Just Do It

Photo: Josie Holland

I've been enjoying my cousin Jonathan's blog, Igni, for a few months now. Part of my pleasure in reading it is getting a window into his world. But also, I appreciate the content itself because it is thoughtful and well-written.

I was especially moved by a post entitled, Of Diet Pepsi and Church Growth. Although I read the post more than a month ago, I find my thoughts keep drifting back to it.

I encourage you to follow the links and read and explore for yourself but, statistically speaking, I also know this to be unlikely. So I'll hit the high points here . . . which will have the added benefit of reinforcing the lessons for me. Jonathan is talking about building congregations, but that shouldn't be off-putting. You don't have to building a congregation to apply the core lesson here . . . it's enough to be trying to build a meaningful life . . . and hopefully, we're all working to do that.

Jonathan writes of volunteering with a local homeless shelter. (He's in Colorado.) The man giving him his orientation, chatted with him a bit about the history of the program. The group organizing the shelter "would find a church that had been experiencing some financial difficulty and had some space to spare. Then they would rent that space out, which would benefit the church and allow them to keep the doors open and their ministries going."

And here is the part that has stayed with me lo these many weeks:

"...after about a year or two of operating the shelter, [the group] wound up having to find a new church host, because the church would invariably grow and need its facilities back. They would be very apologetic, but they found themselves busting at the seams and could no longer host the ministry and no longer needed the rent and could not build more space. In these cases we're talking about a church that was struggling with typically about 40 members that would grow by at least 10 times within a couple years of opening the homeless shelter. What's more, these new congregants (and conversions) weren't the same people who were beneficiaries or associates of the shelter either; they would be local people who seemed to sense that God was doing something vibrant at that church. (Emphasis mine.)

Jonathan concluded: I think people thirst for where God is really moving and active in a way that I think our popular church-growth ideas miss. Where a church becomes concerned about what God is concerned about, the Gospel is spread and God will add to their numbers. People see the Water of Life flowing freely, and where that thirst can be quenched.

There are so many lessons one could tease out of this homily. One of these is the pointed reminder that God's hands are at the ends of our arms. We are meant to build communities and to help one another. When we commit ourselves to service, He comes into our lives shines in and through us. Others are drawn to the light. Madison Avenue can take a sabbatical on this one because pyrotechnic displays aren't necessary; candles are as effective and, quite possibly, are more inviting.

Yes, I know. Much of what I say here echos what I said in Pass It On. I'm not going to apologize for that because it bears repeating. I require repetition whenever I'm trying to master a lesson. And I love that Jonathan's post illustrates this lesson so clearly. Thanks, Jonathan.