Yesterday I shared “The Rule of Eight” and how it impacts how many people to include in decision-making meetings. Today I’d like to talk about the implications for growing churches.
For churches, there are two transition points when “The Rule of Eight” comes into play. Here’s the good news for you–every growing church faces these transition points. Some of you are there today. Others may face these in the future. I just wanted to confirm that these transitions are normal and to be expected.
Transition One: Inviting the Entire Team to the Decision Meetings
Churches typically hit this transition point when they reach several hundred people in attendance. Until this point, every staff member is typically invited to the weekly decision meeting. It wouldn’t be unusual to see the senior pastor, worship pastor, youth pastor, children’s director at this meeting along with all the support staff including assistants, bookkeepers, facilities team, etc.
This group may be talking about ministry strategy, but they’re also covering all the logistics and execution of details. And that’s the challenge.
When this group gets larger than eight people, the focus naturally shifts to putting out fires and executing details.
The ministry strategy conversations get squeezed out.
The transition every growing church faces is this: you have to begin only inviting ministry leaders to this team meeting. That means the support staff will not be participating in this particular gathering. Will they be in other gatherings to discuss logistics and execution? Of course. But for communications and decision-making to improve as the church grows, you can’t invite everyone to the leadership team meetings.
Transition Two: Inviting all the Leaders to the Decision Meetings
Churches typically hit this transition point when they cross over 1,500 in attendance. This, of course, varies by church. Until this point, every staff leader is typically invited to the weekly decision meeting. That includes all the pastors and all the ministry directors.
Again, as the church grows, this group will eventually exceed eight people.
When that happens, the focus naturally shifts to ministry-specific conversations (youth, kids, women’s, groups, events, etc.).
It becomes like a representative form of government where each leader comes to represent their specific ministry area. The conversations about overall church health and spiritual growth get squeezed out. Everyone begins protecting their turf.
The transition every growing church faces is this: you have to begin only inviting leaders-of-leaders to this team meeting. Consequently, that means there will be some pastors and directors who will not be in this gathering. Yes, they’ll be in other ministry-specific gatherings. And, periodically, you may want to pull them into a leadership team conversation related to their ministry area. Again, for communications and decision-making to improve, though, you can’t invite every leader to these team meetings.
Next week, we’ll talk about strategies for keeping everyone informed and connected even though they aren’t at every meeting. In the mean time, if you’d like to read more about healthy senior leadership teams, pick up a copy of Take the Lid Off Your Church: 6 Steps to Building a Healthy Senior Leadership Team.
Photo Credit: Seattle Municipal Archives via Compfight cc
