Spiritual Strategic
Journey
Congregational
Redevelopment
Tutorial
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Choose Your Route: Life Cycle and Stages The Ten Stages: Maturity For a graphical view of the ten stages, see my chart, The Life Cycle and Stages of Congregational Development).
When congregations are around 22 to 27 years old, or approximately a generation from their Birth, they slip without much notice from Adulthood to Maturity. Maturity is when Vision is no longer dominant or fully developed. The congregation is no longer living out the vision that God has given them. They are, instead, living out the patterns of Relationships, Programs, and Management they have developed. Without the fueling and driving aspects of Vision, the congregation is being motivated by Management. At the same time, Maturity may be a very high quality stage in the life of the congregation. There continues to be a crescendo of quality, even if Vision is diminished. Often congregations will plateau numerically during Maturity. Maturity represents the first stage when a congregation could redevelop or transform and move forward to a new partial life cycle. The Maturity stage is discussed further in my article, The Maturity of a Congregation. Does this description fit your congregation? If you think the answer is "yes," click the Next button underneath It fits. If you're not sure, or you think the answer is probably "no," click the Next button underneath Look further or select another life cycle stage.
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