Help! Our Church Is Growing

It’s the secret, unspeakable dream shared by every minister. After years of diligent work in an average-sized church, you glance up one Sunday and notice a new family. The next month you notice another. Soon it seems like somebody new arrives almost every week. Suddenly you are the leader of a living, breathing, growing church!Like any roller coaster ride, this one begins with a long, slow ascent. Attendance climbs. Giving climbs. Expectations climb. Of course a few problems crop up along the way, because, as with every other roller coaster, this one has a long and often scary downside. Even as your church continues to climb in every measurable statistic, you, the spiritual leader, may well find yourself in a virtual free-fall as you struggle over how to manage the impact this change will have on your congregation.What can you, as a minister in a growing church, do to survive the pitfalls that lie just around the corner? What do you do when the old ways no longer work?

Mark Phillips is currently completing a PhD in Business Management. From 1996 to 2001, he served as senior minister for the Franklin Church of Christ, located near Indianapolis. Before entering full-time ministry in 1991, Mark earned degrees in Psychology and Management and worked for a Fortune 500 company. Mark writes "Love Notes," an online e-zine sent weekly to more than 3,000 readers worldwide. He and his wife Laura have two children, Allison and Matthew.