We have the perspective of nearly two thousand years of Church history.  We have a time horizon that stretches to eternity.  We live in the tension of the now and not yet.  We grapple with the reality of short-term time horizons:  poor church finances, aging buildings, aging clergy and the continual aging of the Anglican denomination.  But in light of the Cross and eternity, all is not what it seems.  To be at an end is to be at a beginning.

Prof. Jurgens Hendricks in his book, Studying Congregations in Africa (2004), writes that churches have a life cycle.   A church in its Birth is characterised by imaginative vision and a few enthusiastic members.  Next comes Infancy, with high energy and inclusive membership.  Adolescence is focussed on creating a place to call one’s own and experimenting with new activities.   The church consolidates these advancements in its Prime, often resulting in creative conflict within leadership and programmes, which when worked through can lead to Maturity.  Next a form of Aristocracy emerges where there is the increasing dominance of the church as an institution.  While there still is a high degree of efficiency and life, the church may give way to a Bureaucracy, which sustained by good memories, finally faces the prospect of its Death - institutional demise and disintegration.  Thankfully Death cannot prevail against the Church as the Kingdom of God advances through mission and ministry.  To be at an end is also to be at a beginning. 

The cycle of birth and death and rebirth of churches has happened over and over again.  Some branches of the Church have died out. Some denominations now are in terminal decline.  Yet others are being born, or are still in their infancy, and experiencing rapid growth with much evangelistic activity.  Churches have a life cycle too.

Given that my denomination is by no stretch of the imagination a new church movement bursting forth with evangelistic energy and idealism, we must settle for being in the latter stages of the life-cycle.  The twin temptations to aristocracy and bureaucracy ever loom over our shoulder.  But with age can come a gracious, humble, wisdom and surrendered reliance on the grace of God.  (Triumphalism tends not to be Anglicanism’s Achilles’ heel at this life-stage.)  To be at an end is also to be at a beginning. 

In the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) we are seeing new dioceses being formed at a rate that was last seen when pioneering Anglican missionary bishops and missionaries first came to these shores on the back of colonial expansion.  New parishes are being formed.  Churches are being planted.  Fresh expressions of Anglicanism are being engaged with for the sake of communicating the Gospel to a new generation.  New dreams are being dreamed about the difference we can make in society.  

The ongoing challenge facing the leadership of my denomination (and other main-line churches) is twofold in respect to the aging of the denomination and the aging of its own leaders.  Where is our denomination in the life-cycle of growth and decline?  What overarching characteristics are associated with our churches?  Flexibility or rigidity?  Risk-taking or risk aversion initiatives?  Energy and enthusiasm or slog-work and conformity?   The type of leadership required depends on where we are as a denomination.  But leaders are people too.  Leaders have a life cycle to journey through from birth to death and thankfully, resurrection re-birth.