Over the weekend I posted the essentials for breaking the 200 in worship growth barrier.  Today, I’m listing the essentials for breaking the 500 barrier.

Keep in mind that these barrier numbers are just that- numbers.  These barriers aren’t broken the moment you average higher than they are.  For example: you really don’t break the 200 barrier until you pass the 500 barrier and so on. It takes that long for the culture of under 200 in worship to go away. That’s why the faster a church grows the easier it is to blow past the barriers because the culture created by that size church doesn’t have time to take effect. So you see, barriers are sort of messy.

The faster a church grows, the easier it is to blow past worship barriers.

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Now keep in mind that the essentials listed below to break 500 in worship are built upon the essentials for breaking the 200 worship barrier. So add the essentials for 200 in worship to the following list.

To Break 500 in worship you need the following:

1. The pastoral/program staff adds up to one staff member per one hundred people in worship, including children.
2. The pastor and staff hand off most ministry and act more as coaches and scouts than players (Baseball analogy).
3. The children’s ministry is sterling, and not in a classroom design.
4. The nursery is one of the nicest and cleanest rooms in the building.
5. The pastor focuses more attention on the growth of the staff than on that of the church.
6. The staff is an extension of the DNA of the pastor and they fill in all of his/her weaknesses.
7. Everyone on staff is able to picture and articulate the needs of the church if it were twice its present size.
8. The pastor hones his or her hiring and firing skills.
9. The pastor does all the hiring and firing.
10. All staff are learning to hand off ministry and reproduce leaders.

Next we’ll take a look at breaking the 1,000 barrier.

Question: Of the essentials listed, which do you think is most important? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

You Might Also Like:

• In the Middle of the Worship Wars
• Growth Barriers
• Essentials for Breaking Worship Barriers: Part One