Since the beginning of Grace Community Church almost 6 years ago, we have experienced what many would call explosive growth. We’ve seen hundreds each year come to faith and reconnect with Christ. That growth has impacted every ministry in our church and been felt by every stretched staff member. It’s been an amazing journey filled with lots of excitement.
I have learned, however, that there our dangers with fast growth in any organization.
Here are 5 dangers of explosive growth:
1. Masks real problems
Growth gets the attention. Everyone is excited. Momentum is high. Problems within a team or organization won’t show up immediately…but they will eventually.
2. Leadership poor
I didn’t say “poor leadership”…but leadership poor. When the organization is growing fast, you can never seem to afford adequate staff or train volunteers quick enough.
3. Inadequate Systems
I wrote about that HERE, but basically your systems do not support your growth, and you spend much of your time playing catch up to implement adequate systems to sustain growth.
4. People feel scattered/left behind
It’s part of the deal. With the rate of growth, communication is more important than ever, but people are stretched, often producing holes in the communication process.
5. Reactive rather than proactive
In a fast growing organization, “just keeping up” will be a consistent feeling emotion among leadership. You’ll often find yourself “making it up as you go.” With the speed of life in the organization, there never seems to be time to get ahead of the growth curve.
What can you do about it?
