You Have to Grow In Order to Grow

For over a year I've felt that Connections has been between the proverbial “rock and a hard place.”

We started meeting in a large space, in a growing part of our city, so we would be positioned to be a growing church.  And we did grow.  From nothing, to a stable church that can see as many as 200 in worship, and with more than half of those people in a Connection Group or Ministry Team.
That's awesome!

This makes us what most (more than 80%) churches are: "relational" congregations.
Basically, most everyone knows everyone like one big extended family.

Statistically most new churches are less than 100 people after 4 years.
So we think God brought us this far for a reason: A bigger impact on a growing city.

We want to get to the next stage: 200-400 in worship every week. 
Which leads to the "rock and hard place."

If we had more growth we'd have more resources to hire staff to do more work to structure our church for growth.  But, if we don't have staff to get us prepared for growth, how will we grow and gather more resources?

So how do you we grow and get more resources without some staff leading the charge?

My answer:
We'll have to grow in order to grow.
We'll do what we are already doing, and work to do it better.
We'll pray for more givers and more growth.
And we'll pray that the the right leadership grows from within our congregation, or to come to our congregation.

What still amazes me is that Connections is totally driven by volunteers.
Our people are truly being the church!

But I believe that with the right leadership in place through staffing and volunteers, we can better equip our people for ministry and grow this church for God's glory and the blessing of our city.