CONGREGATIONAL
LIFE CYCLES 1996

BIRTH

This is a time of newness and chaos. It is performing without a dress-rehearsal. Roles are not institutionalized. Everyone is involved in all the tasks, particularly recruiting. Uniforms and formality are inappropriate; what’s important is productivity.

Program: The emphasis is on the doing. The need for organization is often overridden by the pressing demand to deliver program or event. Meetings and job distribution are informal. Connections and plans are often made in the frenzied moments following the service; even newcomers are asked to get involved. Energy is aimed at the next gathering and setting up a system to respond to visitors.

Building: You can’t afford to buy or to build at this stage. Buildings are often borrowed or rented. Some congregations fall into self-pity, others use the lack of overhead to make gains in their future. They put their energy smack into growth. Those with a positive attitude about rental space know that what is most important is to have a place to meet that is affordable visible, and accessible. Too frequently the quest for a permanent building becomes the purpose for being. The real purpose of growing a vibrant community of Christians can be lost in our concern for buildings.

Be it borrowed or rented, new start space often involves "setting it up and taking it down." The tedium prompts many fledgling congregations to contemplate their first building too soon. There is a logical step between a monthly mortgage of $4,000-$5,000 or devoting hours each week to setting up furniture in rental space—pay someone $50 to do it.

Risk: New businesses which are not self-supporting within a year usually close. Congregations practically never close. That is not to say that they are all viable.

Financial support from the diocese, usually for a portion of the clergy package, is intended to provide the leadership needed to aggressively grow. Healthy congregations use this investment for growth. For others, having a priest provided allows them to settle down as if they had reached their destination.

GROWTH

This is still a time of high energy and excitement, though structure emerges. Administrative systems and procedures that do not require the judgement of the founders now develop. Planning meetings are scheduled.

Program: Gathering new members is still the primary business. Now there is also the task of incorporating them into an existing group. Evangelism and incorporating new members are what you can afford to do, and cannot do without.

Simultaneously, the demands to provide program for the congregation are increasing. It is a mistake at this stage to poorly ape the full programs of the older congregations. Focus on quality and programs that address an identified need of your congregation.

Building: At some point in the growth stage a site is acquired and a building built. Because you are a growing congregation it is important to leave open many possibilities for site development and space re-allocation. With limited funds and growing programs, smart space is flexible, designed to be used by a variety of groups, and easily expandable. There can be no attachment to one room for one purpose.

The building is usually called the first phase, the parish hall, or the multi-purpose building. In reality, it is the building that you have. It is a mistake to demean it by denying it is the real church or treating life in the building as temporary. Demeaning the building interferes with a positive congregational identity and leads to less care rather than more care of the space. Growing congregations make lemonade with lemons.

When new congregations stop growing they most frequently blame their buildings and space. Space is practically never the primary problem. Plateaus of growth are transcended by attitudes towards visitors, systems to incorporate new members, and understanding large group organization.

Risk: Growing a congregation is working against gravity. There are daily pulls to plateau. The institutionalization of procedures and focusing on the current members pulls us away from growth. The need for intimacy can be accomplished either by being a small congregation or by finding ways to ensure intimacy in a large one.

Growth is limited if changes are not made in accordance with the size the congregation wants to be. A membership of 200 acts and relates differently than a membership of 50. Growth stops prematurely when goals are set too low, and when satisfied goals are not replaced with new and larger ones.

MATURITY

The signs of maturity are when growth levels-off, creativity wanes, and all the income is used to support existing programs. The theme is business as usual (which inevitably leads to less business as usual). Because administration is now institutionalized, members assume that unless explicitly assigned, innovative action is not expected.

Program: Many of your dreams have come true. It is appropriate to celebrate your accomplishments, but not wise to linger for too long. Today there are full programs and a stable budget, but today is not the future. Stability means there is nothing new. The dark side of this stage is that the ministry does not have the enthusiasm and energy that marked it up to this point.

What most do at this point is to enjoy their arrival and settle in—and unknowingly start their decline! It is time to examine where you have been and chart a path for your future. Gather data to examine who you are now, and what has changed in the congregation and the larger community. Find new traditions that focus on growth and new life. Make sure ministries are designed with the outsider in mind. This will be the last opportunity to painlessly start new directions. These Birth-stage activities will recapture the lost energy.

Building: The goal of a complete complex of buildings has been reached. Everything in the Almy catalogue has been purchased. The buildings have that established, somewhat worn look. The perceived issues are neglected maintenance and redecoration. The larger issue is that the buildings are probably not as appropriate for their current and future uses as we would like to imagine. When the ministries are re-examined, the buildings will need to be re-examined.

Risk: Relax into the comfort of this stage for too long and you will miss the opportunity for new life and a longer future (at the least cost). When the leadership is satisfied stability sets in, not growth. Only in our discomfort do we have the energy and aspiration for change.

DECLINE

The early signs of decline should be taken very seriously. Decline quickly becomes a powerful, vacuous black hole from which escape is unlikely. The window of opportunity is very small. An ounce of effort given to planning and redirection in the Maturity stage will require tons of effort once decline has begun.

Once in decline, congregations deny reality and remember as it was, not as it is or as it will be. For years the predicament may go unnamed, though there is worry and fear. The sustaining mantra is "we have always been here." Feeling threatened, afraid of further loss, you hold tight to what is familiar and resist risking anything.

Program: The climate is stale, it is lite church (everything you ever wanted in a church and less). There is admiration for the past. Costumes and tradition hold greater significance than does productivity. Budgets barely, or don’t, cover fixed expenses; there is no openness to new expenses.

The greatest possibility for reversing decline exists in the very early stages. To be successful will require radical changes to the life the congregation now knows.

Buildings: While hallowed and loved, mostly as repositories of history, buildings increasingly become financial burdens and safety liabilities. A time-use survey would reveal much of the space is little used. A query of non-members reveals that the buildings appear to be sleepy, not open for business, and speak to the past.

Risk: Decline never gets better on its own, it just gets worse. The condition can be treated, but is only eliminated with early massive, aggressive, and usually intrusive treatment. The tendency is to under-medicate and select a plan that will just delay the inevitable.

DEATH

Existence on life support with no hope of recovery holds little dignity. It would be a blessing if congregations could die gracefully, and naturally, having lived a full life, honored for the contribution they have made.

People go through the life cycle with reluctance; congregations have an even more difficult time. It is natural for congregations to be born, to grow, to blossom, to age, to decline, and to die. Many congregations have discovered how to find new life and thus to live longer. The purpose of understanding life cycle is to recognize the opportunities to redefine congregational ministry in ways that are fresh and appropriate. The challenge for buildings is to be prepared for this redefinition which often involves re-allocation of space and housing unexpected ministries.