At New Life we’re about to “break the 1,000 barrier.” As it sounds, it means we’re about to experience having 1,000 people join us each weekend for worship. For us that is an “uncharted water.” Being located in a small, rural town in western Pennsylvania, we are moving into uncharted waters. Statistically, only about 10% of American churches have more than 350 people in worship on a weekend according to Them Ranier, who has done church research for decades. The number that where the worship attendance exceeds 1,000 people per weekend is less than 5%. I am in no way commenting on bigger being “better,” because many factors determine the size and health of a local church. My point is what we’re experiencing is uncommon in America, and that we’re experiencing it in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania makes it quite rare.
None of our staff have ever served on a church with more than a 1,000 in attendance, so leadership at every level is quite important. The basic principles of leadership remain constant, but what we have found at New Life over the past several years is one of the primary barriers to moving forward has been the need for being able to replicate what we are doing in every area of our church family. For example, our Relevant Youth Ministry has grown exponentially since we moved into our permanent building a little less than four years ago. After worshipping in local school buildings on the weekends for nine years, and renting space for youth ministry and other church activities during the week, when we moved into our own building in 2013, we saw immediate growth in every area, but in no place as in our youth ministry.
The challenges to know everyone who came, to identify and welcome first-time guests, to minister to the needs of dozens of young people instead of a dozen required effective leadership and many more leaders and volunteers. A system for identifying and equipping volunteers and leaders was developed. As a result the ministry has grown rapidly, and much more importantly has reached many more young people in our local communities with the good news of Jesus.
The same reality has been part of every area of ministry. Our worship ministry has continued to grow and improve as our worship pastor has developed additional worship members and leaders and technical support team members and leaders to staff a weekend worship service schedule that now offers four weekend worship services. Neither our youth pastors, Mark Lutz (who is now our discipleship pastor) and Alex DeRosa, nor our worship pastor, Brad French, had served in churches with more than 1,000 in worship so we have done a lot of reading, watching and listening along the way.
The key is: when traveling uncharted waters you must have a map (a plan), a boat (a structure), a crew (leaders and workers) and navigational methods (repeatable and reproducible policies and procedures.) What works when you’re rowing a boat, doesn’t necessarily work when you’re sailing a ship. The bigger the boat the more necessary the map, boat, crew, and navigational methods become. Which of these is most important? While John Maxwell would undoubtedly say, “Everything rises and falls on leadership,” and I would agree, leaving out any of these aspects will make sailing into the uncharted waters of being a church with more than a 1,000 in attendance each weekend much more difficult, and perhaps impossible.
One of the realities we have found important during the process is to distinguish between “not knowing what we’re doing,” and “never having done what we’re doing.” For a while, some of the staff members would say, “We don’t know what we’re doing.” The actual intent of the comment was, “We’ve never done what we’re about to do before.” The difference is crucial. Of course, if we have never led in a certain area before, there is at least some degree of lack of knowledge, but it doesn’t mean we don’t know what we’re doing. It means we don’t have experience in leading, in our case, a particular size of organization. There is a difference between a church of 100 people and one of 1,000 and it isn’t simply ten times more people. If that were the case all that would be necessary would be to have ten times the staff and everything would work. The logistics of hosting 1,000 people are far different than of hosting 100. Communicating with 1,000 people is vastly different than communicating with 100. The resources necessary to provide ministry for 1,000 people is often more than ten times what it would be for 100, although at times it is proportionately less.
The opportunities of leading 1,000 people instead of a 100 are also multiplied. We are able to do vastly more than ten times what could be done with 100 people in certain areas. Again, my goal is not to say having 1,000 people is “better” than having 100. My goal is to point out that every growing organization will find itself navigating uncharted waters. When that happens leadership is at a premium, and finding the right team of leaders is absolutely crucial. Tomorrow, I’ll point out some of the lessons we’ve learned while navigating the unknown. For today, think about this: What will it take for you to navigate the uncharted waters you will face as a leader, because your leadership is more effective over time? Have you considered the uncharted waters that lie ahead? Are you merely working to keep the boat afloat? As you know, I’m going to press us to think and ask questions, because the unexamined life is not only not worth living, it is far more challenging to live.
Here’s to leading better by preparing to navigate uncharted waters–today!