Carey Nieuwhof, the founding and teaching pastor of Connexus Church north of Toronto Canada, led an Affinity Group (basically a breakout group with a lot of discussion) at ReThink Leadership on how can your church break the 200 person threshold. Here are my notes from that session.
90% of Churches can’t get past 200
The reasons churches don’t grow are surprising. And for the most part they aren’t spiritual.
You need to structure bigger to grow bigger.
Most churches behave like a mom and pop operation. You are mom and you are pop. You do everything.
3 biggest problems he had to overcome
- Pastoral care. As your church grows you are becoming overly busy and you can’t do all the pastoral care anymore. You will break down trying to do it all. Small Groups is a great remedy. 98% of pastoral care is having someone who cares. It doesn’t have to be the pastor. You need to structure care into the DNA of church. Again, small groups is a great way to scale pastoral care.
- Staff that do everything vs. staff that leads leaders. You know a staff can lead when they go on vacation things run better. You need a staff that lead not a staff that do
- People pleasing.