The church life-cycle (part 1)

The church is both a theological and sociological entity. We refer to it theologically as the body or bride of Christ. Jesus speaks in spiritual or theological terms when he says that the gates of hell will not overcome the church in Matthew 16:18. This is the Church (note the capital C), which will live forever.

However, each individual congregation is also a very human structure. It’s a community or an organisation. It is composed of people and is located in a particular place. This is the church (lowercase c). This church will not live forever.

Churches, like human organisations of all kinds, have lifecycles: they are born, they live- sometimes for centuries, sometimes for months, and they die.

This is true of businesses and non-profits. Your local cafe had a ‘birth’, as did the nearest rugby club, Mum’s coffee group, and government department. Banks, criminal gangs, hardware stores, and primary schools will grow to ‘maturity’. And all of them will one day cease to exist.

The lifecycle phenomenon can be news for those of us in Mainline churches. Most Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches have been around for decades if not centuries, so our birth and early struggles have been long forgotten. We are becoming increasingly aware of the latter stages of organisational life, however. Independent and historically Free churches (Baptist, Brethren, Pentecostal, etc) tend to be much more aware of the lifecycle thing, as the memories of founding and the struggle to become a viable entity are very formative.

Tony Morgan’s version of the church lifecycle (borrowed from https://theunstuckgroup.com)

There’s a wee bit to understanding each part of the cycle, and obviously, the stage your church is in will have enormous implications for your role as its leader. Below are the first four stages.

Stage 1: the dream

All organisations begin with a dream. This is the imagination and planning stage. The organisation is ‘in utero’, existing only in the minds of its founders. This stage looks like hours spent sitting in offices and living rooms, brainstorming and arguing. Gil Rendle writes, “The dream or vision is the source of energy and direction that fuels the ministry.”

The dream stage can last for a long time, and many ventures never get beyond this point. The dream will last until its founders give up on it or it is launched into the world.

Stage 2: birth

The birth of an organisation is both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. Exhilarating because the dreamers and those who have gathered to join them have decided to go for it, and nerve-wracking because no one is completely sure that it’ll work.

At their birth, churches tend to share a number of qualities.

Passion. Because it takes huge commitment and energy to found anything, founders tend to be passionate people.

Purpose & Unity. Churches at their founding have a very clear sense of mission and purpose. This stems directly from the dream. The founders and those who have gathered to join them believe deeply in the dream and are willing to pay the price (in terms of money, time, etc) in order for it to come to life. This looks similar to how it would have been in the days when the Christian church was first birthed. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” Acts 4:32

Chaos. Finances are tight. There is a heavy reliance on volunteers. There are few if any, formal systems. This stage is all about improvising; figuring out how to make the vision a reality.

Stage 3: adolescence

You can only get so far, making it up as you go along. If a church survives the launch phase (and Ed Stetzer reckons from North American research that 1/3 of church plants fail in their first four years), it will be because they have managed to add some structure and predictability to the venture.

This is the stage where goal setting, job descriptions, systems and processes begin to become important. William Bridges writes, “But the [church] has come to the point where the natural energy of the founders is no longer enough to ensure continued good results. The frantic efforts of a handful of people need to be replaced by a more predictable set of activities by a growing number of people.”

So, this stage sees the church getting itself organised. This does not mean, though, that the dream is any less central. Alice Mann calls this stage the church’s ‘formation.’ In particular, the things that are deeply formed are the identity (geographic, ethnic, subculture, etc.) of the people that the church is attempting to reach and the means through which they are trying to reach them (1-1 evangelism, Mum’s coffee group, Alpha courses, etc).

Mann states that this is the point that churches imprint deeply within themselves the answers to three questions: Who are we? What are we here for? And who is our neighbour? Once answers to these questions have been found, the church begins to take these things for granted: “Of course, we’re a social justice church.” “God’s called us to reach the people of … area.” “Music and worship are just in the DNA of our church”.

Stage 4: adulthood

Alternatively called ‘stability’, ‘making it’, or ‘sustained health’ is where the organisation enters adulthood. If it was business, by this stage, it has become healthily profitable; if it is an NGO, it has locked in some sustainable funding sources and is recognised as doing good work; and if it is a church, it has entered a period of fruitful and sustainable ministry.

These are the years that churches look back at when they reminisce: identity and leadership are strong, people are coming and faith, and there’s money in the offering plate. By this stage, the church has often pulled together the money for a purpose-built facility and may well have transitioned from a single pastor to a staff team. The church’s fundamental nature, established earlier in its lifecycle, continues. The goals and structure work well to serve the dream of ministry.

For those who have been there from the start, this is an incredibly fulfilling stage. Their dream is a living, breathing reality.

Everyone loves a winner, and this is often the stage when Christians jump on the bandwagon, leaving their existing churches in order to join. The new arrivals, while they will likely view the founders (if they are still around) as heroic pioneers, will be blissfully unaware of the hustle that brought the church into being.

Unfortunately, no stage lasts forever. Without careful and deliberate change, a church will continue to move through its lifecycle. Next post: Institutionalism, Decline and Death.

Sources: William Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change; Gilbert Rendle, Leading Change in the Congregation: Spiritual and Organizational Tools for Leaders; Alice Mann, Can Our Church Live?: Redeveloping Congregations in Decline; Tony Morgan, The unstuck church: equipping churches to experience sustained health.