It has been said that churches, like everything else in life, have a life cycle. There is a process of birth, growth and eventually death. Although many churches may experience multiple cycles of growth, decline and renewed growth, most if not all, eventually die.
So how does this apply to the church I am currently planting? I realize that Connect Church will not be on this earth forever. It may last 20, 50 or 100 years. However, at some point it will eventually close its doors. This should come as no more of a surprise than the fact that I too will eventually die. Before this sounds too morbid and depressing let me get to the point. My prayer is not for Connect to remain for 1000 years but that the vision and purpose of Connect survive and continue on in the core of the churches our church plants. I want our church planting vision to be carried on through the churches we plant and the churches that are planted from them and so on down the line. As a result Connect will live on through it's children, grandchildren, and great-grand children.
Unfortunately I believe many churches are like an elderly person that has no other family. They are coming to the end of their life and have no children or grandchildren to carry on their legacy. As a result these churches are fearful of the thought of closing their doors because they know of no one to carry on their work for the advancement of the kingdom of God. However, if more churches would commit to planting multiple, healthy, growing churches then they could rejoice in these times as they watch new churches grow and take the gospel to this culture.
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