Stage Five - and not many congregations reach this point - is a very disturbing and apparently insecure stage to have reached. Much of what has been a familiar part of the institutional life of the church begins to look very much less desirable and may even get in the way of God’s work in his world.

The role of the priest/minister is very much more of the Person-in-touch-with-God, the prophet or pilgrim-leader than in any previous stage. Alternatively this role of prophet/pilgrim-leader possibly has to be passed on to someone else, while the minister concentrates on the more ‘behind-the-scenes’ task of sustaining and nurturing the pilgrims. This suggests the image of the chef or head waiter used in the rather more tentative ‘Stage Five?’ graphic at the top of this page.

The experience of Stage Five may even contain some surprising echoes of Moses with the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and finding themselves in the wilderness. If so, how much of our familiar institutional church life is really the equivalent of worshipping the golden calf?