Once again, the Building phase is not about a physical building, but an atmosphere or spirit of building. A building project can certainly be a part of this phase but not limited to it.

So what else can I say about this phase. It can be fun, chaotic, uncertain, building bridges as you go and so on. Leaders can feel like they are directing traffic more than they are leading. There can be lots of problems to solve. There are usually lots of changes and personnel turnover. All this amounts to a measure of instability. There is need of a new normal.

An important factor is the level of engagement. You see lots of activity and lots of people involvement. That's a good feeling. Especially if the right people are in the right places. What I mean by that could fill a book, but basically has to do with values alignment. If your leadership team carries a similar set of core values, lots of things in your church will feel better and work better. There are factors which cause this set of core values to be self balancing and to level out over time. One of your main goals as a pastor has to be to be a champion of the core values of the group, especially as they can be shown to be Biblical values. I think Malphurs books on this subject are superb. He's a bit technical at times and maybe too lengthy, but he brings a comprehensive picture to the reader about how to relate to, understand and live by core values in a church setting. Most importantly he teaches Values Driven Leadership. If you are in a church that feels like it's in a building phase, you need to understand what he is talking about.

Don't worry too much about the conflict in this phase. Learn to manage it if you can. Learn about your own feelings of conflict and how you handle them, that may go the farthest in keeping good balance in your church. See my other posts on conflict for the differences between normal and abnormal or destructive conflict.

A church in the building phase can be quite a handful. If you like to hold the reins too closely, there will be many challenges for you to let them go and turn them over to others. You will have to learn how to do that. If you like to keep your hands in everything, you will have to change. You will have to learn to go from a Shepherd to a Rancher as Schaller describes.

There are some things that you can never really let go of, not completely anyhow. You must make sure that all members of the church family have pastoral care, you cannot do it all yourself, but you should work hard to make sure that no one goes without the kindness and care of the other shepherds in your church. You cannot give away the responsibility for an excellent worship service. What takes place at church every week is critical. Stay on top of it, you are the chief worship leader. I've had many challenges to this idea, but it doesn't change the fact that what happens at church is your responsibility. Leadership development is a high priority as well as discipleship.

All of these are important characteristics and factors to care about as a church leader in the building phase. What would you add or subtract?