Growth creates problems.
Most leaders say they want their church or organization to grow.
Then growth happens.
And suddenly there are problems.
People don’t know everyone anymore. Communication gets harder. The pastor or leader can’t be everywhere, know everything, or give everyone the same amount of time they once could.
Systems that worked beautifully for 100 people start breaking at 300. What worked at 500 may become completely inadequate at 1,000.
Growth has a way of exposing holes.
And creating tension.
That doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong. Sometimes it means something is growing.
A few realities I’ve observed in growing churches and organizations:
Not everyone will know everything – or everyone.
There was a time when information traveled naturally. Everybody knew what was happening because everybody talked to everybody.
Growth changes that.
Communication has to become more intentional. You have to repeat yourself more than you think you should. And even then, someone will say, “I never heard about that.”
The leader’s time gets stretched.
This may be one of the hardest adjustments.
As an organization grows, the leader becomes less personally accessible. That doesn’t mean the leader should become distant or uncaring. It means the leader has to increasingly invest through other leaders.
If everything still requires the senior leader’s involvement, growth will eventually stop at the leader’s capacity.
Growth stretches every system you have.
Scheduling. Communication. Follow-up. Facilities. Staffing. Decision-making.
Growth discovers weaknesses you didn’t know existed.
I’ve often said you usually don’t know what systems are inadequate until you actually need them.
By the way, growth creates an incredible opportunity for good leaders.
And managers. Yea, that’s right – managers are needed too! Especially in growing organizations.
Growing organizations desperately need people who think in systems.
They need managers who aren’t intimidated by growth – people who see chaos and start building processes, who recognize recurring problems and develop solutions, and who can bring order without killing momentum.
Those people are often under appreciated in visionary organizations. They shouldn’t be.
Vision may help create growth. Good leadership and good systems help steward it.
So, when growth starts creating problems, don’t immediately assume the growth is the problem.
Some problems need to be fixed.
Others are simply telling you – What got you here won’t be enough to take you where you’re going next.
