As Spring draws to a close and summer approaches I engaged myself on a mental hike through Ring Mountain. Set above the town of Tiburon was a favorite spot of mine where you could climb up and at a certain point further down the trail, you could actually see all three bridges in the Bay Area. As I envisioned myself starting off on the trail on a bright sunny day I notice the wild flowers. So beautiful in all their colors as they clothe the hillsides with a majestic tapestry of floral design.
It is something that sticks out to me because there is nothing like it that I have seen in Hawaii. Then someone breaks the news to me. "You know, those are actually weeds." Well, those are the most beautiful weeds I've seen. Then Summer's heat scorches the flowers and they are gone without evidence of ever existing, until the cool of the fading Winter and Spring showers meet.
Doing church planting has reminded me of the wild flowers too. Since getting involved with Kahalu'u Baptist Chapel I have heard the testimony of many church planters and there is often a common theme, numerical growth. Articles I have read brag about the number of churches that are being planted across the country and even all over the world. One pastor a while ago mentioned all the churches they planted and all the more that they planned for in the coming years. It was a lot! I had the nerve to repeat what I heard from one of my counseling professors. "Do you know what the abnormal growth of cells is called?" With a puzzled looked he glanced my way, "Cancer." He kindly excused himself and probably wished he had never started a conversation with me.
As a gentler illustration, let's take the wild flowers. It seems to me that often times people wish to go the wild flower route, scatter the seeds and watch them grow! And they grow for a season, they look beautiful and provide reason to boast, then the season ends and they die or sleep waiting for the next season to come. In contrast I think of all the fruit orchards I would pass while going to my in-laws in central valley. Many trees planted and spaced out strategically. While fruit would bear during certain seasons, the trees remained. The foundation was always evident.
Perhaps this is like the Christian life as well, a urgency for discipleship. How many wild flowers are we scattering out there? Low maintenance and boastful beauty, yet only for a season. How many disciples are we making. While seasons of fruit may come and go, the foundation is evident.
Exponential numbers are not a bad thing, if it is God inspired and I want to believe that all these churches are. I really do. And, like any living thing death becomes us eventually, so too with churches. This illustration has holes, as do all illustrations. Maybe it will just be something to think about. The strength and integrity of the church as opposed to the number. The strength and integrity of the believer as opposed to the number. The gate is narrow after all...
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