11 June 2008
More Thoughts on Church Growth
Ok, I found the analogy and the brain behind it.
Larry Osborne is the author of a book called, “The Unity Factor.” In it he says that, as a church goes along the continuum of size it goes from a decathlete (the lead pastor)—where the pastor does ten events (preaching, teaching, youth, returning emails, cutting the grass, hospitals, weddings, etc.).
Next it moves to a golfing foursome. A couple of buddies are with the lead guy now and their meetings are informal—more like buddies hanging out—no formal notes, accountability is easy…
Then it becomes like a basketball game and the lead guy sets up all the plays. Every time down the court, he’s touching the ball “You go here, you go there, you do this…”).
Well then it becomes like a football game. In a football game you have different coaches. Offence, defense, special teams, general manager. The special teams actually have teams within teams (kink off return team, punt return team, field goal) that don’t even practice together. They are on the field at different times with slightly different aspects to their uniforms. The kicker gets one little bar and the linemen don’t even take him seriously, right?
I mean, just really different specializations, and at this time it’s not a generalist. You don’t come to the time to punt and hear everyone taking a vote, “Hey, who wants to punt this time?”
No way, you have a punter and that’s all he does!
It’s not, “Ok, we’re going to go on offence now, who wants to be quarterback?”
Again, not a chance. Everyone knows who the QB is and he runs the offence.
And the larger the church becomes the more it moves form decathlete to golfing foursome to basketball to football team. And, within that, if you are a lead guy who likes to do everything, your church won’t get over 80 people. If you love golf you might get to 120 or maybe even 200–-basketball, maybe 300 – 500. After 800, you’re playing football, period. Ns you had better accept the complexity of a football team.
Now, easy to say, right?
But what happens when people who came in when it was a golfing foursome don’t want to see things change?
Well, that’s another discussion we’ll have to save for tomorrow.
4 Comments currently posted.
Lance Ratliff says:
Mike Spinelli says:
I want to join that discussion as I pastor a small church where I am the decathlete, but want to operate more like a team.
Dave Ingland says:
Rob, as you stated this is definitely a great analogy! I’ve been involved in ministry in the past where there was a transition from being the basketball game to the football game with mixed results. I think the transition actually happened too soon.
For me, the internal struggle I may face in thee future is that as the church moves from being more like a basketball game to a football game it begins to take on a corporate environment. There is a big disconnect with leadership as more and more lay leaders are empowered and given authority. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I truly hope that our dream an vision of empowering others to accept the call from God to plant new works throughout our community and throughout the world will prevail and at our new church plant we will never be faced with the decision to be more like a football game.
It is my prayer that I never stand in the way of God’s vision for Revolution Church Sacramento or the work He will do in the community, but there is just a wonderful sense of being genuine and relevant when allowed to be in a missional community that is poised to be mobilized at a moment’s notice because we are small enough to do so.
Rob says:
Dave,
It’s true, that moving from one phase to another is not without its costs. There seems to be a trade off. We had to adjust because people kept coming and the size dictated the need. However, there are AWESOME churches called to be lean and (well, not mean) ready for action of a differnt sort. Not better. Not worse. Just uniquely called.
Keep it going, bro!
Rob
I could not agree more.