Growth Vs. Development: Competing or Complementary?

Many new members joined Peoples Church on February 26. On behalf of all Peoples people, I welcome all of them into our community.

As we all begin inviting these new folks into fellowship, I encourage everyone to remember that membership is one of our developmental goals. What does it mean to be a member of our faith community? What might it mean to develop our membership?

Development and growth can take many forms. Very often, we look first to the most obvious counting and sorting of numbers. We want to grow in numbers in order to better fund our church and populate our groups.

Yet we must always remember, as Dori Davenport reminded us at our startup event last November: people don’t join churches because they want to give money. People join churches and other groups because they’re looking for something.

As we consider what it means to be a member, we must consider what people are looking for – both new and long-term members. Perhaps it is the spiritual growth and maturation we experience and foster in each other. Or the sense of unity within a shared purpose. Or maybe the fellowship of like-minded individuals seeking to bring meaning to our lives and the world in which we live.

What does it mean to each of us to be a member of this particular faith community? What does Peoples uniquely bring to us? What encourages us to express our faith through participation in activities and programs? And how can our community be more intentional in creating and sharing these experiences?

These are a lot of questions, which I encourage everyone to begin answering individually and in conversation with other Peoples people. Learn what brought others here, and more importantly, what keeps them here. Think about ways we can develop those things, together.