Last week, I began a diagnostic survey to attempt to give some idea as to where the Sydney Anglican Diocese is up to on the church lifecycle model.

Our conclusion is that the Diocese is in the vicinity of Retirement on the above model,

Sydney Anglicans were introduced to the so called “Uluru model” by Phillip Jensen. Since that time, George Bullard has done extensive work to analyse the characteristics of churches at different stages of the model. Similar models are used extensively by corporate strategists. I have provided a summary of the model at this post.

This diagram is the key one:

Bullard diagram

The survey I used maps into Bullards categories. There were 114 responses (not bad – thanks to all who contributed. Our conclusion is that the Diocese is in the vicinity of Retirement on the above model, on the basis of the perceptions indicated in the survey.

The raw “scores” are as follows:

Birth – Infancy 95
Childhood – Adolescence 137
Adulthood – Maturity 144
Empty Nest – Retirement 444
Old Age – Death 320

This would put the Diocese in the vicinity of “retirement” on the above model. Now, the whole survey is a kind of litmus test. It is not definitive. You must take into account other factors. This said, when you take into account the Diocesan attendance data and mission goals, it does seem hard to argue with such a diagnosis.