Learn how a legacy structure can hinder church growth and discover the signs indicating the need for restructuring. Understand the importance of clarifying mission and strategies before making structural changes. Explore the challenges of combining reach and discipleship strategies and the frequency of structure changes in churches.
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Quick takeaways
Churches must align their structure with their ministry strategy to achieve different results.
Stuck churches prioritize people over necessary changes, while healthy churches focus on adaptability and mission.
Deep dives
Sign #1: Structure around ministry strategy
Healthy churches structure around their ministry strategy, while stuck churches tend to structure around their people. To achieve different results, churches must embrace new strategies and adapt their structure accordingly. An example of this is when churches fail to create a dedicated digital team and instead assign the task to existing teams, such as the worship team.
Sign #2: Structure for reach and spiritual formation
Healthy churches understand the need to structure for both reach and discipleship. They have specific structures to support their ministry strategies for reaching new people and helping existing followers of Jesus grow. In contrast, stuck churches often neglect their reach strategy, assuming that everyone is responsible for it. Due to this neglect, they struggle to connect with new people, especially the younger generation.
Sign #3: Fresh vision requires structure changes
When churches introduce fresh vision, direction, or strategies, it often necessitates changes in the staffing structure. Failure to align the structure with the new initiatives can lead to overwhelmed staff and dropped responsibilities. Stuck churches tend to resist restructuring and opt for promoting or rehiring to fill vacant positions, perpetuating legacy structures. Healthy churches frequently evaluate and adjust their structures every 18 to 24 months to ensure alignment with evolving strategies.
Sign #4: Legacy structure fixation
Another sign that a church needs to restructure is when it remains fixed on a legacy structure even after legacy staff have left. Stuck churches prioritize people over the need for necessary changes and regularly reevaluate their structures. Healthy churches, on the other hand, are willing to change both their strategies and structures, demonstrating adaptability and a focus on achieving their mission.
You’re perfectly structured to get the results you’re getting today—so if you want different results, it will likely require you to change both your strategy AND your structure.
In this episode, we're unpacking the problems with a legacy structure and identifying four more warning signs that your structure needs to change.
Free Webinar: How to Restructure Your Church Staff
You’re perfectly structured to get the results you’re getting. Join us on July 28 for this free 1-hour webinar event unpacking how to restructure your church staff for the health and effectiveness of your ministry. Register today.
For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode253.
Join the Live Conversation on Social Media
Join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.
If you're catching this episode later, you can still join in! Just tag us @unstuckgroup or use #unstuckchurch, and include [episode 253] in your post for reference.
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