The Bill Belichick Effect on Church Planting

by Stan Granberg, Executive Director

Is anyone else tired of the New England Patriots? Season after season New England rules the NFL, almost no matter who is on the team.
 
Tony Morgan, chief strategic officer of the Unstuck Group, developed a useful look at the church lifecycle with a unique twist to it. While the lifecycle idea is standard, the twist is seeing the two sides of the curve through the lens of “what got you here, won’t get you there.”

​The left of the lifecycle curve is the growth side. As a church planter gathers, launches and builds momentum he can become the center of gravity for growth. Momentum growth can be accomplished on the basis of personality, individual relationships, and sheer effort. But once the new church breaks through the crowd size of 80 and into the low 100s, personality-based growth momentum typically stalls.
 
What got the planter through launch and into the momentum growth phase is insufficient to break through the barrier to strategic growth. Strategic growth is based around developing perpetuating processes that shift the focus away from a single person to a defined process, i.e. a system. This is master’s skill of Bill Belichick. Belichick has created a system for the Patriots that has been able to sustain itself despite the constant change of players.
 
If a church gets stuck at or below the 80 level it’s a SYSTEMS problem.
 
The right side of curve is the maintenance side. The issue here is one of focus. When the focus of the church turns inwards, towards its own people, the slide to decline begins. It’s pretty easy to test for a maintenance problem. Throw out a new idea and listen to the feedback.
 
If feedback to a new idea centers around how “our people” will respond,
It’s a MAINTENANCE problem.
 
If your church is stuck on the left side of the curve, build your systems.
 
If your church is stuck on the right side of the curve, refocus your priorities to people not yet in your church.