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throughout the bible from the very beginning of Genesis whereby God’s love is expressed in
the creation of humankind for the express purpose of being in relationship with God as a
people created in the image of God. Growth in the Church therefor is determined by those

whose understanding of themselves includes acknowledging their divine creatureliness and
their holy connection to a loving God. As part of that belonging to God is an implicit and ex-
plicit vocation to be in relationship to one another as humans and to bear witness to the
grace-filled reality of this holy covenant God has gifted God’s people. Note if you will the lack

of boundaries in that holy calling and vocation. It is not bound by walls or structures, time,
age or gender, but rather is very ubiquitous.

Does that mean then we are unable to quantify and measure our growth as a Church? My
son the mathematician would be most annoyed with the conundrum I have set before us be-
cause I suspect his answer would be no, it is not measurable, it is too abstract. Yet I have to
wonder in all of this if quantifying Church growth should be taking our energy at all. I am

wondering if we as God’s people are not spending way too much time thinking about num-
bers—especially the numbers that make up worship attendance and not enough time asking
ourselves if we have lived into the relationship proposal God has made to each of us. We

need to ask ourselves if we have been intentional about proposing to each other and creating
relationships built on the holy ground of divine love. To me the Church “grows” the moment
we are mindful of God’s loving intention toward us, calling us always beloved and then shar-
ing that love among others we encounter. I think that is growth…perhaps not measurable in

the strictest sense of the word, but none-the-less astonishing in what that growth means for
the world.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Pat

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