I remember when Matt and I almsot had simultaneous mental breakdowns. It was late fall 2006 and early spring of 2007. The Journey had grown to about 300-360 people and we were it on staff. It had become entirely too much for the two of us to handle. There were tons of systems that were needing to be in place, and we just didn't have the time or energy to do them. Matt's eye was twitching all the time, and I couldn't sleep on most nights.
So, we eventually went to the Lead Team, and said in essence, "HEELLLPPPPP!!". We already had been bugging Mark to come and join us, and we knew we needed someone to help with kids. Mark agreed to come, and we started talking to Virginia, who was already attending The Journey. It was a great fit and we offered her the job too. We doubled our staff in one month (and our budget!). It was crazy, and we weren't sure we would have the money, but we knew we had to do something or we were both going to end up dead or out of ministry.
The problem has been, that although Mark and V have done AWESOME! Seriously, they are hard workers, and are doing an awesome job. The areas that they oversee, were areas that were on my plate: assimilation/groups, and Journey Kids. So, although I was freed up, Matt didn't gain much relief from that deal. Those were the largest, most strategic needs, so they were the right decisions. But, it didn't make it much easier on Matt.
With our continued growth, we are getting to that place again, where something needs to happen. We're talking and praying about next steps. We have some specific needs in areas like Youth ministry, Worship/video, Campus Pastor and administration. We obviously can't just go out and hire 3 positions (especially if you read the posts from the last couple of days), so we need to be creative. That's what the staff and Lead Team are working on now.
Oh, and Matt's eye has started twitching again, and I can't sleep at night, and Mark is getting the shakes, and V is talking to herself.