The Right Conversations
- Have the leadership team answer the questions. An overall indication of how the questions were answered will provide a point on the life cycle. The next step is working through the implications.
- This will include:
- Prayer – discerning God’s leading
- Conversations, sometime uncomfortable, that include asking the right questions
- Understanding the community God has called you to minister within.
- Being aware of what resources, including gifts, God has placed in your congregation
- This guide is designed to generate the right discussions and point toward some helpful resources. It is up to your team to seek God’s leading, have the conversations and prayerfully move toward the next step and beyond.
- The leadership discussion is just the beginning. All ministries and areas of church life need to prayerfully think through what they are doing to shape effective responses and collaboratively be part of a plan for taking the next step.
- Remember that this is not a program to get done but a journey that shapes an ongoing environment of evaluation and seeking God’s leading.
The Next Step
- Once you have identified where your church is on the life cycle you may feel daunted. How are we possibly going to do all of this?
- Regardless of your congregation’s size, resources and cultural context there is a next step. In some congregations, this may be outlined in a formal strategy, in other congregations it may simply be a few sentences outlining what the next step looks like as you move toward the picture your team discerns God calling you to toward.
- Its about simply working on the next step – together. Imagine moving across a pond one steppingstone at a time. Seek God’s leading as you work through questions and ideas and choose simple, manageable steps that move your congregation toward vitality. One step forward is better than what was before.
- Every congregation has a different next step.
- Congregations at any point on the life-cycle can make decisions that move toward ministry effectiveness.
- Churches can revitalize, renewing the life-cycle is possible.
- Don’t change everything overnight, keep moving one step at a time.
- join the conversation and work out your next step.
Overview
Provided here is a simple overview of how the lifecycle generally progresses without intentional questioning or intervention. The variations not outlined here (but included in the tool) are unusual unique expressions.
Vrpm
A healthy church plant begins with a high level of missional vision. While relationships on the planting team are high, there are not many ministries in pace at this point to facilitate connections withing the wider community. The structure of the group if very flexible.
VrPm
Ministries are shaped to move toward the vision. The ministries include community engagement. This is critical point A. Many church plants do not put in place the minsitries that connect with the community they are within and so the group starts to decline.
VRPm
If the ministries connect with the community and move toward the vision then relationships increase as new people connect.
VRPM
Systems (management) are put in place to make sure the increasing ministries and relationships are supported and resourced well.
vRPM
All is seemingly going well as he structures work well to coordinate the ministries. The ministries are still helping people connect well in the congregation and wider community. However the vision has been swamped. People who connected to the church through the ministries think the ministries are the vision. Generations grow up without knowing the vision and the pace of life and change means the vision leaks. This is critical point B where the church has started declining however mostly the turnaround is not noticed.
vrPM
Structures facilitate the ministries however the programmes have become more important than people. At this point attendance starts to decline as relationships, especially with new people, become less significant.
vrpM
With less people yet still high levels of ministry people start to feel tired. Those that are still serving are not seeing the ministry reward they used to. People are increasingly reluctant to serve and consequently ministries are reduced.
vrPM
The decline has become noticeable. The leaders/congregation meet to ‘revive’ the church and return it to its previous effectiveness. However, instead of focusing on the vision that inspired the initial growth they choose to refocus on the ministries they used to do. People give it another go to ‘save the church’.
vrpM
The ministries/programmes, without vision, are largely ineffective. They are again reduced and in place of vision people are finding someone or something to blame. The structures manage a compliant decline.
vrpm
The ‘church’ (in name only as it is not achieving the biblical purposes of the church) keeps going with just enough income to get by.