Many leaders are familiar with the quote, “Structure follows strategy” (Alfred Chandler), but in real life, it’s easy to disconnect structure from the larger picture.  We put together a nice org chart and mostly leave it alone even if everything else is changing.

If our structure flows out of our strategy, our strategy flows out of our vision, mission, and values.  It impacts which goals we set, which staff we need, which skills to develop, and which systems we’ll implement. 

In other words, if you don’t know your vision, you won’t know your strategy, and you certainly won’t know what structure you need.

This requires a level of clarity that most churches don’t have.  

Not only did Life.Church have clarity on their vision and strategy, but they were also crystal clear on the size of that vision.

Early on, they knew they would be “one church in multiple locations,” but they also knew that they weren’t shooting for 3, 5, or even 10 locations.  In 2008, they set a goal of launching 50 campuses in 5 years.  11 years later, they’re at 34.  Is that failure?  No, they just got the timing wrong, but the size of the vision hasn’t changed, and I have no doubt that they’ll shoot past 50 soon enough.

Where are you headed?

When I asked Jerry about how a small, single-campus church could structure themselves in a way that could scale into the future, his immediate response was that they first need to know where they’re going. 

For example, if your growth strategy is a multi-site model and the size of your vision is less than five campuses, Jerry says he wouldn’t bother creating a large central organization but would find other ways to coordinate and unify the different sites.  If you know already that it will be more than five, than create that central organization so you can scale up more easily.

Once you have an idea of what your future could look like, his advice is to create the organizational chart that you will need to sustain that future.  Create all the boxes you think you’ll need and put your name is as many of them as necessary until you can hire or train up other leaders into those positions.

If your vision became reality tomorrow, what structure would you need to sustain that reality? Share on X

2. Plan for the future, but stay flexible.

Yes, have a plan and know where you want to go, but real life doesn’t always follow the plan, does it?

While Life.Church has been on the same course of growth for many years now, when I talk to Jerry about the early days, I get the sense that it wasn’t all clear cut from the beginning.  When they first started meeting in a two-car garage in 1996, I doubt anyone could envision where they would end up 20 years later.

It was only after a merger with another local church (MetroChurch) that the beginnings of a multi-site model were born.  As it became clear that this was the path they were to take, the process of restructuring to a campus-based model took nearly three years to complete.

They have experienced eight mergers, four name changes, launched an online campus, created a whole host of services for the wider church (Bible app, Open Network, Church Metrics, Develop.Me, etc.) and at one point even begun streaming their services into the online, virtual world Second Life.

In the midst of all of this, the staff have certainly learned to stay flexible, as many of them have had to wear different hats at different stages.  Jerry has had numerous roles and titles, based on what the church needed in its current season.

Having a clear vision of the future is a process that takes time.  You don’t start a church and know exactly where you’ll end up. 

In the same way, creating the right structure will not be the result of a single weekend leadership retreat in the woods.  It is refined in the messiness of real life.  It is planning ahead but also adapting to the moment.  It is both proactive and reactive.

3. Your structure can only scale so far.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could create an org chart just once that could handle all future growth?  Like you knew you had it nailed and all you would have to do is add more layers as you went?

But the truth is, you can’t create a structure that can handle endless growth.  Your structure will only scale within the confines of your current growth stage. 

In other words, once you grow enough that the model of how you do what you do needs to change, you can no longer scale your existing structure – you need to change it.

When Life.Church only had two locations, they didn’t have a structure that could easily expand to 34 locations.  Craig was delivering his message live at both locations for a total of five services.  Every weekend.  This obviously wasn’t a scalable model.

Their structure could only scale to accommodate a limited amount of growth before they needed to completely reorganize for their next stage.  

Not every stage has the same scalability, though.  While their first couple of stages needed restructuring fairly quickly, their current structure has much greater capacity.  How many campuses can they add before their model no longer works well?  I’m not sure.  It’ll be interesting to continue to track their story in the years to come.

How much growth can your current structure handle, and what is your plan when you reach that limit? Share on X

4. The Church can, and should, learn from the corporate world.

With his past experience at Target, Jerry has had an opportunity that other church leaders who went straight to seminary have missed out on.  He could see firsthand how principles of organization from the corporate world translate into the church world.

This concept used to make me uncomfortable.  In my early days of ministry, I balked against any method or strategy that seemed to be adopted from the business world.  The church isn’t a corporation, right?  Armed only with a degree in theology, I tended to over-spiritualize most of what we were doing.

It was only later, after studying leadership and social sciences, and actually working alongside business leaders in my church, that I realized this one thing:

Most of what I would have called “corporate principles” were actually just “human principles.” 

Most of what the Church dismisses as corporate principles are actually just human principles. There are brilliant business leaders out there that we need to be learning from. Share on X

Any time you try to organize a group of human beings into some form of a unified group with a shared mission, certain truths apply regardless of what type of group it is.

When looking to the future, Jerry recommends finding an organization that is structured similarly to where you want to go and then learning as much as you can from them (e.g. non-profits, businesses, other churches, or something else entirely).

Life.Church has not been afraid to learn from other organizations when developing their structure and organizational model.  I believe this openness is one of the reasons they have been able to handle a level of growth in the last decade that would have overwhelmed many other churches.

Which organizations exist outside of the church world that you need to learn from for your next stage?

Get ready for what’s ahead

Who knew that 40 people meeting in a garage would turn into the largest church in North America only 23 years later?

What is the vision that God has for your church?  It might be bigger than you think.  It may not involve size like Life.Church, but it will certainly involve significance.  Numbers are not what make a church successful; moving in the direction that God desires of us is what makes us successful.

Wherever God is leading you, how can you structure yourself to be ready for what’s ahead?

I am so grateful to have had the chance to meet Jerry Hurley and have benefited from the generosity of Life.Church time and again over my ministry years.  If you haven’t checked them out yet, you can find out all about their free resources at Open.Church.

Take the next step

If the world of “structure” and org charts stills seems foreign to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone.  This is generally not stuff that they teach in seminary. 

If you’re ready to start thinking structurally as a leader, I’ve partnered up with my friend, Kenny Conley, and Ministry Boost to offer an online course devoted to helping you rethink your staff structure.

This is the course I wish I would have had available to me 8 years ago.  I’m super excited to be able to offer it to you today.  Check out the banner below for more details.

If you haven’t already, you may also want to check out my previous article on ministry staffing structures as well.

Thanks for being here,

Dan