5 Must-Have Stages of an Organized Church

Life cycles are a reality for every church. Here’s how to guide your church through the process.

Every organization goes through life cycles. This includes the church. These cycles can be natural or forced, but part of leadership is recognizing them and adapting leadership to them for continued health and growth. Each stage has overlap, but understanding this can help a leader decide how best to lead … which is different in each cycle.

Here are five life cycles of any organization:

1. Birth—This founding period usually involves a few people with a big vision. This is the initial stage where a lot of learning takes place and the organization begins to develop leaders … sometimes by trial and error. Everyone on the team at this point has the potential to become a leader in some area. Having planted a couple of churches, we launched one with one staff member (me), my wife and 20 or so people.
The other was with three staff members, our wives and 11 couples. Each member of both teams was forced to lead areas outside of his or her comfort level, but we gained some of our best leaders that way and several people found a passion they did not know they had. In both church plants, which grew quickly; this stage lasted less than one year.

2. Childhood—A deepening and maturity process begins at this stage, but the organization still has few policies and procedures in place and everything is still “fun,” with the excitement of still being a young vision. New leadership develops and responsibilities spread to new people within the organization. Mistakes are common as the organization figures out its identity.
The DNA of the organization begins to form. The organization begins to recognize its need for more structure. This was a fun stage and time for both church plants. The normal for this stage appears to end in three to five years. (For larger organizations, I assume this could be a longer time frame.)

3. Adolescence—Greater levels of responsibility are handed out to more people and the weight of responsibility spreads within the organization. The organization has had some success at this point and so it begins to take new risks and dream new and bigger dreams. This is a continued growth time and usually full of renewed energy. If the organization is not careful, some of the initial leaders of the organization can begin to experience burnout, and often a loss of power as new leaders emerge.
More developed structure becomes necessary at this point and the organization must begin to think about maintaining growth. Organizations are forced to “grow up” during this stage. It usually happens in the first 10 years, but again, this may depend on the size of the organization.

4. Maturity—At this stage the organization has many experiences of success and some failure and must begin to think through continued growth and health as an organization. The organization needs constant renewal and regeneration to remain current and viable. Leadership has been developed, but the organization begins to plan out succession of leaders.
The structure of the organization is usually well established by this point, but must remain flexible enough to adapt to changes outside the organization. At some point, all organizations enter this phase. All. The goal at this point needs to shift into breathing new life into the organization. (A lot of churches reach this stage and cease to change and grow, often steeped in their own traditions, and this is where plateau begins. Know any who fit this category?)

5. Renewal—This stage almost always has to be forced on an organization. Sad, isn’t it? Either by leadership or for survival purposes, something new must occur or the organization will eventually die or cease to be viable. I am in this stage with a church now. This can be scary for people, but it does not mean the organization must leave its vision, traditions or culture, but it must consider new ways of realizing its potential.
Some will say renewal comes at each stage of the organization’s life cycle and that may be true, but I contend there is a definite stage in a healthy life cycle where an organization improves and almost reinvents itself to continue to experience health and growth.
Another thing to remember is that the speed of an organization’s growth (or the church’s growth) can cause life cycles to complete much quicker. Consider the child who has to face adult decisions early in life and is forced to “grow up fast.” A similar thing happens to organizations.
(These are not my terms. I learned them years ago in a management class. The explanation and application is mine. I realize this is written with secular leadership terms. I have a long background in the business community, but I believe the principles here are directly transferable to the church setting.)

This article was contributed by Ron Edmondson
Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he's been helping church grow vocationally for over 10 years.

 
If you are a leader of an organization, then you have the awesome responsibility of establishing the parameters by which your organization will be successful.

Now, as I feel the need to say in every post like this, Jesus sets the bar. Period! He is our standard. However, it would be foolish to ignore the fact that God allows people to lead, even in the church. And, as Christian leaders, we set the bar in our church for many of the things that happen in the church.
A mentor of mine always says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” He didn’t make up the saying, but he’s learned in his 70-plus years of experience how true a statement it is. Are you leading with the idea that you are setting the bar for the people you are trying to lead?

Here are seven ways the leader sets the bar:
1. Vision casting—The God-given vision to the people is primarily communicated by the senior leader. Others will only take it as serious as you do. Keeping it ever before the people is primarily in your hands.

2. Character—The moral value of the church and staff follows closely behind its senior leadership. Our example is Jesus, and none of us fully live out that standard, but the quality of the church’s character—in every major area of life—will mirror closely the depth of the leader’s character.

3. Team spirit—If the leader isn’t a cheerleader for the team, there will seldom be any cheerleaders on the team. Energy and enthusiasm are often directly proportional to the attitude of the leader.

4. Generosity—No church—and no organization for that matter—will be more generous than its most senior leadership. There may be individuals who are generous, but as a whole people, follow the example of leadership in this area as much or more than any other.

5. Completing goals and objectives—The leader doesn’t complete all the tasks—and shouldn’t—but ultimately, the leader sets the bar on whether goals and objectives are met. Complacency prevails where the leader doesn’t set measurable progress as a value and ensure systems are in place to meet them.

6. Creativity—The leader doesn’t have to be the most creative person—and seldom is—but the team will be no more creative than the leader allows. A leader that stifles idea generation puts a lid on creativity and eventually curtails growth and change.

7. Pace—The speed of change and the speed of work on a team is set by the leader. If the leader moves too slow—so moves the team. If the leader moves too fast—the team will do likewise.
Team members will seldom outperform the bar their leader sets for them. Consequently, and why this is so important a discussion, an organization will normally cease to grow beyond the bar of the leader.
Be careful, leader, of the bars you set for your team.

This article was contributed by Ron Edmondson
Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner.