Challenged
May 22, 2010
Disclaimer: The following thoughts are my own ramblings not some sort of official strategy statement on behalf of Deep Water.
Although challenges are universal in leading a church we don’t all have the same ones and we don’t all face them at the same time. These are the challenges I expect Deep Water to face in the next 12-18 months.
The Facility Challenge
It would be in keeping with trends thus far to predict that we will have outgrown the theatre within the time frame we are discussing. What I mean by that is that we will probably have more people coming than the theatre can comfortably fit. There are several relatively easy ways to deal with this, at least in the short term. More immediately relevant is the fact that we have pretty much already outgrown some of our kids ministry space. We will need to figure out a better location/arrangement for our nursery and possibly our pre-school program. The options are limited. It’s going to be a challenge. And while we are at it – the usage of the Abbey is steadily increasing. I think we will have that space maxed out in this time frame.
The Resource Challenge
We are at a time where the vision opportunities are outstripping the financial resources. There will be a challenge to generate more funds, to cut corners where we can, to make strategic decisions about what to give funding priority too and to trust God to provide for the things he calls us too.
The Focus Challenge
This may be the biggest of the bunch. As we are growing there are more and more voices calling us to add this or do more of that. They aren’t bad things but they will blur our focus and dilute our energy. That said there are components of our strategy that need to be implemented and tweaked. It will be a challenge to know what to add, what to say no to and to have the conviction to stand our ground on those decisions and be ok with not everyone getting it. As we move forward we will actually need to increase the intensity of focus not relax it. Some folks will find this hard. Some of them will decide to go somewhere else.
The Personnel Challenge
This is two sided. We will need to continue to recruit, train, and develop top notch volunteer leaders. This may be a special challenge for us because while all churches wrestle with the spiritual and leadership maturity of their volunteers we else wrestle, to a greater extent I think, with the basic life maturity of some of our people. We don’t have years of experience to fall back on.
The other side of this comes with staffing. We could definitely keep another full time staff member busy (shoot I could keep a few of them busy) but finding the funds and the right people is a definite challenge.
The Leadership Challenge
And on this one I mean me personally. This has been a stretching experience for me since day one but we are currently in and will continue to be in a season where I really need to continue to grow like crazy because of the increased demands on me. Of course that’s also the very reason it will be hard to grow. Hitting the balance of knowing when to focus on doing vs learning vs knowing I’m out of my gifts and letting it ride will be a real challenge.
Yup, it’s going to be challenging. If you are the praying sort please remember me and Deep Water and if you have any brilliant ideas I’m all ears.
I am the praying type. I pray for you and Deep Water daily and will continue to do so.
I agree with what you say here. I also think that intense focus will help in every area. Keep doing 2 or 3 things extraordinarily well and be courageous in saying no to good things. Good and important things will need to be said, “no” to. You will lose some for sure, but probably not to the Kingdom… They will find the “program” or “scratch” to fix their itch at the typical church down the roads.
As you continue to focus on less, you will be better stewards of what you have and the people who come on board will know exactly what they are giving to. Just open up your church to he plethora of programs and see those resources spray like mist. Continue to focus and they will form a fire hose of power that will make an obvious difference. You and everyone else will know exactly what you are doing why.
Focus will help you wig every other area– leadership development, resource allocation, facility hunting, and personnelle hiring. I’m not saying this is all going to be easy, but just start saying yes to all sorts of innocent sounding good things tha aren’t mission critical and see how hairy things get.
Ha ha!! That was supposed to say, “help you IN every other area.” ha ha!!
Great problems to have but yet still problems.
I would say the resource challenge is the kicker. If I was spiritual, I’d say this was a faith challenge. But DW will find suitable facilities and add personnel (helping with the leadership issue) to the extent that resources are available.
Oh, and one other that you didn’t mention – the growth challenge. In a lot of ways, DW has grown through some clear opportunities. Stretching to reach people outside of the immediate social circle will be something that will not be easy to do consistently.