It’s Growing Season

            I love this time of year we find ourselves in. The cool winds of spring are dying down, but the dog days of summer have yet to hit us. It’s the time of year when we have completed all of the planting in our gardens and we are eagerly watching everything grow. The corn in the fields has already passed knee-high and we’re not near the 4^th of July! Our only tasks right now are to keep the weeds at bay, water as needed, and begin picking the produce as it begins to form and ripen. Even if one is not a gardener, it’s hard to not marvel at the abundance of growth we see all around us.

            As I shift to where I am going with this analogy, (you were aware I’m going somewhere with this, right?) I am full of hope as I look around at our congregation here at Marion for signs of growth as well. I feel as if we are entering into a growing season in our life as a church. Now there are various types of growth to consider and various ways we can measure or define “growth” so I may need to clarify exactly what kind of growth I’m looking for and am encouraged by.

If we acknowledge that persons will always transition into and out of congregations, we realize that attendance numbers are only one way to measure one kind of growth, numerical growth. There is another kind of growth that I am even more attentive to, and that is growth in spiritual vitality or health. While numerical growth can be a sign that there is growth in vitality, it doesn’t necessarily mean that. Likewise, the fact that a congregation’s attendance is level doesn’t automatically mean there is spiritual stagnation.

What I instead continually consider is whether we as a congregation are growing in fulfilling God’s desired purposes for us. What is God’s desire for us? We can look to scripture to find it. According to the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4, the purpose of the gifts God gives to the church is so that we may “prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”… and “in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ”…from whom “the whole body… grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

This to me is the barometer of growth for any congregation. Are we growing as disciples of Christ? Are we being Christ to one another? Are we functioning as a healthy body? Is each part of the body doing its part? These are the indicators of growth that have been encouraging me lately and give me a sense of hope that we are entering a growing season.

It feels as if in my first two years here, we have been working hard at tilling the congregational soil, preparing the seedbed, and planting seeds of change and growth. I am grateful for the team that the Commission Ministers and Pastoral Team have been growing into around me. I am grateful for the signs of Kingdom life I see springing up among many body members. I am grateful for the growing depth of openness and honesty among each of us. God is bringing growth among us in significant areas!

Am I satisfied? Well… let’s not use the word satisfied because that portrays the feeling of “settledness.” But I am encouraged; encouraged by the signs of being open to change and, in fact, the signs of “unsettledness” that I see and hear among us. Let’s remain in an open stance to God’s desire to move among us and to bring growth, (even if at times it means uncomfortable change.)

Let’s rejoice in what God has done, and continue to look forward to what is in store for us as we enjoy this growing season!

Pastor Carl