The Life Cycle of a Local Church
Proverbs 26:2 “The curse causeless shall not come.”
The “Living Organism”
This world that God has created is teeming with life! Everywhere we go, whether a setting by the sea, a meadow, a forest, a pond – we are surrounded by thousands, if not millions, of living organisms, each having a “life cycle” not only unique to its species, but unique to itself. In fact, so vast and complex is the cycle of life that coexists with us on this earth that the Bible says “no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (Ecc. 3:11).
What is true in the physical world is also true in the spiritual world, and the local church, it seems, is no exception. Now, in one sense, the “church” in Scripture is an assembly of all true believers throughout the world (and thus not fully knowable to us), as Paul implied when he wrote to the Corinthians, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (1Cor. 1:2). In another sense, it refers to the entire congregation of saints who have entered their rest in heaven, as in Heb. 12:22-23: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.” But to us on earth, a “church” most often refers to a local, visible assembly of those who gather together professing their mutual faith in Christ. It is this last definition of a local church that we wish to consider here.
The Church as a Living Thing
We are familiar with the term “life cycle” as it relates to a living organism. One encyclopedia describes these terms thus: “Life cycle is the sequence of changes that a living thing passes through from a particular form in one generation to the development of the same form in another generation..... The sequence of changes through which an organism passes during its lifetime is called its life history.” For simplicity we will include both these definitions under the term life cycle – but what do these terms have to do with the church? Is the church a living thing? In a very real sense, it is, for in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is described as a body having various “members.” This “living” metaphor is continued in 1 Peter 2:5: “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” If, then, the church in general is a living organism, so will a local church, which is made up of members “professing the faith of the gospel” (1689 Confession), have the nature of a living organism, and will go through the various stages of its life that most of us have seen repeated many times. These phases might include the following:
Phases in the Life Cycle of a Church
1. Birth. Originating in the heart of God, the Great Commission commands God’s people to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded.” Thus, a Bible-preaching local church begins as a vision, and is allegedly established or planted as a living assembly to bring glory to Him.
2. Growth. During this phase, as souls come to Christ and members are added to the assembly, there is a general sense of good will and excitement. This stage might represent the innocence of childhood, and may include rapid growth, building programs, and the excitement and good feeling that worship in large numbers can bring. There is a sense of optimism about the future.
3. Maturity. The church has reached the height of its powers. Its ministry seems bold and effective, and is known and respected throughout its community or even beyond. Its members appear to be strong, serving, and satisfied with the church and its vision for the future.
4. Decline. As a living organism” entering its declining years, so it often is with a local church. Sometimes the decline seems to begin among the members, as a subtle apathy or murmuring begins to infect the once-excited congregation. At other times it seems to start from the leaders, as pastoral changes bring in new leadership which fails to maintain the respect of the people. “After pastor so-and-so left,” one might hear, “the church was never the same.” And so it may be, but decline in the organism may have begun long before its visible symptoms appear.
5. Death. Our religious landscape is littered with once-thriving local churches that are now dead. What’s more remarkable is the fact that some may appear alive, yet in reality be far from it, for so said our Lord to the church of Sardis: “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1).
How to Maintain the Life of a Local Church
If this oft-repeated “life cycle” above is the sobering reality, what are its lessons? Certainly, in the physical world, although God is sovereign and maintains full sovereign control over His creatures, there are general principles that, if observed, can at least help to keep a living organism healthy and strong. Scripture and experience teach that observing the following principles can do the same for a local church:
1. Don’t soften the message of salvation, which involves repentance, a vital and living faith, enduring belief in Christ and reliance upon Him, for each church member individually. Once the church’s preaching begins to assume that the unbelievers are only on the outside, while only true believers are on the inside, it is tolerating an unregenerate membership (regardless of how kind, generous and biblically literate they may be), and is on its way to decline and death. Galatians 6: 3-7 says, “But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.... Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
2. Don’t presume the salvation of one you may consider to be a “weaker brother.” “Weaker brother” in Scripture means those who are of an overly-tender conscience, not those who are spiritually weak, apathetic or worldly. The Scripture teaches us to have a healthy fear of apostasy, as Paul did, both in ourselves and in others (1 Corinthians 9:27), and to make that fear a vital part of our relationship with others in the church. Heb. 3:12-14: Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.”
3. Don’t take your children’s Christian professions for granted. It is natural for children to want to believe as their parents believe, and to make profession to that end; and it is natural for their parents to be all too eager to consider their children saved, and thus put the issue behind them. But Jesus’ command to "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14), does not mean that we assume a child’s (or anyone else’s) profession to be genuine before they have reached maturity and been tested by adversity; rather, Jesus was merely saying that all who enter the Kingdom of God are those who come to Christ in childlike submission and trust. All professions of faith, including our own, are nothing more than empty claims until they are proven out over time (Matthew 13:20-21).
4. Don’t build the church on a man. It is Christ who builds the church (Matthew 16:18), not man. When too much reliance is placed on a leader’s personality, charisma or other ministerial gifts, the long-term results have often been disastrous, for those in the pew who witness those gifts may be so captivated by them that they fail to take heed to the doctrines being taught. Church historian Iain Murray, writing of the prominent revival preachers of the past, points out, “The preachers used in all revivals have always been only men, ‘earthen vessels,’ [but], forgetting this and esteeming them too highly, their evangelical contemporaries and successors have sometimes accorded to their teaching a degree of authority due to no man.” We must remember that the Berean Christians in Acts 17:11, even while sitting under the teaching of the Apostles, were commended not only because they “received the word with all readiness of mind,” but because they “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things [which they were hearing] were so.” A leader should, in fact, encourage this quality in his people, and beware of himself lest he be “exalted above measure” (2 Corinthians 12:7).
5. Don’t build the church on programs that attract the world. While the church’s commission to evangelize is important, the church is above all an assembly of saints, not seeking sinners. When “outreach programs” make the lost feel too comfortable in church, or when the church is too eager to pronounce seekers “saved” when in reality they are not, the church has entered the danger zone, for it has made seekers the focus at the expense of the saints, and will soon become bloated with unbelievers and cease to be a true church.
Our 1689 Baptist Confession says, “The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error; (1 Cor. 5:1-13; Rev. 2:1-29 3:1-22) and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan; (Rev. 18:2 2Th 2:11-12) nevertheless Christ always has had, and ever shall have a kingdom in this world, to its end, of such as believe in him, and make profession of his name. (Mt. 16:18; Ps. 72:17 102:28; Rev. 12:17)” Thus, like the cells in the body, which live, die, and are gradually replaced, our greatest local churches, or at least those what appear to be so, are born, live, and die – not one of them is invincible or indispensable to the Lord’s work. Yet the invisible church of Christ endures! Let us be careful not to exalt any local assembly to a prominence that is due only to God, for all of them, possessing as they do the chaff of sinful humanity, will be found to have the seeds of death in them. Only in heaven will a perfect church assemble, and God’s saints look forward to that day in the Heavenly City when “the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” (Revelation 21:22-27)
