[0:00]
I just want to talk about the different stages of a church merger. So they can be broken down into five separate stages. The first one is exploration. It's just those initial conversations, is this possible? The second one is negotiation. And that's the question that is asked, is this feasible? You're really actually pushing into what are the non-negotiables? How and what is this going to look like? Third stage is that declaration. I've used that question of is it desirable?

[0:30]
It's that purposeful, we are going to merge, and whatever church context or denomination you're in, you've got a whole bunch of processes that are formal and need to happen. But a real key one is actually getting both congregations to say, yes, this is what we want to do. So that's that declaration stage. The next stage, the fourth stage, is consolidation. Actually starting to work out what does the merged church look like? And then finally, there's integration. all the hard work's been done and you're actually now forming a new church and working towards

[1:04]
this new future that you've been dreaming, planning and scheming. And this can take a number of years. It's not just overnight that you're consolidated and then integrated.