When we moved to Hulett 18 years ago, we started a garden. Our first garden was about 15 feet by 15 feet in the back yard. It wasn’t very big. It wasn’t enough to put up many vegetables, but it was big enough so that our kids could snack on fresh beans and peas out of the garden and maybe a few ears of sweet corn. The next year, we increased the size of our garden to 15 by 30 and the next year we added another 15 by 15 patch and a couple small patches along the garage and along the fence. The next year, we added half of a 30 by 100 foot garden and the next year we planted that entire 30 by 100 foot garden. Our garden grew and grew and grew.
Along the way, we learned many tricks by trial and sometimes by error on how to get our garden to grow. One essential ingredient to garden growth in Hulett is water. Very rarely does it rain enough in any given summer week to nourish a bountiful garden crop so we have to irrigate. But watch out with irrigation. Too much water will kill the plants faster than a drought. We also tried many types of fertilizer. My fertilizer of choice is cow manure because it is rich in nutrients and readily bountiful in our area. But watch out with manure. Overapplication will bring about disease and death in a hurry. Another way we encouraged our plants to grow was with a greenhouse. But watch out with a greenhouse. A stable environment is ideal for pests like aphids. Another method we tried with our garden was mulching with cardboard between the rows to block weeds. It works great! But, again, watch out with cardboard in the garden. Carboard gives mice places to hide and one year mice ate a whole clear through every beet in our garden! There is one ingredient that we never had too much of in our garden. It is light. We can’t get any more than full sun in our garden and we have that. In fact, on those summers where the sun shines full, every day, our gardens grow their best. Light is an essential ingredient for garden growth that is nearly impossible to overapply.
It is much the same with church growth. We can manipulate things inside the church, trying to get more people to come. We can change the music or the service style. We can add different programs or activities. We can go online and try new technologies to get people interested. These are all useful – like water, fertilizer, and mulch in a garden – but all come with drawbacks. The one method that we can never overemphasize in church is the Light. Not the lighting of the stage or the candlelight service, but the Light that is Jesus Christ. When we shine the Light of Jesus brightly in our community, our church will grow to its greatest capacity. And by the way, the capacity of a church is not measured by occupied pews and chairs at a service, but by the presence of Jesus Christ in the hearts, homes, and habits of our church people.
Before God caused life on earth to grow, He said, “Let there be Light.” Do you want our church to grow? Let there be Light!
“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7