LIFE CYCLE OF

CONGREGATIONS
Adapted from a presentation at the
American Ethical Union’s Lay
Leadership Summer School, 2004

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 FOUR ELEMENTS OF A
CONGREGATION

•E = Energy, passion, vision

•P = Programs, projects
•A = Administration, staff, policy
•I = Inclusion, outreach, recruiting
• Martin Saarinen: The Life Cycle of a Congregation, 2001 (revised edition).
• Alice Mann: Can Our Church Live: Redeveloping Congregations in Decline. 1999.

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 LIFE CYCLE OF A
CONGREGATION
Prime: EPAI Maturity: ePAI

Adolescence: EPaI Aristocracy: epAI

Infancy: EpaI Bureaucracy: epAi

Birth: Epai Death: a

E = Energy P = Programs
A = Admin I = Inclusion
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 BIRTH: Epai

• High excitement and enthusiasm

• Founding leader has lots of time for one-
on-one contact
• Decisions made by small group / leader

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 INFANCY: EpaI

• Continuing excitement, some anxiety if

birth process prolonged
• High survival needs, aggressive outreach:
may seem desperate to visitors
• All hands needed
• Put up with lacks in hope of a better
future

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 ADOLESCENCE: EPaI

• Testing limits: do we have to follow

expectations?
• Programs expand
• Leader’s one on one contacts reduced
• Self-support needed as subsidies decline

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 PRIME: EPAI
• Balance and optimize people concerns and
program concerns
• Internal conflicts used for learning
• Mission/purpose kept at center
• Managerial capacity strong
• Generous contributions including outward and
to association
• Leader more “rancher” than “shepherd”
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 MATURITY: ePAI
• Somewhat like “prime” but more “settled”
• Emphasize retaining members over gaining
new
• Resistance is growing to change/new ideas: not
received well
• Tradition and set patterns are emphasized
• “Good old days” nostalgia
• Founding members withdrawing
• May not adapt to changing demographics
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 ARISTOCRACY: epAI
• Staleness setting in: busy, but more tired than
enthusiastic
• Newcomers expected to fit in with old values
• More groups are closed
• Closed, exclusive relationships
• Maintenance more important than
mission/purpose
• Budget problems
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 BUREAUCRACY: epAi

• Further decline
• Defend the past
• Survival attitude
• Scarcer resources
• Blame, distrust, protecting turf
• Resist creative solutions
• Poor communication among leadership
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 DEATH: a

• All living things must die

• Some like a phoenix can be reborn
anew?
• Don’t continue along: need new birth
• Dwindle away: people, resources,
contributions to community life
• Need: hospice care from association
avoid making it personal, blaming
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 WHAT TO DO?
• What to do to return to “prime”?
• Tendency: fix
• A=administration or
• P=programs
• Instead: add E=energy in most cases
• Back to mission/purpose and enthusiasm
• Life threatening situations can be the occasion of rebirth or
rediscovery

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 STAGES IN A
CONGREGATION’S LIFE
CYCLE
Prime: EPAI Maturity: ePAI

Adolescence: EPaI Aristocracy: epAI

Infancy: EpaI Bureaucracy: epAi

Birth: Epai Death: a

E = Energy P = Programs
A = Admin I = Inclusion
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 PLANNING FOR STAGES
• Organizations are self-preserving, often at expense of
members
• If we work to support tasks more than relationship,
volunteers become hard to find, burn out

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 PLANNING FOR STAGES
(CONT.)
• At any phase, relationship and fueling passions need to be at
forefront
• Tasks/programs may need to evolve or change as
membership changes

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 ROLE OF LEADERSHIP
• Job of leadership is to encourage people to discover and
share passions, and support translating those passions into
Ethical practices

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 PROGRAM PLANNING
• Tasks/programs are Ethical practices if they:
• Teach and use relationship-enhancing processes
• Nurture and support ethical activists
• Encourage and create diverse community

• Warning: passions can be squashed if too much is piled on top of

them

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