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.
