#3. Your Pain Threshold will determine your Growth Threshold
Yes, growing churches are led by growing leaders. But all growing leaders carry a serious amount of pain. Don't be naive and think that just because a pastor has a large church that their life is a bed of roses. Here's what I mean.
It's painful when ...
+Your church outgrows your ability to know everyone and you feel like a jerk when people meet you in public feel like they know you as their best friend and you barely recognize them.
+You pour your life into people and you watch them blow up their marriage and ministry.
+Critics misrepresent you and your church just because it grows.
+You have to fire a staff member because that's what's best for the church
+People leave your church because it got "too big." You can know everybody or everybody can know Jesus. You can't have both!
+Some of your best friends chunk their moral character and then blame the ministry
+You have to make serious changes in order to help the church grow to the next level and people get mad and hate on you.
+You take some audacious leap of faith to reach people for Jesus and you fall flat on your face. But you'd rather do that than settle for a comfortable ministry and take home a paycheck every couple of weeks.
+You confront people who aren't with the vision and you hold them to a high standard.
Listen, I love what I do. But it's hard. Ministry is tough. And many pastors are not willing to face the pain of change and therefore sacrifice maximizing the full potential of Gods ultimate plan for their ministry. How much pain can you take?
