Oak Valley Community Church had been growing so well that other Christians decided that they wanted to join. Some had recently moved into the area. Several dozen families were frustrated or disillusioned with their old churches; others were looking for an ``alive'' church so that their children wouldn't want to quit church-going.

The new people from other churches brought with them a rich store of desperately-needed skills and experience. Invigorated by the atmosphere of freshness, some were overjoyed to be offered an opportunity to take on a fruitful ministry and became remarkably effective. It was especially easy now there were so many niche ministries.

Others brought the unwanted baggage of hurts and frustration from their previous churches; they had almost lost the ability to enjoy anything fresh and different and optimistic. The pastors suggested to the Lay Ministry Committee that these newcomers should be left to sit and absorb life for a couple of years to heal their wounds. Only then might they have the energy to become positive, responsible members.

Over coffee one day, Jan aired her feelings of tension on another issue. She said to Mary that now the church has more programs, she can't get to every meeting at church. ``There aren't enough hours in the day. Not long ago it was fun to go to everything and get involved. Now it's just hard work. I need to put more time into the business; Rob can't do everything himself. Besides, nowadays I don't even know a lot of people at church.'' In the early days, not only could Jan know everybody well, but close friendships were the hallmark of being part of the church.

The first gray hair. The wrinkles around your eyes that linger after a smile. Churches grow old just like people. The signs of age might be different but the way they creep up is just the same. It's a critical time; the church has a mid-life crisis looming ahead. Imagine being thirty-eight years old and getting fired from a job in a dying profession where you've worked for over fifteen years. And coming home and realizing for the first time that your kids have become teenagers. That's what it's like for a church to become aware that it is showing signs of age.

But people don't usually realize that their church is changing and are unprepared to do much about it. Perhaps that is why the first signs of age mark the most interesting stage of the life cycle; they explain how vibrant youth can become tired middle age.

The church keeps on growing strongly so nobody realizes that there are fewer and fewer new converts from the surrounding community; growth is increasingly transfers of membership from other churches. And church leaders are so busy keeping all the programs running smoothly that they don't realize that the kind of growth has changed. According to one source, most new churches reach their peak attendance, financial giving, and evangelism within only twelve years, and their evangelistic effectiveness is already on the wane only three years later. (`Churches Die with Dignity' Christianity Today, Jan. 14, 1991, p. 69.)

Another major reason for the change is the subtle changes that transformed an open group into a closed group. At first, the group saw their mission as being faithful to Christ in their surrounding community; they welcomed outsiders. But it was natural and fun to want to be with other like-minded people, so they came to spend more of their time in each other's company. Before too long, members had to be faithful in service to Christ, especially to church-related people. After all, they had to shepherd and teach new believers and wanted to guard against letting their group identity dissipate into the wider community.

But eventually, this came to mean attending ever-proliferating church meetings with the resultant loss of time for caring for outsiders. The law of diminishing returns came into effect; the increase in number of meetings ceased helping members to become more spiritual. At the last stage, the church has developed a full-blown case of stagnation syndrome; it has become a sub-culture with an ''us-them'' attitude to outsiders.

Several other things happen during the transition stage. I suspect that it is at this stage that churches tend to have their first heated argument. They usually resolve the matter successfully. Perhaps it is the first sign that the church is becoming inward-looking and starting to suffer stagnation.

Whether or not the church makes it to the 200 barrier, its administration becomes more hierarchical and the pastor becomes increasingly responsible for the ministry. The concept of church membership is changing; it's now more important to be a formal member of the institution than to be actively part of a circle of friends.

At least one good thing happens. Churches start to have a vision for worldwide mission; they develop a good missionary support program and start to send their first missionaries. The unfortunate corollary is that, for all practical purposes, the church does not see its surrounding neighborhood as its primary mission field.

Take deliberate steps immediately to get your church back on track. You have already started to lose momentum and the stagnation syndrome has started to take root. Lose your drive now and it will be far more difficult to keep your church healthy.

Check your creativity. If you're the pastor of an aging church, then your ability to innovate is probably becoming a little tired.

Here are some thoughts on creative communication. Try them. They stand a better chance of success if used with people who want something fresh. But don't be surprised if dwellers in church ghettoes dislike them.

a. Can outsiders understand what you say? Do they find it attractive? Avoid cliches and jargon and see things from their perspective. Non-Christians might validly see things in a very different light because they don't live in Christian ghettos. And Christians are generally blind to the concerns and perspectives of non-Christians.

b. Do you use creative new metaphors and similes to communicate? Do you create living images for people?

c. What are you learning that is fresh and new?

d. Which Scriptural truths are relevant for people? Are you meeting pressing needs? Are you quite sure that what you are saying is absolutely important? Dump anything trivial and get something else.

e. Compare the truth with your own experience. What insights emerge? Are there new ways of understanding and looking at situations? If you meet and observe people each day, you might find that they illustrate unexpected spiritual truths or truths about human nature. Don't just adopt the church status quo. And don't fool yourself that the Christian status quo is always biblical.

f. What will work for people? Can people really put it into practice?

g. Can people personally identify with the experiences, feelings and motives that you talk about? Do you admit that you too have feet of clay?

h. Find the core truth and express the point clearly. If you can't do it in six words, think again. It might be blunt and honest. It might be remarkably positive, or a rebuke. But don't water it down with lots of technical-sounding stuff or with pseudo-intellectualism. Above all, don't apologize for it or make it so tactful that you hide the point. (The present trend is to pad it with empty feel-good patter.)

i. Is it biblical and theologically accurate? Remember, conceding a point can make what you say much more powerful.

j. Are you sincere? Or are you using your phony church voice?