There are four phases that easily present themselves in organizations.

• Building
• Destruction
• Deconstruction
• Stagnation

It's possible for some organizations to have another phase I'll call research or laboratory work. But for most organizations and in my case, churches, the four I've listed above are pretty descriptive of the state of being in that church.

Let's take a look at them and some of their characteristics and consequences.

1. A church that is in a building phase is marked by;

• activity
• teamwork
• mild to moderate conflict
• usually a good spirit and feel in the environment
• A growing sense of closeness to God
• A growing sense of respect for God's family

There are any number of folks who feel uncomfortable with the direction of the building phase, they may even talk as though things will fail and they may in some ways contribute to its undoing, overtly or covertly. They may withdraw support for the direction by leaving the organization physically or withdrawing emotionally. Leaders will be tempted to focus on these individuals and give too much of their time and energy to these folks. This can hurt the overall building phase. The proper balance of leaders time is called for.

Another factor is burnout in leaders. Building is hard work, mentally and physically. There is great stress involved. Getting things done is the greatest of challenges and is not getting any easier. With this in mind, key leaders must always be aware of and monitor the stress levels of leadership to help keep them healthy. Healthy leaders go a long way toward a healthy church. I am not only talking about physical building here, but building peoples lives and building a healthy church family. This is actually much harder than building a building, wall by wall, brick by brick.

Next post, more considerations for the building phase.