Growing Pains

We should be enormously humbled and thankful for the way new people have joined us at the Tab.   As we just do the ordinary (and yet extraordinary) things of worshipping, learning from the Bible, praying and loving each other, God has been graciously at work.
 
However, like in the human body, so in the church, growth can cause “growing pains.”  Ray Evans (a leadership consultant for the FIEC) talk about this in his book “Ready Steady Grow.” He describes the different advantages and challenges of different size churches. 

In churches under 50 people everyone can know each other fairly well, services can be flexible and informal, it’s easy for everyone to be involved and cared for. 

In churches from 50-120 people there can be a greater variety of gifts, less of a burden on just a handful of people, and increased reach for Jesus.  It tends to be really encouraging.

Churches over 120 Ray calls “awkward sized.”  I think that’s where we are.  We haven’t planned any of this but this is where we find ourselves.  Which is why I picked up Ray’s book to start learning!  Jesus’ call to “go and make disciples” makes growth normal for churches. 

We have no intention of losing the healthy character of the Tab we so value – in particular our welcome, family love, concern for individuals of all ages, outreach, prayer, concern for a close walk with Jesus, and that we’re led by scriptural values rather than business ones. But inevitably some things will, and probably have, changed simply by virtue of having a few more with us.  And living through that can be painful. 

Try as we may, we can’t all know every one else as closely as with a smaller church.  Barnaby with the Elders and Deacons, all feel the difficulty of this. 

It means that small groups become really important as places of closer fellowship and support.  (It’s interesting that Moses was encouraged to divide the Israelites into groups of 10s.)  We’re encouraged that our homegroups (and other small groups) are really well led and that around 100 people attend.

Another challenge is visiting the sick and homebound.  This has benefited from having a team lead by Stella and growing organisation. 

Increasing children and youth adds another challenge.  This lay behind us seeking a long term families’ worker. 

We’ll need to work at organisation, communication, involving more people, and staying united.  (It’s helpful to see the apostles working through all these things in Acts 6.)  As folk join us from different church traditions (which is enriching) we’ll need to work at a shared vision, convictions about the Bible, about church, membership, and mission. No doubt there will be other challenges. 

This blog post is not to solve all this but just to acknowledge the issues and to get us thinking, talking, and praying. 
Remember these are growing pains!  So many churches long for new people to come.  And we are being so blessed by the people God is adding to our family who bring so much.