The 5 Life Cycles Of Ministry

Hey all you awesome people, Paul here and do I have some stuff to share with you, but before all that, let me tell you a little bit about myself. Ive been a part of churches for many years, have been involved in leadership teams for a few of them or a part of the worship team as a drummer. Im married to my childhood sweetheart and this year celebrated my 26th wedding annieversary, have 2 amazing sons, a chilled back daughter in law and currently have been attending a C3 church on the Gold Coast. My wife Tessa and I were part of the core foundations of a church that was called, City Harvest and honestly, we learnt so much from being part of that. To this day, I still hold onto a lot of those core values instilled into me by the leadership team during that time and have started this blog as a way to share what was passed on to us.

During 1999 there was a book by Larry Stockstill called, The Cell Church. Due to the name many narrow minded people chose to relate the name Cell Church to mean some sort of prison but if they had read the book they’d realise that the word Cell was used more in relation to cells in your body and how they reproduce. This was used to explain a strategy on how you could create a bunch of small groups that are classed as a Cell Church and implement a structure that could be used to grow and multiply just like cells in your body. Why the long winded explanation Paul? What does all this have to do with the 5 stages of Ministry Growth? Im glad you asked. This leads me to the next story.

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astor John Banton created training resources on how to start Cell Groups, implement them into your church and what to watch out for while growing your weekly groups. Part of this was educating people on the different stages of Ministry Growth and making sure that your weekly small group did not become a clique that weren’t accepting of new comers. Here is what was shared and no matter what sort of ministry you have, this is useful to use for any ministry type you might choose to start, which is why church members should be trained and equipped on making new people feel welcomed and connected.

1. The Birthing Stage: This is where a Ministry is starting or has branched off from the Mothership group or church. New people and/or established members that attend will be asking themselves many questions regarding this new Ministry such as: Do I feel welcome? Is this a safe place? Do I like the people here? What will be expected of me in this group/ministry? Will this group/ministry meet my personal needs? Does their teaching encourage me to grow my relationship with others and Christ? Will this group/ministry add value to my life? These are the sorts of concerns that people will have, what will you have in place to assure people that this is for them.
2. The Child Stage: This is where people who are attending your group/ministry will be inward focused. They will be more concerned about themselves than others which will cause personality conflicts amongst each other and where irritations will emerge. This is where people leading these groups/ministries will need to direct people’s focus on building relationship and trust with each other. Don’t be concerned when conflict arises, this is an opportunity to turn something that may seem negative into a massive positive. Conflict that is worked through in a healthy way always produces better relationships and can help build mutual respect and strong bonds amongst members of your group/ministry.
3. The Teenager Stage: This is an exciting time for your group/ministry as it is where people become comfortable around each other and feel free to be themselves. Many members develop and experience friendship, trust and safety for the first time in their lives, this is such a great stage amongst the 5 stages but be careful, this can also become a stage where people get stuck and become quite clicky making it hard for new people to feel welcomed and accepted.
4. The Adult Stage: This is where your group/ministry starts to mature and instead of being self focused it has now become outward focused. They are now looking for ways to connect within the community and use their God given skills to assist various organisations such as schools, sports clubs, youth centres, hospitals, prisons, community groups and much more. Generally there will be a drop in depth of bonding but its totally worth it.
5. The Parent Stage: This is where your group/ministry are excited to expand which is where Prayer, Planning and Preparation of a new group/ministry begins to take place. This is where people in leadership are elevated into the next step of their lives by being given responsibility of their own group/ministry and your Church multiplies.

All of these stages are exciting times for you and for others but be careful of becoming an unhealthy group/ministry. This is where your group/ministry can become stuck in one of the first 3 stages and can prevent growth rather than elevating it. Here are some things to watch out for:

1. Stuck at the Birth Stage: I wear a nice mask! Ill keep my opinions to myself! I dont trust the leadership! These people are fake!
2. Stuck at the Child Stage: What’s in it for me? People aren’t talking to me? What’s so special about that person?
3. Stuck at the Teenage Stage: Us 4 and no more! That person isn’t really suited here! Let’s plan something but just for our group, we dont want everyone there! We dont need any more people here! I like the people we have already!

After reading this what stage is your group/ministry at? What do you believe should be implemented to help break those things that are stunting your group/ministries growth? What things do you believe are going great within your group/ministry?

I hope you find this resource useful moving forward and who knows, maybe you have a similar sort of thing established in your group/ministry that you find helpful you’d like to share. Until then have an amazing day and chat soon.