Mike 
The heat and humidity can be oppressive during Houston summers. And while it’s plenty hot this summer, we’ve been blessed with a good bit of rain that has kept the temperatures out of the triple digits (so far). The rain has also produced the greenest yard that I’ve had in several years. I was so thankful for the lush grass, that I didn’t notice the dramatic growth in one of our trees. One large branch became so heavy with new growth that it sagged onto the lines coming into our house, disrupting our cable and internet service. It turns out that there is a downside to the rain and the resulting growth.
The same is true for your church or ministry or non-profit, whether or not it is currently growing. As leaders, it’s appropriate for us to drive toward growth. Growth equates with more lives transformed by the gospel or more desperate needs being met. These are good things to do.
It is not accurate, however, to conclude that all growth is good. Like my grass and the branch of my tree, some growth is good and some can be damaging. Identifying undesirable growth is particularly challenging for leaders for three reasons:
- It’s often hidden. I was looking down at the grass, not up at the trees, and didn’t notice the unwanted growth. In the same way, when good things are happening in your ministry, it’s easy to overlook places that are off track. For example, rapid increases in a small group ministry may mask the reality that some leaders have an off-brand theology.
- We’re too busy to notice. Resources almost always lag in times of growth, which means that staff and volunteers are overloaded. It’s natural to focus our energy on keeping up with the good growth. For example, a food pantry receives a grant to start a job training program. In their efforts to launch this new program, they don’t realize that their screening procedures have slipped.
- It’s too costly to fix. Even when undesirable growth is identified, leaders may think that it’s not worth the cost to “fix” the problem. Even if I had noticed the growth in our branch, I might not have called the tree company if we hadn’t lost communications.
