Four Stages of a Church
-We see a pattern in the New Testament for the development of congregations.
-Every congregation will more or less go through various stages.
-The congregation may stagnate at one or another and may never reach her full potential in a given area.
-It is up to mature Christians to acknowledge those stages and seek to bring the church into them.
-Many congregations are thought to be stagnate today. Much of the reason is because we have lost our perspective on what we are striving toward and we have lost sight of the principles that will take us where God wants us to go.
-Our responsibility is to identify what the stages are, identify what stage our congregation is in and what we are going to do to move to the next stage or make sure that we stay in the final stage as long as possible.
STAGE 1—Forming the congregation.
Principles that support this/ allow this to happen:
-Mt 28:18-20
-Acts 13:5; etc.—preaching the message in synagogues. They went where there was an audience.
-This stage can have any number of converts, but they tend to come one at a time.
What it looks like:
-New converts cannot carry on without the missionaries.
-There is no thought of autonomy at this point by the congregation, they are just struggling to learn this new lifestyle.
-There is a high dependency on the missionaries to perform all the leadership in worship and living the Christian life.
-This stage begins to close when the congregation begins to react to being taught to do things on their own.
-There are no explicit instructions in the New Testament regarding how this is accomplished.
-We do know that in principle Paul attempted to have everyone involved and active.
-It is critical at this point that wisdom be used in starting things. Everything done will set a precedent for the future. So if our methods are faulty, they will eventually be harmful to the congregation.
-This is where many people choose to use short-cuts, some of which can impede growth.
-This is often where dependency is unwittingly taught. Once it is taught, it is hard to circumvent.
-This is also where a congregation can be Americanized, which is counter-productive.
-From the start, or as soon as possible, the missionaries discuss the requirements of Scripture and then help them find cultural expressions that meet those guidelines.
-There must not be a “this is the way we've always done it back home” attitude.
STAGE 2—Developing Autonomy of the Congregation.
STAGE 2a—Developing Autonomy in Leadership
-Leadership must take control of the congregation—so to speak
-Dependency on a missionary or outside workers must be overcome.
-This means the leadership must be developed somehow in the congregation. The missionary is the one who will have to help the leadership develop at this stage.
Principles that support this/ allow this to happen:
-Titus 1:5—the work of a missionary is to develop leadership.
-Acts 13:21-23; 15:36; 18:23—the missionary must get out of the way, but not so far that he forgets about them.
What it looks like.
-All of the men are encouraged to take an active part in leading—not just in worship.
-All Christians are taught the function of Christians—soul developing.
-Leadership naturally begins to develop as the atmosphere turns into one of growth.
-A certain amount of satisfaction should develop in the members as they determine to do things on their own.
-There must be a tremendous amount of freedom given to the congregation or they will feel like it belongs to the missionaries and not themselves.
-Every congregation will be different, and should be. This may include meeting times, worship procedures, how they take care of problems that arise, etc.
-These Christians are given leeway and room to make decisions on their own, so they can develop.
-Unfortunately, they may resist doing things that are beneficial to them, but they have the right to do that.
-Leadership will continue to grow and develop in this stage.
-There will be no need for one man to preach or teach individuals because all the men of the congregation will be working toward that ability.
STAGE 2b—Developing Autonomy in Finances
-Wisdom should be used in how finances are used so that the congregation can be autonomous as fast as possible.
-Ideally, there should never be a time when the congregation depends on others to exist, even in the very beginning stages, except for the presence of a missionary.
-If the congregation is small or relatively poor, they will have to be creative in how they fulfill needs such as where to meet.
Principles that support this/ allow this to happen:
-1 Corinthians 9:4-12
-Romans 15:25-27—2 points (1) Aid went from churches to “mother church”, not other way around (2) this was an emergency measure
What it looks like:
-The congregation learns to support themselves.
-The congregation learns to solve financial problems by:
-Creatively using their finances
-Learning to do without—which would not be a problem if things were not introduced to them. For example, they may never think of a “need” to own a new building if some missionaries did not suggest that they needed one.
-Learning to trust and depend on God to help them and not missionaries.
-There is a short time from stage 1 to stage 2. There is no reason to assume that congregations ever need outside funding. Some missionaries need schooling on what constitutes a faithful, growing church of Christ.
-The only reason a church would need outside funding is for emergency situations—like famine.
STAGE 3: Developing Propagation within the Congregation.
STAGE 3a—Developing Leadership Propagation Abilities
-The congregation has a developing leadership—one that is continuously reproducing and bring more leaders into the leadership.
-The congregation will have elders by this point—elders who are capable of training leaders.
-The congregation will also have many other men (and women) who are able to lead in various capacities and men who are developing toward the ability to help lead the whole congregation as one of the elders.
Principles that support this/ allow this to happen:
-2 Timothy 2:2
-Ephesians 4:11-12
What it looks like:
-Leadership is just that—men are leading others into a better relationship with God.
-Every Christian recognizes the importance of leading in some way and all begin to look at each other in order to help them in their spiritual walk.
-This mutual edification will include instruction in the faith, showing them how to do things that are required
-The leaders will take an active interest in training others to lead, desiring all members to lead in some capacity, as the Lord allows.
STAGE 3b—Developing Financial Propagation Abilities
-The congregation is now at a point where the missionary is capable of going on trips away from them to help start other congregations.
-The congregation is not only able to support herself, but also able to support the missionary as he does the Lord's work, until the time there are other congregations who can help with that burden.
-Unless the missionary declines the help (or he leaves the faith or dies), the congregation should consider it important to support him in the work.
-For this to happen, there must be not only finances, but capable men to carry on the work there for periods of time while he is gone.
Principles that support this/ allow this to happen:
-Romans 15:14
-1 Corinthians 16:15
-2 Corinthians 10:15-16—idea included support to go different places—like Antioch had done for him, he hoped Corinth would in time do the same. Not ONLY support, but includes it.
STAGE 4—Developing Congregational Propagation Abilities
-At this stage there are leaders developed and there is a constant development of individual Christians.
-At this point there are people with sufficient training to be able to be assigned different areas to work to begin training as missionaries themselves.
-The congregation will have adequate resources to support a missionary in training, with increasing ability to do more and more.
-While there is a limit to how many missionaries in training a congregation can expect to support, they should choose one of their own and send him out to do various works in training. Eventually, he will be able to go work as a missionary with full support by the congregation.
-The missionary (when working with other congregations) will teach the principles of autonomy to make it easier to support the work financially.(The missionary will ultimately be supported by the congregation(s) he establishes, when they are mature enough to do it, just as this congregation supports their “founding” missionary in the work.)
-The congregation has gone from a babe to a mature, vibrant congregation that is full of good works and able to be an influence for good on the world.
-If this is maintained the church will continue to help develop missionaries and establish other congregations throughout the world
Principles that support this/ allow this to happen:
-Acts 13:1-3—the congregation will act as a sponsoring congregation.
-The verse we looked at all throughout the lesson show that this is the ultimate goal
Where are we? How can we move to the next stages or remain in the final stage? How many people have we trained to go into the world to preach or establish congregations? We need to find a way to progress to the final stage and remain there.