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Birth
Description
- Vision drives the church plant
- Leaders have significant impact
- Structure is flexible and change is easy
- Resources and activities are limited
- New people may be slow to feel community
Transition
- Build a growing sense of community
- Develop pathways for assimilation
- Include a wider group in decision-making
- Raise up leaders
- Provide opportunities for ministry
Infancy
Description
- Members grow committed to the vision
- New people are welcomed and community and relationships grow
- The leader continues to drive the organisation
- Resources remain limited
- Many needs cannot be met
- Underlying belief systems/core values emerge
- Often a church constitutes at this stage
Transition
- Pray for and grow resources
- Share leadership
- Work on developing ministries and ministry teams
- Put basic structure in place
- Support others with a vision
- Network with churches further on in the life cycle
Adolescence/Childhood
Description
- Activities and ministries develop
- Momentum increases
- Structure grows
- Congregation can grow rapidly
- Leadership becomes collaborative and delegated
- Tensions increase and community weakens
- Leaders are stretched
- Competition over resources (eg. people, facilities, finance, attention) increases
- Pastoral care/support diminishes
Transition
- Support and develop ministry leaders
- Deal with tensions as they develop
- Listen carefully to what ministry leaders are saying
- Encourage the development of new ministries
- Build pastoral care systems to ensure pastoral care is maintained
- Honour God for the momentum and growth
Adolescence
Description
- Quality and quantity of ministry increases
- Resources are strengthened
- Growth creates strains on the system
- Management systems are formalised
- Tensions are acknowledged and worked through
- New people are assimilated better
- The church becomes more outward looking
- The church grows excited about its success
Transition
- Work on getting the right leaders who can focus on the big issues
- Formalise structures that facilitate strong direction, communication and feedback
- Stick to the vision and listen to God
- Build the pastoral team with God’s people
- Maintain church health as the church grows
- Provide resources and support for leaders
Prime/Adulthood
Description
- The improved management and structures provide clear direction, communication and security
- Resources are maximised and stresses ease
- Activities cater for all (inside and outside)
- Morale is high and members see their dreams fulfilled
- Other people are attracted to the church
- There is less incentive to risk
Transition
- Create discontent (we haven’t arrived) and provide new vision
- Continue to take risks and make changes
- Focus on evangelism - keep looking out
- Involve newcomers
- Keep telling the stories that drive your vision
- Invest in the leadership team
- Listen to God
Maturity
Description
- Everything runs smoothly and efficiently and activities are very well run
- Members feel very satisfied with the church and see little need to change
- Energy for ministry declines (the sacrifices have been made) and some ministries are harder to staff
- Attendance plateaus and the congregation is aging
- Vision and passion for the vision diminishes
Transition
- Own the problems and make the leaders aware
- Decrease management control so that frustrations and ideas for change emerge
- Let people experiment (and fail). Release resources for them
- Seek God for new vision that expands or realigns the past vision
- Pursue this new vision
Aristocracy/Empty Nest
Description
- Momentum wanes and people realise that the church is declining
- Effective leaders pull back (it’s too hard)
- Activities are reduced through lack of resources and leadership
- Many long for a return to Prime but see the pathway as a return to past practices
- Leadership becomes more insular and defensive and outsiders or critics are excluded
- Visitors seldom join the church
- Nostalgia turns to disappointment and then to anger - someone is to blame
- Conflict is severe and people burn out
Transition
- The congregation must admit the problem
- Deal with any dysfunction
- Connect with good values from the past
- Decrease management control so that innovation can occur (this may meaning moving some leaders)
- Give freedom to new leaders
- Support them with prayer teams
- Create new activities - show that new things can be done
- Encourage the development of relationships around these new activities
- As support and confidence grow in the church, new vision can be considered.
Retirement
Description
- New activities are tried in order to revitalise the church
- Management remains strong and controls the functioning of the church
- Relationships are weak as members deal with their pain and new people are not invited
- Often a new leader is called to lead change but the degree of change needed is not anticipated
Transition
- Decrease management that controls rather than empowers
- Streamline the decision-making process
- Be prepared for unhealthy conflict with stakeholders
- Build relationships through caring and dealing with issues. Maintain communication
- Slowly develop new programs
- This is the most difficult stage to transition
Bureaucracy/Old Age
Description
- The activities fix has not worked and members have given up - disappointed and disillusioned
- Structures, rules and policies remain and power is important for some
- The church is rigid, defensive, and suspicious
- There are few resources (apart from buildings)
Transition
- Decrease management that controls rather than empowers (easier when people are desperate)
- Develop one or two activities for credibility and encouragement
- Cast and implement a new vision
- Deal with the pain of stakeholders
Death
Description
- The resources can no longer maintain life
- All that remains is a skeleton of management structures and procedures
Transition
- Celebrate the life of the church (like a funeral)
- Restart with a new vision
- Decide whether the present plant fits the vision