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I commented on someone’s comment to my blog yesterday and found myself quoting Jim Wideman. When you hear someone say something over and over, it becomes part of your own vocabulary. I’m sure that 20 years from now I’ll continue to say it but forget that I learned it from Jim. 🙂 Is that they way it works? After a while I can just take credit for it myself.

The concept that Jim taught me was about structuring for growth and how if I want to see my ministry grow, I’ve got to create a structure for growth. So if I want to see 200 kids in small groups, then I need to create a program that allows for 200 kids in small groups, including the leaders to lead 200 kids in small groups. Jim uses a personal example from his time at Church on the Move. When they just had one bus, they kept running into the problem of people double booking the bus. Although they didn’t have a fleet, Jim created a bus log that worked for just one bus or a fleet. Years later when they did have a fleet, they were still using the same form.

So, the question I’m asking you (myself as well) is this. How have you (or are you) structuring for growth? What are you putting in place now (that you may not even need now) that you can’t live without when the growth comes?