1,200 Barrier
This barrier is twice the size of the 600 barrier, and not coincidentally is broken by having four people covering the same four key departments of worship, children, youth and adults. The only difference between breaking 1,200 instead of 600 is that to break the 1,200 barrier these four people must be OUTSTANDING and capable of leading their own staff teams of three to four full-time/part-time people themselves. At this stage, the bold move is to get the wrong people off the bus, the right people on the bus, the right butts in the right seats, and everyone working together and headed in the same direction.
2,000 Barrier
To break this barrier, the bold move is always related to staff re-organization. Up till say 1,400 or 1,600, a church staffing structure has remained largely intact since the 600 days. To break this barrier, the bold move is to further stratify your staff and have your directors who lead each department to meet as a “Senior Staff” separate from the rest of the staff team.
Facility “Bold Moves”
Getting a Facility
The first bold move with regards to a facility will always be to move from meeting in a home, like when we had 26 people meeting each week in my house, to a rented facility. Taking on additional rent that you can’t really “afford” can be frightening, but necessary. That’s why it’s called a “bold move.” I remember those days. Geez, that was scary.
The next bold move after that is to buy land and construct a permanent church home. If you think committing to rent was terrifying, just wait for this bold move.
Thankfully the days of the missional fad have almost waned, and the critical ways church planters have talked about permanent facilities has almost come to an end. Having a building is an essential key to your growth and impact strategy. The key is to avoid the three pitfalls of church construction: too small, too ugly and too expensive.
Jettisoning a Facility
Some of you ARE in a facility that is too small, too ugly or too expensive. Your bold move is to jettison that thing so you can emerge from under its weight.
Going back to a temporary set-up for five to seven years may just be what the doctor ordered. Or it may be the stupidest decision you could possibly make.
Expanding a Facility
Most Senior Pastors aren’t going to pitch their facility. Most simply need to rebrand and expand it. I always send leaders facing this challenge to my friends at Plain Joe Studios and have them skim through their portfolio of rebranding work.
Can you imagine what would happen to your church culture if you made a series of bold moves and completely rebranded the overall look and feel of your ministry facility from the website to the front door to the worship area?
Rebranding a facility can be done rather inexpensively compared to the long-term payout. Every five years a facility needs to be re-branded, or within seven years it will quickly look dated. Consider it the cost of owning a facility.
