Church Capacity

This past week I enjoyed an encouraging time with fellow pastors and church planters.  As is always the case when we get together, we talked shop.  How are things going?  What is happening?  What are our disappointments?  What are our successes?

One item of discussion came up continually.  "My church is stuck.  We talk about outreach and being open to new people, but according to new people we aren't doing it.  How do we regain/retain our missional emphasis?"  These comments came from established churches and from "establishing" church plants.

Another item that came up often was praying for wisdom on where to invest our time.  Why?  Because as pastors and leaders we saw the need was greater than our limited personal resources.  What will help us the most?  What will help our ministry the most?  How do we balance family, life, and ministry?

As we were discussing, I was thinking how we ought to combine both sets of questions.  Yes, we as individuals have a capacity.  We cannot go past that capacity without losing something!  Some of us have great capacity, and some of us have small capacity.  The key is to know yourself and protect your limits.  I can assure you that no one else will do it for you!

Yet, when we talk about churches and ministries, we feel guilty and depressed if we are not continually moving forward, growing, and doing more with positive effect.  We go through seasons of intense ministry and then recovery, followed by repentance and a "getting back to real ministry."  What is the problem was not our effort, but our system?

What if churches or ministries also have a capacity?

In other words, a church is a system of individuals gathered together and combined to a certain capacity level.  If this level is superseded then something gets lost!  Thus, the reason why ministries and churches stop moving forward, growing and doing more with positive effect is because they have reached their capacity.

How is capacity formed and shaped?

It is determined by a host of factors.  The most important is who is in the organization.  A church full of nurturing folks who hate conflict will not be able to integrate new people into their system.  Why?  Because new people are untidy, different, and so often disagreeable!  While no one says "leave!," new folks feel their life and perspectives aren't welcome.  Thus, the church says they want to grow, but they only will grow if the right type of people come in.  Similarly, a church full of and run by cautious folks will not nor can it embark on new and bold paths without a miracle.  Even a church of talented missional people can become stagnate because they do the ministry to people not with people because they have created a culture of "professionalism" that only they can meet.

All of these examples set a level of capacity.  When the capacity is reached, the vessel can hold no more.

Another major factor is how a church or ministry functions.  How one does ministry, approaches people, thinks about God, all determine the capacity of an organization.  Our process determines our capacity.

What does this mean?  I will answer the question with a question.

Many churches wonder why they have no 20 or 30 somethings within their church.  Could it be that how you function and approach life and ministry severely impacts the church's capacity to love and disciple these folks?

Our capacity determines our size.  It determines our ministries.  It determines the ultimate success of these ministries.  

How do we enlarge our capacity?  Tricky question.  Most of us as individuals and as churches/ministries don't like the process of expanding our capacity.  At first, it feels so painful!  Yet, if we are to grow in outreach we must increase our capacity.

I would love some feedback.