If you lead a business, or church or organisation at some point you will be thinking about growth. These four reflections may help add some extra fuel for the fire.

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Don’t you love it when something grows? As a child we used to plant sunflower seeds. You may have done it too. It was a favourite childhood pastime for us. We would watch the seedling become a stem with leaves, that would came a stronger stem with more leaves until eventually (hopefully) the sunflower seed becomes a 6-foot tall sunflower. I don’t think many made it to 6 foot, but there was always that hope.

I think the illustration points to a number of different themes under this heading of growth:

1.We are hardwired for growth
2.We love it when things grow
3.There are things that can get in the way of growth
4.There are things we can do to promote growth

Growth is an area I have been doing a lot of thinking about for more than 20 years mainly in the context of Church. I’m no expert and it’s an area I’m still learning about, but I think growth is one of these topics that affects every leader who has a business, or leads an organisation like a church or charity, or leads a project or team. Often leaders spend time thinking about growth and how to create the best conditions where growth is the by-product.

That’s why at the Stronger Conference earlier on this year we invited Gordon Eichorst to come and speak on the subject of ‘Growth Barriers’. Gordon is the co-founder of Impact Central, an accelerator that works with impact start-ups. He began his impact journey in 2018 when he launched the first accelerator at Resurgo and has worked with and advised more than 40 impact start-ups since that time. Gordon is a thought leader on impact investing and has created numerous corporate structures that have delivered impressive impact and financial returns.

I will pull in some reflections from his session into this article as we look at this subject of growth.

1.We are hardwired for growth

A bit like the sunflower seed, there are conditions that can help facilitate growth. Inherent into the genetic composition of the seed, is the ability to germinate and grow. The sunflower seed, as you know, will sit in the packet for a number of years beforehand, quite happily undisturbed. When the conditions are right however, the seed begins to put out roots and shoots and eventually leaves that can then photosynthesize and propel further growth.

The potential for growth is inherent in the design of the seed. Only when the conditions for growth are right, will growth begin.

Similarly, we each are hardwired with particular passions or tendencies that enable us to grow in knowledge and skills and giftings. Those things don’t happen overnight, they come through practice, and the investment of time and energy and us prioritizing those things over others. In the same way, in the organizations that we lead, there is the potential for growth.

Gordon reminded us of passages in the bible that point to growth. The creation account and God’s exhortation and commission to Adam and Eve to ‘increase and multiply’. The parables and teaching of Jesus often with ‘growth’ as a feature, sometimes as a warning, other times as an invitation to a deeper commitment, e.g. the sower (Mark 4), the mustard seed (Matt 13), the weeds (Matt 13), the yeast (Matt 13), the bigger barns (Luke 12), the talents (Matt 25).

2.We love it when things grow

There was such a delight in our childhood growing those sunflowers. There was something magical that captured the young imagination. I think that doesn’t disappear when we hit adulthood either. As adults we love it when things grow too.

When I planted a church in West London about 11 years ago, we would measure the number of new people turning up on a Sunday, we would measure the number of leaders we had been training, we measured our electoral roll numbers. We measured age and distance people travelled to come to church. In fact, if we could measure it, we probably did. Metrics bring visibility and help track progress and growth.

What was so interesting was that the most important metric became less about the seating capacity and more about the sending capacity. Sending people out each week as missional disciples to live for Jesus. Sending them out across the world as they moved away from London with their work or young family. The point was that we tracked growth and momentum.

Again, stewarding our resources and relationships is a biblical mandate. To steward and tend the things that God has given us, not to idolize the output, but to worship God through the process is the key.

Celebrate when you see growth. Celebrate God’s faithfulness. Cheer each other on with all the hard work that went in.

3.There are things that can get in the way of growth

I really loved a Church Growth learning community that I originally sat in on, led by Lead Academy (and then subsequently led with the Gregory center for Church multiplication) where they discussed the sigmoid growth curve. The growth curve gives leaders an interesting insight into how organisations experience growth. There is the initial period of growth, which begins to decrease in acceleration and then plateaus, before declining and then eventually dying.

We would then work out where our organizations or particular departments or ‘ministry areas’ sat on the curve. Maybe they were in a growth phase, or plateau phase, or even declining. It was a challenging exercise for us when we did it the first time, and was certainly for all those churches that did it subsequently. It helped us think about the areas that were declining and why they were doing that. What were the barriers to growth.

A quick google search pulls up all sorts of articles and ideas about barriers to growth. One article here describes how cash flow; lack of strategic planning/vision, team, customer service are all areas that could give rise to growth barriers.

Another article here suggests that the lack of a sustainable model, an unclear value proposition; lack of a growth strategy, dysfunctional team, inefficient pipeline, poor delegation and scaling will create barriers to growth.

It’s worth reflecting on some of these and naming them. Again these are helpful metrics that bring visibility.

Gordon in his session said that we can approach barriers to growth in one of two ways. We can think they are too big, or we can think they will take too long to sort out. He left us with a couple of encouragements:

1.Is it too big that God can’t handle it?
2.God sees time differently, so reframe your perspective because success is more about the journey than the destination.

4.There are things we can do to promote growth

Going back to the sunflower seed image, there were conditions that the seed need to catalyse growth. It takes me back to degree level biology and the mechanics of germination. I’ll spare you. The point is that the conditions need to be met to enable growth.

It’s the same with our organisations. Using the growth curve again, the key is to be thinking about catalysing future growth before you hit the plateau phase. So if you’re in an accelerating growth phase, watch out for the following plateau phase. Prepare now for that time.

It might be that you need to go back to those barriers that you’ve identified. Perhaps the value proposition needs to be a little clearer. Maybe you haven’t quite go the right people around the table yet and in the right roles. Maybe the prevailing context is tough at the moment and you just need to ride it out.

Gordon, as a seasoned leader reminded us in his session that ‘barriers have something to teach us’. That ‘they are not my barrier, but our barrier’. It’s worth remember that in this process too, we are no on own as leaders.

Another helpful image that someone passed on to me years back was that of a river. He said unleashing growth is taking out shopping trolleys from a river that was previously slow moving. As you take the trolleys out, the flow is released because it is no longer impeded by the objects. There is something helpful in this image, like the sunflower seeds, that God had given us the gifts, the networks, the resources and relationships to enable a thing to grow. He wants it to grow. We just have to identify some of the sticking points and remove some of those barriers.

Summary

Gordon finished his session with a few practical ideas:

1.Share your vision (with those you’re leading)
2.Share your burden (with your team and God)
3.Share your prayers (get people to pray for you).

If you’re reading this and growth is an area of interest to you and concern for you why not comment below about helping frameworks or resources that have helped you over the years. Let’s share these things together and learn together.