Musings on Spiritual Matters

The elders call you in.  They have a few questions and you have a few questions.  In this process, the elders state that they want you to help grow the congregation.  Only once did a eldership state to me, “we do not want this church to grow.”  Honesty is beautiful, though in this case sad.  You are happy because the elders have a vision for growth, you walk out excited that you have an opportunity to work finally with an eldership that wants growth.  How exciting, the eldership is behind growth.  Leave it at that.

The problem is that mostly all eldership’s state this desire, but in reality most congregation are perfectly happy at the level they are at.  They might want growth, but growth means changes, and no one wants that.  Churches are mostly at the number that is comfortable and desirable for them.  So do yourself a favor and ask some real questions about growth in the interview process.  Here are a few.

1. What changes will this congregation need to make to bring about growth?  Start at the core of the issue.  What must change, this is the emotional invested question, and if the elders answer, you will see the colors show.  Some elders will have  a visions, others may say that we just need some good ole bible teaching.  But in this question  you will learn about the methods for the elders.

2. What is your role in this growth, and what is mine, and what is the members?  Clarifying expectation is important in the interview stage.  What do you expect of me and what can I expect of  you.  Maybe the elders will say, we expect you to lead this growth, but in reality the minister can lead nothing unless the elders support this.  If it sounds like a “you bring growth and we will watch, this might be a red flag.

3. What size congregations have you been involved with in the past?  If all the elders have only been involved in 200 member congregation, than this is all they can imagine.  It will be hard for them to make the leap from a pastoral size to a program size congregation.  It is not that they do not want this, but they will not feel comfort in this.

4. What have been some of the barriers to growth from the past?  History of the congregation is important.  Look for the common stories of, “well we were growing but the minister left, or we were growing but there was a split.   Often these are events that happened because of growth.  Look for common patterns in the answers that are given.

These are just a few of the questions that should be answered.  Do not just ask, do you want to grow, you learn nothing much from this question.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Bobby Pinckley
2. A Growth Skill Set
3. Make Elders Look Good
4. The Improper Focus on Growth
5. People Want to be Part of a Winning Work

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.