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Redevelopment
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ReVisioning the Life of a Maturity Congregation Overview Maturity is that stage of a congregation’s life cycle when it is functioning well, with some sense of efficiency. However, it is no longer clear concerning its focus and sense of spiritual strategic direction. Signs of malaise exist. The congregation is more passive than active. Members are no longer sure about the congregational vision, but they are in denial that anything significant is wrong. They are no longer certain about who they are, and where they are headed in the future. A sign that vision is no longer dominant is that the core leaders of the congregation can no longer articulate a clear vision. They feel that something is missing from the congregation, but they cannot describe what it is. Relationships, programs, and management are all dominant. Yet again, congregations in Maturity are no longer living out the vision that God has given them for a congregation that ought to be present in a certain place or target group of people. Relationships are still happening in the life of the congregation, but the focus has turned to the output of Kingdom involvement, and not the input of introducing persons to a spiritual and congregational journey. Programs may rise to their greatest qualitative height during Maturity. The momentum created during Adulthood propels many programs, ministries and activities forward to operational excellence. The financial and other resources are greater than they have ever been. During Maturity the management factor moves into the metaphorical driver’s seat as the primary initiator of action in the congregation. Management is fueling and controlling the direction of the congregation. Management, which was an essential part of the change and transition from Adolescence to Adulthood, has now become so strong that it is smothering the flexibility and innovation of the congregation. An Intervention Framework for Redevelopment at the Maturity Stage The organizational principle or genetic formula for Maturity stage is vRPM. This is a symbol for when relationships, programs, and management are dominant, but vision is no longer dominant. The redevelopment formula of the organizing principles or genes is VRPm. This means that the primary emphasis needs to be on casting vision, and affirming and building on the relationships and programs factors in the congregation. However, redevelopment does not usually begin with casting a new vision. First, management, which is now fueling controlling the direction of the congregation, needs to be diminished. This may happen when the congregation realizes it needs to change, and decides to initiate new flexibility and innovation, and realizes that it must reduce its controllability first. Management tends to keep growing, and not to diminish without intentional congregational effort to want ministry to be more important than management. Too often congregations at the Maturity stage are comfortable and do not have an urgency to change. ReVisioning the Life of a Maturity Congregation The process theme for congregational intervention in Maturity is revisioning, which is a process of developing a new sense of vision and spiritual strategic direction. Congregations in the maturity stage are generally very positive, strong congregations. Since the primary principle missing is vision, efforts to revision are needed. This involves casting a new vision, or recasting the old vision if it is still relevant. The rate or scope of the needed change is continuous with the past. That means that the congregation does not need to make changes that are revolutionary, but only those that are evolutionary or incremental. Continuous change involves doing similar relationship activities and programs or ministries with the same or similar target groups as before. The difference is that when revisioning is occurring, the congregation is looking for the new thing that God is doing in the congregation through their new efforts. The destination for the revisioning effort is a new Adulthood. This does not involve going back to Adulthood. All redevelopment progress is forward. So the congregation goes forward to a new Adulthood. What Are the Redevelopment Steps at the Maturity Stage? The strategy is to first diminish the management practices of the congregation that control rather than empower. This can happen by reducing the number of committees, councils, or boards, thus reducing the number of people involved in management activities. Steps to develop and implement decisions can be eliminated, thus streamlining the decision-making process. First, persons who have been in leadership positions so long that they control rather than empower can be moved to new assignment in the congregation. Second, reaffirm or create new vision as discussed throughout this article. Third, a congregation should then reengineer the management systems to empower the new sense of vision and spiritual strategic direction. The time frame for this type of redevelopment is six to 18 months. The new partial life cycle can probably last for seven to nine years. The Advantages to ReVisioning the Life of a Maturity Congregation The Maturity stage is by far the best time to revision the life of a congregation for several reasons. First, this is the earliest time when the vast majority of congregations will even have a hint that they need to redevelop. Achieving redevelopment is difficult until a significant urgency for change exists. [Note: the idea of the Sigmoid curve exists in some literature. It suggests that the best time to redevelop is actually during the Adolescence stage before Adulthood is achieved. This excellent textbook idea is not reality for many congregations who hang onto their theology, history, and culture until they no longer serve them well.] Second, congregations are very strong and vibrant in the Maturity stage. They have the best resources of their current life cycle available to them. These resources will serve them well in a redevelopment effort. Third, since only vision is diminished during the Maturity stage, it is easy to use a simple, straightforward re-envisioning process. Redevelopment can be pastor initiated, or initiated by a larger leadership community. Fourth, the redevelopment process takes less time with fewer emotional transition deficits during the Maturity stage. At Old Age and Death the time factor is also six to 18 months. However, the transition deficits at these stages can be emotionally disabling. Fifth, while continuous change can also be the rate and scope of change early in the Empty Nest stage, the redevelopment time is longer. Sixth, the ability to assess that the congregation is in the Maturity stage and engage in a re-envisioning effort is one sign that a congregation can remain in Prime rather than moving onto the Aging phases. Congregations who redevelop during Maturity seem to benefit from long-term success. A Special Note At the Maturity stage, the arrival of a new pastor following the retirement, or movement to a new ministerial role, of the former pastor may represent enough change and transition to create openness to the casting of a new vision. Therefore, the new pastor may be in an excellent position to provide well-timed leadership for a new partial life cycle. If, however, the previous pastor left under pressure, or during a congregational internal or external crisis, the same sense of timing may be missing for the new pastor. Only during the Maturity stage does a change and transition of pastor seem to be the right amount and type of change to potentially usher in a new partial life cycle. | 
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