Life Stages

It has been suggested that there are three common, but not inevitable, stages through which a local church often passes.

The first is the Risk-taker stage.  At this stage the church is reaching out, touching lives for Jesus Christ.  A church in the Risk-taker stage is more concerned with the need of their neighbors to know Jesus and less concerned about the color of the carpet.  The main concern is how they can best build bridges to their not-yet-saved friends.  There is no one else to do what needs to be done, so the members see themselves as ministers, the church leadership as equippers and their day-to-day world as their own personal mission field.  The Risk-taker church is looking outward.

The second stage is the Caretaker stage.  With growth in the church comes the need for increased formal structures to keep the wheels of ministry within the church running smooth.  If they weren’t so busy running to church activities, they might have time to talk with their neighbors about the good news of Jesus Christ.  Instead of building bridges, the church builds walls to keep out those who are not like them.  The members now see themselves as the many who support the ministry of the few.  The Caretaker church is looking inward.

The third stage is the Undertaker stage.  The operation was a success but the patient died.  The saddest aspect of this stage is that often churches continue for decades without anyone noticing that the body died years ago.

Eugene Peterson made the accurate observation that, “Nothing is more common in the life of the Spirit than to begin right and end wrong.”  So how can a church remain in the Risk-taker stage?  Is it possible to avoid the Caretaker and Undertaker stages?  The answer, it seems to me, is a qualified “yes.”   It requires vigilance that keeps asking the right questions and then acting on the answers.  “Are we building bridges or walls?”  “Are we looking outward or inward?”  Are we equipping the saints to do the work of ministry or paying the staff to do the work of ministry?”

Take a few minutes to ask those three questions.  Then take even more time to decide what to do about the answers to those questions.  Then take even more time to do something about the answers to those questions.

No church consciously wants to be like the surgeon in Herman Melville's White Jacket who invites other surgeons to watch him perform an amputation on the leg of a seaman.  He lectures on anatomy, surgical techniques, and the many difficult operations he's performed in the past. As he proceeds with the amputation, the patient keeps wailing and passing out. But the doctor ignores the cries as he continues his lengthy lecture.  Finally, the steward of the ship interrupts the doctor and says, "Please, sir, the patient is dead."