Every church goes through seasons. Some of those seasons thrive with energy, passion, and rapid growth. Other seasons lean toward safety, while innovation takes a back seat. Still, other seasons plateau, decline, or worse, come to a permanent end. Every season has its challenges, and we can often feel “stuck.” The question is, how does the church get “unstuck” at the various stages of its life cycle?
Author and consultant Tony Morgan tackles that question in his latest book, The Unstuck Church: Equipping Churches to Experience Sustained Health. I’ve been a part of two coaching networks with Tony—both of which were immensely helpful—so I was anxious to read his latest work.
In The Unstuck Church, Tony reveals seven stages of a church’s life cycle, provides a helpful diagnostic for each stage, and shares practical ideas and insights to get unstuck.
No matter what stage your church is in, this resource will guide you to a place of sustained health. Let me provide a brief summary of each stage outlined in Tony’s book, along with some of his observations on getting unstuck.
The Seven Stages of a Church’s Life Cycle (and how to get unstuck)
1. Launch
The “Launch” Stage is an exciting season that typically represents a new church, a new pastor, and a new mission. There’s usually a focus on reaching new people, and little competes with the worship service. In the Launch Stage, finances are usually tight, there’s a heavy reliance on volunteers, and few rules get in the way of making progress. You typically don’t find bureaucracy in start-ups. It’s also a stage where failure is a common threat—many new churches don’t make it past Launch. The key to successfully navigate the Launch Stage is to ensure the pastor is a leader (not just a pastor), have a clear audience you aim to reach, adopt a clear mission, establish a strong financial plan, and release ministry to volunteers.
2. Momentum Growth
The “Momentum Growth” Stage is a rather exhilarating stage. Things are fun because the church is growing and taking major strides forward. During the Momentum Growth Stage, the focus remains outward, the vision is focused, creativity surges, and there’s a lot of buzz in the church. The church can also be personality driven during this season, and they usually start to give away leadership. As Tony notes, “In the launch phase, churches start to give ministry away. In the momentum growth phase, churches start to give leadership away.” The keys to keeping the momentum going is to define your vision and team values, give leadership away, make space for growth (in the building and with additional services), and protect the health of your soul. The pace of this stage can wear leaders out, so it’s critical we prioritize habits that cultivate personal health.
3. Strategic Growth
As a church grows, it can easily become complex with more programs and opportunities. At the “Strategic Growth” Stage, it’s essential for leaders and churches to think and act strategically. At this season, the focus shifts to teams, and the leaders develop strategies. Identifying a clear discipleship pathway, solid systems, and a structure than can support the growth is imperative. One words dominates this stage: intentionality.
4. Sustained Health
The “Sustained Health” Stage does not focus so much on what a church should “do,” but rather the characteristics the mark a truly healthy church. Checking boxes on a to do list does not necessarily produce health. Churches are healthy when they exhibit important qualities such as making new disciples, pursuing continued growth, maintaining unity, multiplying ministry impact, embracing change, and modeling generosity. A major difference between “Strategic Growth” and “Sustained Health” is the focus on multiplication.
5. Maintenance
The fifth stage in the life cycle of churches is deceptively comfortable. The church can appear healthy because of its large staff and strong financial position. However, at the “Maintenance” Stage, the church becomes insider-focused, the vision stales, ministry silos form, and the church begins to plateau or decline. It can be hard to change because most people don’t see evidence for the need to upset the applecart. But to return to Sustained Health, the church must renew its vision, turn its focus outward, and clarify a simple discipleship path that removes unnecessary complexity. This often requires outside help or perspective. The sooner the church seeks fresh perspective, the quicker it can break out of its holding pattern and return to health.
6. Preservation
At the “Preservation” Stage, the church is at risk of dying. It must change to survive. At this stage, the church has been in decline for years. Few (if any) people are coming to Christ, and the church is beginning to feel a financial crunch. The congregation is aging, and the church often doesn’t reflect the changing community around them. Sadly, the methods have become more important than the mission, and the primary focus has shifted from reaching people, to keeping people from leaving. To turn things around at the Preservation Stage, Tony observes that leaders must create a sense of urgency (which requires honesty), cast vision (which requires conviction), implement change (which requires courage), and then celebrate wins (which requires resolve).
7. Life Support
The final stage of the life cycle is “Life Support.” At this stage, death is almost inevitable. Tony observes that among the primary factors that cause a church to get to this stage is, “the church wants to reach new people and remain financially viable while holding on to their old methods.” The condition is pervasive, penetrating every aspect of the church’s culture. There’s no fruit, an unwillingness to change, and the church is often being led by one key family or donor. To turn things around, the church must embrace a new mission and re-launch a new life cycle.
I found Tony’s book insightful, well-developed, and practical. Plus, Tony offers a great Unstuck Church Assessment to help you identify which stage of the life cycle your church is in, along with practical steps to get unstuck. Pick up The Unstuck Church today. I highly recommend it. You’ll be glad you did.
