1. Leadership Tasks in the Life Cycle
Source: George Bullard

2. Remember
The goal is not to create great leaders, but great congregations!
Leadership is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

3. Basic Growth Principle
Moving from “fix”-based to “solutions”-based approach
The first and principal leadership task is to replace what was lost last in the congregation
Vision, Inclusion, Program, Management

4. Leadership Task on “Growth” Side
On the “growing” side of the curve, church growth happens through emphasizing the characteristics of the next stage
i.e. teach infants to act like children, children to act like adolescents, teens to act like adults

5. Sidebar
During the birth-infancy stages (first 5-6 years), the master story of the congregation is formed
A major leadership task on the “growth” side is to help shape and consolidate this story
At adulthood, multiple visions surface, and leadership is a matter of developing consensus in the master story

6. Leadership Task at “Maturity”
“Revision” process
Deal with what you lost latest: “vision”
From vIPM to VIPM
Sometimes a simple change of pastors works here (though not at other places!)
Takes 6-18 months to redevelop at this stage
Continuous (not radical) change works best

7. Leadership Task at “Empty Nest”
“Revitalization” process
Deal with what you lost latest: “P”
Program vitality
Move from vIpM  vIPm
Takes months
First stage is nostalgia, then disappointment, then “try harder,” then anger

8. Leadership at “Empty Nest”
Stages:
Nostalgia
Disappointment
“Try harder”
Anger
If caught at “nostalgia,” can do incremental change
If at “disappointment, anger, or beyond,” must lead via introducing discontinuous or radical change

9. Leadership Task at “Retirement”
“Renewal” process
From viPM  vIPM
Inclusion first, then vision
Must create lots of new ways for people to be reached and included in the life of the church
Takes 3-5 years

10. Leadership of “Retirement” Church
This is no place to use continuous change strategies
If it is 1st or 2nd leap at trying to redevelop, leadership can use discontinuous change
If 3rd -4th time, leadership must use radical change to leap forward to new adolescence

11. Leadership task at “Old Age”
“Reinvent” process
From vipM  Vipm
Very difficult to initiate without a third party
consultant or intentional interim type
Takes months (shorter time frame)

12. Leadership at Old Age
Only style of leadership that works at old age is radical change
And it must happen within months
“Let’s turn the page, begin with a blank, start from ground up”
Reinventing, not revising

13. Leadership Task at “Death”
“Resurrection” process
From “m”  Vipm
First V, then I
18-36 month time frame

14. Redeveloping Forward You don’t go “back” to an earlier stage!
Maturity: redevelops toward adulthood
Empty nest  adulthood or adolescence
Retirement  new adolescence or new childhood
Old age  new infancy or new childhood
Staying between adulthood and maturity is maintaining “Prime” in church life
Ichaka Diaz “The Pursuit of Prime”
In empty nest, if the change is continuous, then it redevelops to adulthood; if change is discontinuous, the redevelopment is toward adolescence

15. Redeveloping Forward Any redevelopment lasts 7-9 years until maturity
A “solutions-based” approach revises every decade
After years, it’s time for another redevelopment
Rather than riding the same redevelopment horse
Because after years, no matter how good a horse, it’s a dead horse
Any congregation can be a decade from death!

16. Re-dreaming the Dream
You don’t have to have the same dream as before; what matters that the current congregation owns the vision passionately
Alongside this, at every point of leadership on the “maturity” side of things, a goal is to diminish the controlling aspects of management
Reducing management increases energy for ministry

17. Leadership Tasks in the Life Cycle
Copyright John P. Chandler, 2000