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The Empty Nest of a Congregation Overview This article explores the seventh of ten stages of development in the life cycle and stages of congregational development: Empty Nest. The ten stages are grouped into five phases. Phase Four: Early Aging involves an indefinable number of years in the life of a congregation. It includes the stages of Empty Nest and Retirement. To understand the Empty Nest stage appropriately it is necessary to look at the transition from the Maturity stage, understand the place of the organizing principles in the Empty Nest stage, review the characteristics of this stage, and determine how a congregation makes the passage to the Retirement stage. How Does a Congregation Make the Passage to Empty Nest? When a congregation is twenty-five to thirty-five years old, it then moves to Phase Four, which is Early Aging. This occurs when the lack of an empowering vision begins to have visible impact on the quality and quantity of programs, ministries, and activities. It is not intentional effort that moves a congregation from Maturity to Empty Nest, but the lack of it. When a congregation does not respond to the incipient qualitative and quantitative changes of Maturity, it allows the need to hold on to past gains to give more control and authority to its management systems. Congregational members and regular attendees begin to forget that it was an empowering vision that helped them to realize their greatest potential during Adulthood. A few people who realize what is happening begin to press the leaders of the congregation to respond with greater zeal to the opportunities and challenges the congregation faces. What is the Place of the Organizing Principles in the Empty Nest Stage? Empty Nest is that period when relationships and management are dominant. Vision and programs are no longer dominant. Management is controlling the direction of the congregation. Congregations in Empty Nest 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. Vision is the fuel or energy that will drive the congregation forward throughout the growth side of the life cycle. Vision is the current understanding of God’s spiritual strategic direction for a congregation that is cast by leadership and owned by membership. Programs, which had just finished rising to their greatest qualitative height during Maturity, now are in quantitative decline. Soon they will experience qualitative decline. However, congregations notice the loss of numbers first. It notices that worship attendance is decreasing, as well as the attendance in various programs, ministries and activities. The quality drops as the same level of gifted and skilled people are not present to carry out the programs. As congregational members and attendees comment and act on the loss of quantity and quality, the loss intensifies. Relationships are still happening in the life of the congregation, but not at the rate that is sufficient to replace either the active people who are not longer attending, or the inactive people joining other congregations. Relationships are the spiritual and relational processes by which persons are brought to faith in God through Jesus Christ, become connected to a local New Testament congregation, are assimilated into the fellowship life and care ministry of a congregation, have opportunities for spiritual growth and leadership development, and are mentored to use their gifts and skills through Kingdom involvement. Management, which moved into the driver’s seat during Maturity, is now well established in its new lead role. Any hope of a quick return of vision as the driving force is gone, and congregational members and regular attendees begin to realize this situation. The primary role of management is to provide the systems and structures that work in an integrative pattern to under gird the fulfillment of vision, and the implementation of relationships and programs. What are the Characteristics of the Empty Nest Stage? Empty Nest is that stage of a congregation’s life cycle when it is at first nostalgic, and later angry about the loss of the past. Ultimately the congregation will look for something or someone to blame for the situation in which they find themselves. During Empty Nest the programs begin to disintegrate. This is the Avis Rent-A-Car period of the life of the congregation. The congregational motto is, we try harder, but we’re still number two. Congregations redouble efforts because attendance is down, money growth has stopped as compared to increases in the Consumer Price Index, usually outstanding programs are second best compared to what they used to be, and confidence in the ability of the pastor to lead the congregation has diminished. Some people are convinced that it is a matter of commitment. If everyone were just more committed to the congregation, then things would be better. Harder work is requested from the pastors, staff, and lay leaders. More sacrificial offerings are insisted on. More regular attendance at events other than the primary worship services is held up as a sign of peoples’ commitment. Empty Nest starts with a spirit of nostalgia. The hope exists that tomorrow will bring a return of yesterday. The stories told by long-term members of the glory years are not recognizable to newcomers as identifying the same congregation. People talk specifically about the way things used to be. Most of the dreams are of events of the past instead of visions of the future. The longer a congregation remains in Empty Nest, the more likely the nostalgia will turn to anger. When this happens, the barriers may not just be ones of aging, but also ones of dysfunction. Blaming becomes a popular topic of congregational fellowships. A layperson, a lay group, a staff person, or the pastor may become the focus of blaming. The rhetoric becomes pagan as people want to symbolically sacrifice someone to the gods of success. The congregation in Empty Nest may telegraph its time focus by the age group it wants to target with the most efforts. Congregations who want to target teenagers want to focus on yesterday. Those who want to target senior adults want to focus on today. Finally, congregations who want to target adults ages 25 to 45 and their children want to focus on tomorrow. Empty Nest congregations tend to have the most severe conflict of any stage of development. Second are Retirement congregations; third are Adolescent congregations; and fourth are Infancy congregations. In Empty Nest the conflict comes about as angry people clash, but do not necessarily leave the congregation in large numbers. How Does a Congregation Make the Passage to Retirement? Time has broken down at this point in the life cycle. It is difficult to know how long a congregation may remain in Empty Nest. It appears that a congregation can go through multiple rounds of Empty Nest before either redeveloping or moving farther down the Aging side of the life cycle. The key factor that sets in when a congregation is getting ready to move from Empty Nest to Retirement is private despair. Part of the despair may be weariness from the struggles of Empty Nest. Long-term members begin to feel that their congregation is no longer a good place to invite new people to come for worship, spiritual growth, and fellowship. As a result they become hesitant in their ministry to lost, unchurched, dechurched, and hurting people. Retirement begins to emerge when these same people begin to express excitement about making another major effort to turn around the congregation. They look forward to revitalized and new programs that a newer, younger pastor, and the new members that he can attract, can start. | 
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