The Myth of the 200 Barrier (Kevin Martin)

from an email January 9, 2006

Some of you have known that I've been reading through this book called "The Myth of the 200 Barrier". Its geared towards pastors looking to take their church through transitional growth and beyond the "barrier of 200" members. When I saw the book in the bookstore over Christmas I knew I had to pick it up. I hope these thoughts help you guys brainstorm more with me and pray that God will do immeasurably more than we can imagine.... not because we want more numbers... but because we want to see this world reached! We want to see lives changed for eternity and we want to give every student every year the opportunity to hear the gospel.

- a 150-300 people congregation is in transitional growth
- people are now more visually oriented and are custom to receiving info at a faster pace (ie videos, screen, not slowly delivered oral communication)
- people want participation
- we need to involve people in the decision making process (ie comment cards)
- we grow up listing to digitally enhanced CDs! We expect good music
- specialize as a pastor! Don’t generalize and try to do everything
- are you a “shepherd of the sheep” or a “rancher of a larger organization”?
- a shepherd wants to know all of the sheep by name
- as a leader leading through transitional growth you need to ask:
o Q1) What has made this a successful growing movement?
o Q2) How will I need to transform the current culture to allow growth to a larger size?
- at Mac we need to provide training for leaders through CCC
- we also need to support leaders being fed by other events too (other Leadership Summits etc)
- ensure that you have a list of present goals that everyone knows
- stress the importance of DGs
- tell people not to get comfortable with where we’re at! (vision .. TSH, then HSC 1A6, then to HSC 1A1, someday to MDCL 1105
- developing 12 deep relationships with people is maximum (ie 12 max on ST, 12 max in DG)
- people can only get to know / recognize 150 people (in large churches there need to be smaller “congregations” of 150 people each)
- larger congregations are about EXCELLENCE! (not necessarily about relationships)
- in large churches people expect excellence and a program / new initiative isn’t launched until it’s excellent; whereas in a smaller church its about relationships so even if Suzzie on the organ isn’t the best organist, she’s your friends grandma so is ok
- treat all people equal and hold them all to their responsibilities in the same way (ie if you were to ask a staff for doing something, or not doing something, then ask the volunteer to do the same... so for me, treat ST, DGLs all the same)
- as a preacher be a storyteller
- start with a great story
- use illustrations from your own personal life
- only add one or two new committees or ministries at a time (not 9 new things all BANG at once)
- in the church diagram or ministry diagram all of the “reporting to” arrows should not be drawn back to the pastor
- staff for the future! (ie we need to pick the Servant Team and DGLs with the future growth in mind)
- ask the question “What is out there in society (or at Mac) that McMaster Campus Crusade for Christ can touch?” (ie Christmas outreach?)
- at leadership meetings (ST meetings) clearly distinguish between the maintenance items of the agenda and those that involve oversight, vision and policy