Growth

If you've been reading my blog at all recently, you'll know that my church is in a new chapter, a time of change, a time of growth. We often at church hear people talking about wanting to grow the church and bringing people in. And while that is all good in theory, I think each of us has a different opinion of what growth looks like. And if it comes in a way that is less than desirable to us, we quickly realize that is not what we want.

Let me say from the start, that from my opinion the growth of one church at the expense of the other is not growth. I don't want a church filled with people who left their previous church for the next new thing. This is like transferring money between your bank accounts and saying you received a bonus. Now, I really believe that God can and does move people to different churches for a season of life, so I'm not invalidating that at all. But that is not how I think God wants to see his church grow.

If we are honest, we want our church to grow by God adding model Christians to our congregation. People who are just like us, who fit in with us. And we want it to happen totally by the power of God and without us having to really do anything to facilitate or manage that growth. We want growth to be easy and pleasant and not mess up our normal or require much of us at all.

Last night after church there was a guy walking in front of the church parking lot. I've never seen him before and he was kind of taking his time like he wanted to talk to someone. Haley said "we should go invite him to church." I told her to not go alone, but to grab a few of the youth to go with her. She asked them and no one would go with her. Now, I'm not stupid enough to believe that every person is nice or safe (which is why I told her not to go by herself) but I was shocked when she told me these church people, who I don't consider to be shy at all, would not go with her to invite the guy to church.

The excuses I heard from Daniel were, "We don't know him. What if he's weird? What if he wants to stalk me."  I told him we weren't introducing ourselves and handing out our address and phone number, we were inviting him to church. The church he was walking in front of obviously wanting someone to at least say hi. And as far as I know, we all ignored him because he isn't our ideal candidate for a church attendee. (Me included. I was wrangling kids, but I should have went with her when no one else would.)

So this is what we've come to. We want nice easy clean church growth, but we don't really want to actually have to be nice to people or to talk to someone we don't know.

I know this sounds like I'm picking on people and maybe I am a little, but it hits home too. I always have excuses why I can't witness or invite people to church. My biggest is that we live 20 minutes from the church so it isn't exactly in the neighborhood or convenient. I've decided I've got to stop making up what their excuse will be and just start talking. If they want an excuse, it can be on them,. but it will not longer be me not providing an invitation.

I've lived in my neighborhood 5 years. I don't know a single name of one of my neighbors. I know their kids as they come through the house from time to time, but not a single adult. Not one. So this weekend we are making cookies and taking them around to my 5 closest neighbors, introducing myself (and whichever kid decides to join me) and inviting them to church. And if they decide to come, great! If they don't, okay, but we have to start somewhere. All of us need to start somewhere.

When did we become so inwardly focused we are so afraid of an awkward conversation that we choose to let people around us go to hell? That is so selfish of us!

Which leads me back to why do we want growth anyways? So the new pastor can look good? So we can feel like we are successful at something and not forever stuck? No, because God wants to grow his kingdom and he chooses to use us. Yes, we can and should pray that God will bring people in, but we have to put some action with our faith and get to walking and talking.

This brings me back to an analogy of the eagle I heard a couple of weeks back. The first thing the eagle does when it's preparing it's eaglet to learn to fly on it's own is start stirring the nest. The purpose is to get the eaglet uncomfortable so it will get out of the place of comfort and safety, taking the risk required to learn to fly. The problem is most of the time when we get uncomfortable because God is trying to get us to take the next step, we leave one comfortable nest for another comfortable nest. That isn't forward progress! It's denial.

If we are unwilling to put some action with our faith, our inaction shows our inner selves. Maybe we just say we want growth because it seems like the right thing to say, Maybe if things get changed enough, we will have the appearance of growth without any substance. Maybe that's really want we want. 

God help us to see people as you see them! To see this season as an opportunity to follow your heart in a way we never have before. To put ourselves out there, knowing you will honor our willingness and grow your Kingdom for your name sake.