Oak Valley Community Church battled through and kept on growing. Even though it had to fine-tune its structure, the church was basically positive and forward-looking. The handful became dozens, and the dozens crept to hundreds. At some stage, nobody knows really when, many people felt a vague frustration that they couldn't easily describe.

Some of the original small group started becoming disillusioned. Some decided to leave, feeling that the good old days were happier. Others felt hurt at being eased out of the church's leadership structure by newcomers who could do the job better. Some enjoyed the anonymity of the crowd, which gave them the opportunity to sit back and do very little. Others suffered the loneliness of knowing that nobody notices whether they come or not. Many of them could not accept that the church no longer wanted the old building that they had sacrificed so much to build and where they had felt so happy, even though it was not at all adequate for the church's needs.

The church was now more professional. The music had to be better. In the old days, everybody knew the musicians and didn't criticize mistakes. Eventually the church was too big for everybody to know each musician, so people wanted a professional show. Some of the less talented (or less disciplined) musicians from the old days were pushed aside.

And not only music had to be more professional. Everything else had to be done better, and that means more expensively. Speaking and teaching had to be more polished, and people came to expect a wide range of niche ministries, requiring the pastoral team to have increasingly specialized skills.

When a growing church nears about two hundred members, churches experience another set of growing pains. Very few churches respond positively to the 200 barrier, and most give in to the aches and pains of continued growth and start stagnating.

Clearly, the leadership needs to teach that nobody can attend every program; in fact, it's kind of nice to go only to those meetings that are important for you. (It might seem amazing, but some people will disagree with proposals for new ministries for no other reason than they can't get out to another meeting.)

Finances are a niggling cause of concern. Although the church has seen healthy growth in its income, some of the figures are staggering. The responsibility of the huge buildings (and perhaps the larger mortgage) causes some wrinkled brows, although they could easily pay it off if they were as sacrificial as their founders. The salary bill for the increasing number of staff means that the budget never shows a healthy surplus.

Other members of the original group of founders have stuck with the church and now occupy a unique place in its power-broking structure. Having an intimate knowledge of the people and history of the church, as well as quite clear ideas of what the expect from it, they almost have veto power in any important decision.

Professionalism might be good, even unavoidable, in many ways. In churches so big that a personal touch is increasingly difficult, people expect higher standards. For churches that can afford it, the extra plush is sometimes no more than a reflection of the living standards of the surrounding community. People don't easily accept amateurish service anywhere else, and they don't listen to music with mistakes in it.

But the down-side of professionalism is that the larger church risks losing the contribution of its silent majority. First, many of these people do not easily emerge as highly-skilled church leaders. With training, many could make a valuable contribution, and the church cannot afford to let church-going degenerate into a mentality of ``Sit back and watch the show''.

Second, ordinary members are now further from the church's decision-making processes. Decisions are more complex, detailed work is delegated to committees, and there are too many members to allow as much open discussion as would be possible in a smaller church. A hierarchy develops and the people at the top become more powerful. Clearly, the church has become far more institutional.

Finding a pastor with the vision and ability to provide positive leadership is increasingly difficult.

But the greatest problem facing the church is the temptation to consolidate its gains. Pastoral care has an increasingly prominent role, with a corresponding decrease in evangelism and church-planting. There are now more people in the church, so even meeting the routine needs for pastoral care is strenuous. If the matter ever gets discussed, the excuse is almost always that the church needs to re-focus on strengthening the church after a period of rapid growth.

Beware! Probably the majority of growing churches respond badly to these pressures, thinking that they are doing what is right. Of great danger is a deliberate decision to ``consolidate''; it will arrest growth and the church will begin to stagnate. It may seem easy to regain momentum later (after all, you've had no problems so far), but the truth is that it will be far more difficult than simply maintaining it. The decision to consolidate is not quite in keeping with Scripture. Faced with runaway growth, the apostles simply redoubled their teaching efforts and delegated work that would disrupt it. (Acts 2:42,46,47, 6:1a,4)

Tips:

1. Having become bigger, you're probably struggling with new structures, and the pain involved in your size. Don't give up. Discuss the issues openly and value the feedback you get. Some turnover of membership is inevitable. Try your best to help those who can't handle the changes to become part of a Christian group that meets their needs. In many cases, it can be a small group within the church.

2. Face any of these pressures and respond in a way that promotes further growth. You can keep the mother church growing, but putting resources into planting daughter churches should also be a high priority.

3. Your money, size, and prestige are giving you increased power in denominational circles. Give positive input to other churches, but keep humble and keep on learning. Don't feel you should have more privileges and power than smaller churches; pride would be your undoing.

4. Don't let the tendency to professionalism let you forget to train your second-tier leaders.