Growth Barrier No. 5: Staff
If your congregation suddenly doubled in size, would you have the necessary staff members to serve them? To keep your church moving forward, you will need to hire people on faith, so you’ll be prepared to receive the harvest God wants to send you.
Hiring staff is truly a faith issue. Many pastors want to put off staff hires until they have the money in place to support the positions. Sounds like a practical plan, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work. You will never have enough money in advance to hire the staff you need.
To overcome this barrier, change your perspective on what it takes to hire a new staff person. Say you need to fill a position that would require a $48,000 salary. Don’t look at it as a year-long position. Instead, think in three-month blocks. If you approach the new position as a three-month, $12,000 risk, instead of a $48,000 risk, you will be more comfortable filling it. Then, if the staff person you hire is good, the position will begin paying for itself after three months.
When you approach staffing with a faithful heart, you’ll be much more prepared to handle the growth God brings you.
All Grown Up
In our journey from 35 to 1,200, our church had to break through every one of these barriers—most of them more than once. Thanks to that process, I have come to understand that staying ahead of growth barriers is the most effective way of dealing with them. When we cooperate with God by taking action for His church, He will bless our efforts. As you learn to identify and diffuse growth barriers before they get you stuck, you’ll be able to keep your momentum and effectively expand God’s kingdom for His glory.
