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Resurrecting the Life of a Death Stage Congregation Overview At Death a congregation ceases to exist as a spiritual community of worship, discipleship, and fellowship. The ability is gone to meet regularly to worship God, to engage in spiritual growth activities, and to actively organize for fellowship and mutual support. Probably all three of these need to exist in some regular form for congregational life to be viable. What dies when these three are not present is the congregational movement. Separate, in a sense, from the congregational movement may still be a corporation or institution in existence with which someone must deal. It is like the difference between a person dying, or life being gone, and the need to address the issues of a remaining temporal body. Just as a funeral would typically be held for a person, with their body being the center of human focus, so engaging in a ceremony that commemorates the rites of passage is appropriate related to a congregational body. Many spiritual rites of passages have occurred within that congregational body. It is appropriate to celebrate these, and to help people deal with their grief. Just as dealing with the loss of the friend or family member is hard, dealing with the loss of a congregation and its facilities is hard. During the latter stages of congregational life many members and regular attendees probably deepened their inability to divide their faith in Christ from the cultural practices of a specific congregation in a specific location. Death is not inevitable for any congregation. The life cycle and stages of development are not deterministic; that is, if a congregation has a Birth it is not inevitable that it will have a Death. Congregations can and do redevelop, and move forward to a new partial life cycle that may last a minimum of seven to nine years. Congregations at Death can have a resurrection. Again, Death is not inevitable; however, congregations who are aging, are dysfunctional, and who wait until Phase Five: Late Aging to seek a turnaround are unlikely to experience a positive, successful future. They may not avoid Death. Early intervention in congregations is needed. Often when congregations die it is because they did not cherish life enough. An Intervention Framework for Redeveloping at the Death Stage The organizing principle or genetic formula for Death is m. This is a symbol for when only management is present, and it is present with diminished capacity. Vision, relationships, and programs are no longer present in any form. It is the formula for a congregation that has died. It has ceased existence as an active, worshiping spiritual community. However, it still exists as a corporate entity or organizational shell, and the legal standing and assets of the congregation must be handled. The formula of redevelopment is Vrpm. This is the same as the formula for the Birth stage. The reason is probably obvious. Resurrection at the Death stage is a new Birth. It involves launching a new congregation that looks forward to the possibility of a generation of new qualitative and quantitative growth. It involves the creation of something new, and not just the redevelopment of something old. It involves looking forward and not looking backwards. It is not a return to yesterday, but a passion movement toward the tomorrow that God is unfolding. Redevelopment during Old Age represented the reinventing of an existing congregation. Redevelopment at Death allows the old congregation to die first. The old traditions, methodologies, and guiding coalition of leaders and managers have to be allowed to move on to something else. They generally cannot be a part of the new that will emerge. Denominational assistance will probably be necessary to actualize this transformation. Many emotional transitions that need to be made are too difficult for people who were a part of the old congregation. Resurrecting the Life of a Death Stage Congregation The process theme is resurrection, which involves the creation of a new, transformed congregational life that bears little or no resemblance to the life that went before it. This is radical change. Neither continuous change nor discontinuous change is relevant at the Death stage. Note on Rate of Change and Transition: The rate of change may be continuous, discontinuous, or radical. Change that is continuous in nature generally deals with natural transition in things, people, and relationships. Change that is discontinuous in nature generally deals with sustainable changes in things that also require definable transitions in people and relationships. Radical change demands transformation of things, people, and relationships. The destination for the resurrection is Infancy if change that is radical is attempted. If a complete rechurching effort takes place, then Birth is the destination. What is the difference between resurrection and Rechurching? The difference is that resurrection may involve the use of the same facilities. Rechurching involves focusing on the lost, unchurched, dechurched, and hurting people in or among the communities served by the Death stage congregation, but there is no point of identification with the previous congregation. The lack of identification with the previous congregation includes no identity with the facilities, primary strategies, or many methodologies of the previous congregation. What are the Redevelopment Steps at the Death Stage? The strategy begins with seeking to discover if there is a vision for a new congregation that is sufficiently compelling to justify the spiritual, emotional, and physical effort to launch a new congregation. In other words, first, is there a sense of Great Commission urgency? Third, are there obvious target groups of people the new congregation can reach through new qualitative and quantitative ministries? Fourth, is there a sense that a healthy congregation is needed among the communities served or untouched by the existing congregation? Will the worship and discipleship qualities of this new congregation add to the needed collection of Christian movement that may already exist in this geographical area or among these target groups of people? These last two issues deal with whether new patterns of relationships can be successfully established. Then, the time frame for resurrection is six to 18 months. It must happen fast. It cannot be delayed. The desired end result is a new life cycle whose growth side may last 15 to 18 years. What Are the Challenges to Resurrecting a Death Stage Congregation? First, what happens to the members of the congregation who have remained active until the point of death? The death of a congregation is not a surprise to them. People connected with the congregation knew it was coming. One reason for the death of a congregation is that many members have already chosen for the congregation to die by their personal inactivity or the transfer of their membership to another congregation. Second, if a new congregation is started in the facilities, what about members of the old congregation who want to continue to worship in a building they either legally or emotionally own? Would their presence and resources be helpful or a barrier to the ministry of and focus on the new congregation? Is it right to try to stop them from being connected? Is there a ministry of obligation to elderly members who live in the immediate area and cannot travel to another congregation? Third, just as people connected with a congregation often cannot separate the fellowship of the congregation from their identity with the buildings, the same may be true of the geographical context of the church facilities. Will the community see the new congregation that is emerging, or will they see the old congregation that may have stopped relating to the community in a positive way? | 
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