Seasons come and go. Right now, I'm glad that summer's heat is drawing to an end, and the cool, crisp days of autumn are within sight. Each season of the calendar year comes with its own rhythms - different clothes, different activities, different holidays. Each one is special and fun in its own way.
But we can't have the growth of summer without the rains of spring. We can't have falling leaves in fall without the buds of spring. Winter... well, some people figure we can skip winter, and they go to Florida for a few months!
Church life has seasons as well. Healthy churches start with a season of discernment, when we are in prayer and listening for God's call in our lives. Once we feel that God has a task for us, we spend time visioning, so we can be clear on what God is calling us to do. With our vision in hand, we start to gather people together through excitement and energy to make the vision a reality. Then we disciple people, to train them how to follow Jesus and do the work Jesus sets before us. Once we are equipped, we start a season of worship, when we bring our group together with God every week for praise, confession, prayer, and hearing and responding to God's message. The next season is maturing, where we set up systems that keep the vision and ministry going and strong. Finally, we prepare to multiply, and start new ministries and groups of people in new places to reach new people.
Healthy churches keep moving through each of these seasons, both as a congregation as a whole and as individual ministry projects. The first three seasons are full of hope and energy as something new is beginning. The problem comes when a church gets comfortable in the season of worship and ministry, and stops discerning and visioning, and doesn't mature and multiply.
A great example of this is a church in Michigan that had a solid summer Bible school program for its kids. They had around 300 kids coming for a week each summer. Fantastic, right? But they had had that number for several years in a row. They had stopped gathering new people, and were no longer multiplying and reaching new people. Before they started to slow and decline, they decided to scrap the whole thing and discern a new vision for the ministry. They partnered with a local sports tournament, and set up their Bible camp at the tournament. They had 600 kids get involved that year. A few years later, they added an arts element to the sports theme, and got a couple hundred more kids involved.
They didn't stay at the worship season - they keep maturing and multiplying and starting over again with discernment, visioning and gathering.
What is our vision? What is God calling us to do now?
Are we stuck in one season? is it time to move and build momentum and energy again for God's plan in our community?
Over the next year, we will be reviewing where we are now, and where God wants to go with ministry and relationships. Let's dream big and see what we can do with God's help and direction.
7 Seasons of Church Planting guide from Discipleship Ministries here
