"20 Mile March"

Great by Choice. Collins likes to coin memorable phrases to illustrate his findings, and the one that struck me the most is the “20 Mile March.” The term is taken from an illustration of crossing the country by consistently walking 20 miles each day. The walker covers the same distance in beautiful and terrible weather, in mountains and flatlands. Collins makes a compelling case that this is ultimately a much quicker and better way to reach a destination than by pressing hard on good days, falling into exhaustion on subsequent days, and stopping completely when conditions are bad. The key, according to Collins, is discipline – discipline to push yourself through the hard times and to restrain yourself in good times. As I read this chapter, I couldn’t help but wonder if it applies to many church plants and other fast-growing churches and ministries. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in conversations or heard about a church that grew rapidly, but then ran into problems because it didn’t have a good process for discipleship or lacked the leadership to support its needs. The end result of this explosive growth is often burn-out for leaders (sometimes exhaustion, sometimes much worse), shallow believers whose faith isn’t growing, or a huge back door through which people are exiting. I realize that there are two big concerns with applying the concept of the “20 Mile March” in a spiritual organization. The first is that Collins writes from a secular perspective, and we know that the Holy Spirit moves in unpredictable ways. We may think of the explosive and “undisciplined” growth of the Church in Acts as the perfect counterexample to Collins. Second, apart from the theological issues, it’s hard to imagine that we’d want to do anything to slow growth when things are going well. It’s this second concern that I want to challenge. If you knew that rapid growth was going to cause problems further down the road, would you be willing to take your foot off the accelerator, just a little? You might do that by raising the bar for membership and thereby pruning away some who are not committed to the mission of the church. Or you might cancel the catchy, attractional sermon series that was planned, and instead focus on deeper teaching for the existing flock. Don’t get me wrong – I think every church should grow, and I never want to limit the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. But I wonder if we’d be better stewards in the long run by taking the more disciplined approach of the 20 Mile March.]]>