Limiting Factors of Growth

When growth plateaus pastors start asking why. Has God rejected me like Saul? Is He out looking for a “David” to replace me? Have I taken the church as far as I can go? Has it outgrown my ability to lead it? Does someone else need to come and take the helm? Is there sin in the camp that has blocked God’s blessing? Is it mine? Is it one of the staff? Why can’t we grow anymore!!??

While it’s possible you aren’t growing for one of the above reasons, it’s not probable. Usually growth is hindered by one of five limiting factors of growth.

1. Parking. You need approximately 1 spot for every two people. If you have 100 seats in your auditorium, you need at least 50 parking spots. If you have less than 50 spots then your auditorium will fill up to your parking lot’s capacity, not its own.
2. Seating. If a service is more than 80% full that will limit your growth. Once you hit over 80% it’s time to start another service. The ideal (in my opinion, keeping longevity in mind) is to work towards three services (with your two prime-time services at 80% capacity and your one non prime-time service at 50% capacity). If you hit this and want to keep growing you may need to put on an addition, move the whole church to a new location or start another location.
3. Kids space. You need 20 sf per kid. If you have less than this your auditorium will fill up your kid space capacity, not its own.
4. Staffing (wrong person). If you have a bad apple it will really hurt your growth potential. As the apostle Paul put it, a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. Get rid of the leaven! It’s not firing someone that make you miserable. It’s not firing them that makes you miserable, causes you to lose sleep and brings undue stress into your life. Let them go.
5. Staffing (not enough). You need approximately 1 full-time per 100 congregants.

Here’s how to figure out your staff to congregant ratio:

1. Convert your PT staff to full-time equivalents. Say you have 6 part-time positions that add up to a total of 90 hours a week. Take 90 and divide it by a 50 hr work week to get the equivalent of 1.8 full-time positions.
2. Add your actual full-time to your full-time staff equivalents. Say you have 5 full-time positions. Add the 1.8 equivalent to your 5 actuals for a total of 6.8 full-time staff.
3. Take your total average attendance from last year and divide it by the number of full-time staff and that will give you your staff to congregant ratio.

If your staff-to-congregant ratio is 1 to 50 (one full-time staff per 50 congregants) you are over-staffed and need to cool the jets on hiring. However, if your staff-to-congregant ratio is 1 to 150 or 1 to 200 it’s time to make a hire.

Say you evaluate the five factors and realize you have two or three limiting factors of growth. If that’s the case I recommend working on the lowest-hanging fruit. Get together with your team and tackle the easiest one first. Then, motivated by conquering that one, move on to any others.

I’m so thankful to Dr. Josh Whitehead (Faith Promise Church, TN) for teaching me about the limiting factors of growth and I hope you find this information as helpful as I have.