We are crossing a pretty important line. It may not be all that important in reality, but it's at least significant psychologically. It's the 1000 line. For the past 3 Sundays, we've had over 1000 people in church each week. And not just barely over, but significantly over. Two of the past three Sundays were at or over 1100. This is only part of the story. On any given week, only about 60% of a church's regular attenders are actually there. The other 40% are away for all kinds of reasons - nobody is in church every single Sunday. So what that means is that not only are we crossing the 1000 attendance line, but we are also crossing the 2000 regular attenders line. That's a lot of people!
What does it mean? Well, in PCC 101 we talk about the structure of the church. Every church has one. Some structures promote growth, some restrict it. Some promote unity, others create division. Some maximize ministry, others maximize maintenance. In a growing church, the structure must be pliable, flexible, and changeable. The structure that worked well for us at 700 people will actually hurt us now. We have to be willing to respond to what God is doing around us.
This means not only adding more leadership and staff, but changing the fundamental leadership paradigm. Let me explain.
For the life of our church to date, I have been the point person for almost every major decision. To be sure, we have really awesome leaders who run ministries from students and children to small groups to worship to care to guest services to communications to administration to technology to facilities and on and on I could go. But when push came to shove, I've been involved in a very hands on way in almost every single critical decision - hiring, moving, building, budgeting, etc. I've been involved almost every time there was a problem, a conflict, or a potential stumbling block. I've made some poor choices and some good ones. But the point is that I've been involved in almost all of them.
You may not really know how much time this takes, but you can surely see that the bigger we get, the more of these kinds of things there are to work on. And I have become the bottleneck. In some ways, I've actually done what I always said I would not do - stand in the way of our church's mission. It wasn't intentional, but it is time for us to shift the paradigm.
Let me back up a minute, though...
Last May, we saw this coming. I asked the Steering Team to let me bring in a consultant who was very successful in planting churches. He is Doug Murren and he planted one church from scratch and it grew to over 8000 in average attendance. He has consulted with many churches and we knew he could help us. Doug spent 2 days with us, interviewing leaders, talking to the staff, etc. He had prepared for the trip by reviewing our history, our growth, our structure, our mission, and our data.
His conclusion was decisive. He said that we would not be able to continue growing much longer without an Executive Pastor (he said other things, but this was at the top of his list). This person would be someone gifted in management, analysis, and the details of implementing a strategic plan. Most Executive Pastors come out of the private sector - from business and corporate life. They are more likely to have an MBA than a degree from a seminary. They are passionate Christ followers, to be sure, but the set of skills you are looking for are not the same as for the senior pastor.
Almost everyone who heard Doug's presentation agreed that this was a very important and necessary move for PCC. But we frankly did not have the money. With the building that we are constructing, we have to balance the staff budget with ministry needs and with the need to pay for the new facility. So, we waited. The Steering Team was involved in every conversation I had with potential people to fill the post, but the conversations were mostly casual. Without the finances to make an offer, we just took our time.
After we hit our latest growth wave in November, we turned up the heat on this important decision. And now we are very close to bringing someone on board. He will likely start on a part-time basis and we'll phase him into a full-time role as we are able. He will begin by taking over the staff oversight responsibilities. But his job will not be simply to shift the workload around.
You see, I have frankly never been a gifted manager to our staff. It's not that I didn't coach and manage and help them with their work, but it's that this is just not my gift. Now fortunately, we have a really great staff. They are able to work with independently and with good leadership and initiative. They know when to come for help or advice. Still, with the right person in this role, we are going to be better than we are today and even more effective. This means that we will be positioned to grow further, care for more people, and be more healthy.
More information will come to you as I know it, but I wanted you to know that we were making progress on this.
"But," you may wonder, "is it really a good idea to add staff when we aren't yet in our building?" I'm glad you asked.
This picture was taken in November. I wish I could tell you that there was concrete and steel and a roof there now, but you probably know that the property looks the same today as it did then. But while the rainbow is no longer there, the promise still is. And it's a promise you can count on.
We thought we would be under roof by now. Unfortunately, the way the law works in Virginia, the court has to approve any borrowing that an unincorporated church does. When we voted unanimously in the fall to build this building, we sent the paperwork to the court for approval. However, the judge felt that the language in the official motion was lacking. So, we had to re-vote. That meant that we had to go through the official time for calling a special membership meeting. We voted again - unanimously, of course - and sent the paperwork back to the judge. But then it was Christmas and the order sat somewhere waiting to be signed for several weeks. Finally, just a few days ago in fact, we got it back. With this authorization, our trustees can now sign the documents with the bank and with the builder. We're about to get started. I know you are frustrated. I have been frustrated, too. But be just a little more patient with us. There is about to be a major change on that piece of land!
And if you haven't yet considered or committed to the Reach Campaign, I would ask you to do so. This is the primary way we are going to pay for this building. We have almost $900,000 in 3-year commitments, but we are still short of the goal. Please pray about this. Every commitment matters!
Now back to your question about staffing vs. building. I think that we have to be very careful not to look at these as opposing each other. Our church has always been committed to people, to growth, to reaching those around us who are far from God and outside of other churches. We cannot and will not set that mission aside. But we also must build the building. We have made aggressive commitments inside of our budget towards the building, and we will keep those commitments. At the same time, we will continue to do what is necessary to have a vibrant, growing, healthy church by adding ministry expenses, staffing, missions, etc. It's "both/and" not "either/or".
I am grateful for every person who has come along with us on this journey, and for those of you who just started. Together, we're changing the world.
If you have any questions about this, I encourage you to post it on this blog. We'll talk as a community and perhaps your question will get the conversation going.
See you Sunday,
Brian
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