behaviors. Systems are the collection of processes that help lead to a desired result. In this context, talking about allowing for growth in ministry, systems are important because they can create behaviors that fuel growth or impede it. Here are some things to think about when evaluating how strong your systems are.

• Are you aware of what your main systems are? Nelson Searcy has a free e-book on what he thinks are the 8 key systems in every church. That’s a good place to start.
• How strong are your systems within children and student ministries? That includes systems for volunteering, programming, communication with volunteers and parents, curriculum development and implementation, partnering with parents, and leadership development? It’s a lot, I know. Email me if you want help with where to start.
• Are your systems documented? If not, they’re hard to delegate which means it will be hard for anything to grow beyond the ability of the people who currently make it happen.
• Are your systems consistent? You will need slightly different systems from ministry to ministry but if they’re too inconsistent, especially within a ministry, it will be confusing and impede growth.
• Where are some behaviors happening that you applaud? You probably have a good system there, helping produce the behaviors you want. Find out what’s good about it and reproduce it elsewhere.
• Where are some behaviors happening that you would like to change? This is a sign that a system is bad in that area. Figure out what needs to change to get the desired result.
• Do your systems empower leaders or simply delegate tasks? If they empower leaders then you’re set for growth. If they simply delegate tasks then they will impede growth as they won’t be attractive to leaders.

Check out Tony Morgan’s 8 Characteristics of Healthy Systems for Churches for more help in this area.

How are your systems fueling or impeding growth?

In ministry it’s important to plan for growth to allow growth. In this post I’ll share some thoughts and questions about how we can ensure our Structure allows for growth.

Every church and every ministry within a church has some type of structure. Structure can limit growth or enable it. What is the structure of your staff team or ministry volunteer team? Here are some things to think about when evaluating how strong your structure is. This will relate to staffing and volunteer structures.

• Is anyone responsible for directly leading more than 5-6 staff? That’s not a magic number, but if someone is, they may be limiting growth because of how much has to go through them unless they don’t have many other responsibilities.
• Is a volunteer responsible for directly leading more than 15-20 volunteers? Even 15 is high unless the volunteer leader is giving over 5 hours/week to the role. If anyone has to lead too many people, none of them are cared for well.
• Can you easily describe your staff structure or would staff even have a hard time figuring out how it works? If it’s complex, it is a growth barrier. The larger the organization the more complex it can become.
• Do you have an organizational chart? Not just for staff, but for each ministry? If not, you might be like Moses. An org chart clearly defines your structure and lets volunteers see opportunities where they could step up and lead.
• Is it clear who is responsible for everything the church does? If everyone owns it, nobody does.
• Do you develop volunteer structures that would work as staff structures? Part of thinking big is planning for what would happen if some of those key volunteer roles were staff roles because they needed more hours to get it done.
• Does information flow throughout the organization well? Ask people at the “bottom” rungs for an honest assessment.
• Does seniority drive your structure? If so, you might not have the best talent and competency in key positions.
• Does your strategy drive your structure or are they misaligned? You should have staff and volunteers in positions that line up with your strategy.

What would you add?

Our church meets in a 24/7 leased office space in the middle of a business park. Around lunch time there’s a guy who pulls up in a truck with his portable hot dog stand and he sells hot dogs and other lunch items to people who work around here. His sign reads “International Hot Dog Stand” or something like that. It’s a trailer, hooked to a truck, that probably breaks down often but it’s….International. Unless he drives that bad boy to Canada it’s hardly International. I don’t think the hot dogs are what’s international either. He’s thinking big.

In ministry it’s important to think big as well, and plan for growth if we want to allow growth. That’s true in all organizations but everything in church world will naturally fight to keep us small. However, our our mission is to make disciples of all nations. No limit there. If we don’t plan for growth before the growth occurs, it may not happen because of the barriers we leave in place. God is responsible for the growth and we shouldn’t get in the way.

When we don’t plan for growth we put up barriers all over the place. In the next few posts I’ll share some questions that can help us figure out how well we’re planning for growth or if we’re putting up barriers. The focus will be on our structure, our systems and our programming. All of that comes after we have a solid mission, vision and strategy but the barriers show up more in structure, systems and programming.