Two Loops Life Cycle for Congregations

All organisms and organizations (yep congregations and presbyteries too) have a life “cycle.” Even though the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its many incarnations may be eternal, individual congregations, ministries and presbyteries are not. While the Body of Christ may perpetuate, individual bodies of Christ do not. As living organisms grow and mature, they peak and eventually begin to decline and die. In a non-organic, mechanical worldview, perpetuity is the goal. Dying and death are to be avoided at all costs. Western churches have typically operated out of a mechanical worldview, hoping they will continue in perpetuity. However, perpetuity is an illusion, which organic reality shatters when church decline inevitably begins. Without engaging death, resurrection doesn’t emerge.

Congregations and presbyteries have important choices to make when they plateau. They can double down on the status quo, shore up their resources, and maintain survival. They can seek to renew, revitalize, redevelop. And, they can prepare to die well and give birth to something new. The “Two- Loops Theory of Change,” developed by Chris Corrigan, depicts an organic model for living and dying in the church of the 21st century.

The two loops co-exist. The second loop—the innovation loop—begins while the first loop is peaking (recline), declining, and coming to an end. Congregations and presbyteries can acknowledge and support a second loop of innovative ministries as their first loop of established ministries peaks and declines. In many cases, individual congregants will be comfortable on one or the other loop, not both. And this is fine. But the congregation or presbytery ought acknowledge and steward both! There is an interdependent relationship between the two.