When things grow they tend to get more complex. As someone once right stated, “Everything naturally gravitates towards complexity.” This being the case, as you grow, you have to fight (and I mean fight) to take what is complex and make it simple. It might seem impossible but it’s not. If you work hard at it, then as Winston Churchill put it, “Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.”
Last month our total average attendance was 1,724. This same month last year our total average attendance was 1,427. That’s an increase of 297 people. To put these numbers in context, half of all churches in America have fewer than 65 people in their weekly worship service. So just our increase was over 4.5x what most churches have in total attendance. And with increased attendance we’ve had to increase our staff. In the last year we added Justin, Marla, both Rachels and Brian. And long story short, things have just gotten complex. Who should be over what and why? Who should report to who and why? What’s our master plan for how we want to be organized? How does the reality that we’re a multi-site church impact how we ought to be organized? And the list goes on.
These are the questions we’ve been wrestling with. Normally, when trying to answer questions like these, I always aim to build according to a master plan, but as far as our organizational structure goes, we really haven’t had one. I guess technically we have, but it’s changed so much over time that if an outsider was to look at our org chart they would quickly conclude that a grenade had blown it up. It’s just all over the place. And as you can imagine, it’s hard to make prudent, strategic decisions when you don’t know what the master plan is. How can you build according to plan if you don’t have one? All this to say, we’ve been working hard on a strategic master plan for how we should organized ourselves, which is what I want to present to you now…
In contemplating an ideal strategic master plan for how we’re organized, we let our Sunday focus guide us. The goal was to create a structure that took into account that Sunday is our top priority. Obviously, we do more than just Sunday, but we wanted an org chart that reflected our Sunday focus, and here’s what we came up with. Here are the seven key roles that moving forward will make up Central Support and make the up the staff at each location (even if new locations don’t start with every position filled).
- Experience
- Next Gen
- Creative Arts
- Next Steps
- Groups
- Infrastructure
- Campuses
When people drive onto our property and then walk in the building, that’s where our Experience team comes into play. Once in the building, they drop their kids off, which is where Next Gen comes into play. Then people enter the auditorium for the service, which is where Creative Arts comes into play. When service lets out, that’s where Next Steps comes into play. Then throughout the week we’re supported by Groups, Next Gen again (with Ignite), and Infrastructure (which is all the stuff that Andrew & Kim do that make everything else possible). And one day, when we have multiple locations, someone will need to provide oversight to all our Campuses.
As you know, I’m over the DLT (Andrew, Peter, and Jon). And moving forward Andrew, Peter and Jon will be over these seven key areas (experience, next gen, creative arts, next steps, groups, infrastructure, and campuses).
Andrew will be over Infrastructure, Groups and Next Gen. Pete will be over Experience, Next Steps and Campuses. And Jon will be over Creative Arts. Ok, let’s break that down further.
Under Andrew…
Infrastructure will include:
- Missions support
- Finances
- Contracts and scheduling (lawn, snow, HVAC, carpet, wifi, etc)
- Human Resources
- IT (laptops, google accounts, etc)
* A major change here is that contracts and scheduling will move from Peter to Andrew.
Groups will include:
- Community care
- Community outreach
- Missions trip
* A major change here is Tracey will begin reporting to Michelle whereas we count Celebrate Recovery a large small group (oxymoron, I know). Tracey will give more and more attention to Celebrate Recovery and Michelle will give more and more attention to community outreach.
Next Gen will include:
- Kids
- Students
* A major change here is that both Lily and Angie will begin reporting to Andrew vs Lily reporting to Angie and Angie reporting to Pete. We needed to do this because Next Gen was not in line with how we’re trying to organize ourselves. To use Beth as an example of what we want, she leads worship in Enfield, but is over worship at all locations. Moving forward, Lily will be over kids here in Enfield, but also over kids ministry at all locations. Likewise, Angie will be over youth here in Enfield, but also over youth ministry at all locations. With this change, all departments are now in line with how we’re trying to organize ourselves.
Ok, moving on…Under Pete…
Experience will include:
- Host team
- Hospitality and logistics
- Events
- Design
- Safety team
- Maintenance and repairs
Next Steps will include:
- New here
- Next steps
- Discover class
* A major change here is that Jack will now report to Peter vs Andrew.
Campuses will include:
- Peter making sure each location has all key roles filled (experience, next gen, creative arts, next steps, groups, and infrastructure)
- Peter holding campus pastors accountable for their location’s key metrics.
* This is a future role that we will grow into in time. With only two locations it’s not needed yet but will be needed once we have more than one campus pastor.
Finally, under Jon…
Creative Arts will include:
- Worship
- Production
- Digital arts
- Social media
- Church online
- Graphic design
No organizational structure is perfect, and even this one will need to be updated in time. As we continue to grow, things will continue to gravitate towards complexity. In time, even this structure will look as if someone blew it up with a grenade. And when that happens, we’ll restructure once again. But we, the DLT, feel that this structure will serve us well for years to come.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: What questions do you have about this new structure and/or about the changes it has created.