The little group in Oak Valley started to grow rapidly, bringing in people from outside. Nobody knows exactly why, but John and Kay seemed to play a role. They recently had an exciting experience of coming to Christ, and knew lots of people whom they could invite along. New people found meetings to be friendly and attractive, so they tended to want to stay and find out more. When Mark and Kathy became believers, they had the same ability to influence people. Not all the new people lived nearby, but eventually it became clear who was willing to become fully part of the group and who would make occasional contact.

They had lots of young people, including young families with children. Men were easy to find, comprising about half of the group.

With more people, they found that their interpersonal style was becoming increasingly inefficient. They realized that they needed to ``get organized'' and talked a lot about how to do it. The basic problem was that they wanted to stay a group of friends and didn't want to become a bureaucratic institution. But, like it or not, they had to formalize some of their structures. Eventually, Steve was elected chairman of a three-person committee, but the group still made most of its important decisions by consensus in informal discussion.

Not long after, they realized that they should call themselves a church and give themselves a name. Clarifying their biblical base was most difficult. They wanted something that was biblical so they looked at Scripture again to see what it taught. They also wanted something that would work but they saw the shortcomings of many of their options. Besides, several members at Oak Valley had come from other churches and were not happy to sacrifice some of their denominational distinctives.

Eventually they agreed on a well-written compromise and a very functional constitution. Perhaps they could have done it earlier when the church was still a small group in a house, but at least now it was done and almost everyone was happy. One couple, Jim and Wendy, wanted something more like their previous church. They still came occasionally and were good friends of the group, but never asked to become formal members.

Churches in the rapid growth stage have a burning vision. They know that they can reach a considerable proportion of their community with the Gospel. Perhaps because they have functioned as a group of friends, they believe their group is somehow unique and identify very strongly with it.

Nobody professes to know the real reason why pioneer churches start growing. It might be their sense of excitement, their closeness and warmth, a new housing development, or the vision of their leadership. But the sense that God is at work is often unmistakable.

In any case, meetings are stimulating and creative, especially as there are often new people coming for the first time. The church works very hard at being understood by their community so that they will maintain their credibility. They are very sensitive to the real problems of the people around them and still care about individuals. In fact, they've thought so much about people that they haven't thought about the underlying principle; that is, that they need to have very open relationships with their surrounding community so that the church functions as a kind of community center.

The church is probably at its most creative. Like teenagers unwilling to accept all the routines of their parents, they want to find new ways of expressing their ideas. They seem to be unhappy with the way that many older churches try to communicate, so they struggle to find new and interesting styles that their community will find attractive.

But not everything is bliss at Oak Valley. The mood may be positive but they all know that they face myriads of problems. And they are real problems. What people don't see is that many of their problems are direct consequences of their health. Look at the list:

Another problem deserves special mention. The young, growing church lacks ministry expertise and leadership. Its leaders make many mistakes on the way and sometimes want to give up. But the church has the commitment to pull through, and the hard-pressed leaders are learning lots on the way. Most importantly, they are committed to training people, and they welcome new, gifted people into the leadership structure. The leaders trained at this stage are most likely the leaders of the future church and the young church will give them plenty of high-quality experience.

The other major development in the church at this stage is to buy a building. It takes lots of commitment and sacrifice, either to raise all the funds necessary for a simple building, or to take on a mortgage. But a visionary church can do it; they not only see that it is useful for their ministry to their community, it is downright necessary. They also feel that they are doing it for God's Kingdom, not just for the institutional church.

Tips:

1. Keep your vision clear; plan to keep growing. Avoid the temptation to stagnate and run your church just like the old churches around you.

2. Keep an eye on your culture. Your ability to communicate with the people around you is something that others wish they could copy.

3. Don't feel that large prestigious churches have something you don't. In fact, many of them are not as healthy as you.

4. Teach, teach, teach! New believers need all the teaching they can get. But be sensitive to its effectiveness. Teach for real understanding, changed lives, and hands-on ``able-to'' skills. Don't just try to stuff people's minds with facts.

5. Train new leaders. They are in desperately short supply.