The Life-Cycles Of A Church

The Lord’s church often passes through different stages of spiritual development. For example, the church at Thyatira was improving, though plagued with false teaching (Revelation 2:19-20).

The church at Sardis was past its prime — it was already dead, spiritually speaking (Revelation 3:1-3). Paul does brings out some good points regarding the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:4-7, 1 Corinthians 11:2; 2 Corinthians 8:7), yet they were plagued with church problems due to their carnality (1 Corinthians 3:1-3) and a failure to follow through on their promises regarding giving (2 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Corinthians 8:10-11; 2 Corinthians 9:2-5).

Paul taught that the ideal path of a church is ever onward and upward (1 Corinthians 15:58). A vibrant life-cycle in the church comes from the renewal of a firm commitment to the Lord and to the spiritual mission to which we as the church have been called (Ephesians 3:9-11). The Lord’s soul-saving work is the most important work in the world, and as such, it deserves and demands our best effort, both individually and collectively.

It has been observed, by those who study organizations, that most of them go through three stages in their life-cycle.

Let us make application of these observations to the church of our Lord.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets