A diagnostic instrument
Is your church becoming a movement?
The Church Maturity Matrix measures your church against the characteristics of the church at Ephesus — the movement that carried the gospel across Asia in a generation. It is not a growth score, and it produces no ranking. It gives a leadership team twenty-five statements, two readings, and a set of conversations worth having.
No account needed to begin.
The instrument
Five phases of a church's life across the plan. Five depths of maturity down the section — M1 at the surface, M5 at the floor. Deeper rows count for more, and the rows are drawn to their weight: a cell at M5 is five times the ground of a cell at M1.
Scroll sideways to see all five phases.
Click any column header to inspect statements in that phase.
Launching Phase
Church is grounded theologically
Church can effectively communicate God's story
Church has exegeted the culture
Church has connected theology and culture
The community's story is seen as a part of God's story
Where it comes from
The statements are drawn from the church at Ephesus as described in Ephesiology: The Study of the Ephesian Movement — the characteristics visible in the New Testament record of a church that carried the gospel across Asia Minor. The matrix is not a model imported from business or from church growth. It is a reading of one first-century movement, turned into questions a church can ask about itself.
How to use it
- 1.Designed for a pastor, elders, staff and key leaders to take together — not alone.
- 2.About forty minutes. Progress saves, so it can be finished in a second sitting.
- 3.Any phase scoring three or less is meant to start a conversation, not to deliver a verdict.
“This instrument is intended to strengthen critical reflection and local discernment. It does not replace field research, prayer, relationships, or the wisdom of indigenous leaders.”
— Michael T. Cooper
A phase that scores low often points to reading Cooper has already done on it — his Master Classes and the Missiology of Movements MA go deeper on the same material, if that is useful to you.
Church Maturity Matrix · From Ephesiology: The Study of the Ephesian Movement
An Ephesiology diagnostic instrument for leadership teams.