A Lot Has Changed in 18 Years!

Happy 18th birthday, Gateway!  It is so exciting to see how God has worked in the life of our church over the past 18 years. God has allowed us to continue to grow both spiritually and in number. Let’s take a look at our history and how God has allowed us to adapt and change as He continues to grow us.

January 27, 2002. It was the first worship service for the group of people who would eventually become Gateway Church. There were approximately 275 adults in attendance at that first service and we had a staff of 5. My dad was an elder at the time, and I remember Session meetings were frequent and long as the elders made many decisions ranging from budget and staffing concerns to building, property and legal issues, and there was even an elder running the children’s ministry! When I look at pictures from that first service, I can name almost everyone in attendance, because we were a small enough community that it was actually possible to know everyone. We had a bulletin and a weekly newsletter to keep everyone informed of all that was going on, but if plans for an event had to change for some reason, someone told someone who told someone and somehow everyone figured out where to go and when to be there. In many ways, it was a wonderful time full of good memories and a sense of belonging.

Fast forward 18 years to January 26, 2020. By God’s grace, Gateway has grown from what many church growth experts would call a “medium-sized church” (attendance of 200-450) to a “very large church,” with an average weekend attendance of 1,500 people. While the essential convictions, beliefs and mission of Gateway have not changed in the past 18 years, in many other ways the Gateway of 2002 is barely recognizable in the Gateway of 2020. I recently read an article by Pastor Tim Keller titled “Leadership and Church Size Dynamics: How Strategy Changes With Growth.” In the article, Keller says:

Size has an enormous impact on how a church functions...A large church is not simply a bigger version of a small church. The difference in communication, community formation, and decision-making processes are so great that the leadership skills required in each are of almost completely different orders.

As I read this article (which is a great read that I highly recommend), I started to think through some of the more significant changes we have navigated as we have grown. A lot of these changes can be summed up in three main categories: Staff/Leadership Responsibilities, Communication and Care/Connection.

Staff/Leadership Responsibilities

• Staffing Structure: With a staff of 5 or even 10, it was easy for everyone to report directly to the Senior Pastor. As a staff of 26, we have a complex staffing structure to handle the oversight and coaching of staff, freeing the Senior Pastor to focus on his primary responsibilities of casting vision and being Gateway’s primary preacher/teacher. Chances are, if you stop Pastor Josh and ask him whose responsibility it is to do x, y or z or why certain ministry decisions were made, he may need to ask around to find out the answer, because it is impossible for him to be involved in every decision that is made.
• Specialty Staff: As the size of the staff grows, we have the opportunity to hire people into more specialized roles. For example, as a church of 300, we had one Children’s Ministry Director and one Youth Director. As a church of 1,200, we are able to have 5 Next Gen staff who specialize in nursery care, preschool, elementary and youth ministry. This allows us to raise the bar on the quality of programs we offer, but also means you may contact the church office looking for one person, but be directed to someone else who is better equipped to answer your question.
• Typical Work Week: Where a normal staff work week for almost everyone on staff used to be Sunday - Thursday, now only those staff whose job responsibilities are directly related to our core value of Worship (primarily pastors, worship leaders and Next Gen staff) consider Sundays a work day. Other staff work a more typical Monday-Friday schedule in order to use their work time in ways more directly related to their job descriptions.
• Decision Making: Where most financial, staffing, vision and ministry decisions used to be the responsibility of the elders, most of those day to day business and ministry decisions are now delegated to staff, freeing the elders to serve as the spiritual shepherds and overseers of the congregation.

Communication

• Methods: Where a bulletin, weekly newsletter and word-of-mouth used to be sufficient for communicating church happenings, as we have grown, we have had to expand the avenues we use to communicate. Stage time is extremely limited, so we can no longer announce everything from the platform during a weekend service. We primary utilize digital means of communication (weekly emails, the website, the app, announcement videos, etc) in order to keep information as accurate and up to date as possible. If the time of a meeting changes, it is much more efficient to update the website than it is to reprint hundreds of flyers.
• Planning: Spur of the moment events or last minute changes were much easier to accommodate as a medium-sized church. The complexity of the church calendar means more advanced planning is necessary to ensure each member of the communications team has the information they need with enough lead time to do their job well.
• Staff Changes: As the staff grows and ministry roles change and become more specialized, it is no longer possible to announce every staff change broadly to the entire congregation. In general, pastoral changes are announced to everyone, but beyond that, staffing announcements are targeted to the group of people most directly affected. We are still working out the bumps in this one, but we try to ask ourselves, “Who needs to know this?”, and then communicate directly with those people.

Care/Connection

• Connection: In many ways, feeling connected seemed much easier in a small or medium-sized church. It is impossible to know everyone at a weekend service now - especially with 6 service options spread between 3 campuses, but we have an incredible Life Group ministry where people connect with and support one another in a deeply personal way. During significant life situations (i.e. the birth of a child, the loss of a job, the death of a loved one), Life Groups are our first line of care for one another. People also connect with one another through serving teams and local/international Going opportunities. While being connected at Gateway is not hard, it definitely does take more intentionality.
• Pastoral Care: As we have grown, we have had to learn to let go of the idea that the Senior Pastor is the sole (or even primary) means of pastoral care for the congregation. Campus pastors and elders are now often the first line of pastoral care. Pastor Robert has also been a huge addition to our staff in his primary role as our Pastor of Care and Counseling. We also have plans in 2020 to grow our diaconate ministry in order to better care for one another.

As we take time to look back at how much Gateway has changed over the last 18 years, it can be tempting to either look back with nostalgia, mourning the sense of community and connectedness that used to come easily and now takes such effort, or look at where we are today with pride and arrogance. It is good to remember there are churches of all sizes faithfully preaching and teaching the good news of Jesus. A small church does not mean unfaithfulness, just as a large church is not a promise of God’s favor. Tim Keller reminds us, “There is no ‘best size’ for a church. Each size presents great difficulties and also many opportunities for ministry that churches of other sizes cannot undertake (at least not as well). Only together can churches of all sizes be all that Christ wants the church to be.” As Gateway celebrates 18 years of ministry this week, I am thankful for both where we started, and where we’ve grown, and praise “Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)