Making Room

LUMC has been great in the past three years in making room for others. We have reclaimed three rooms that were being used for storage so that they are now available for classes, youth meetings and choir practices. This meant that some groups had to surrender this space. I think it is fantastic how graceful we have been in making these and other physical changes to make room for others to participate in the ministry of LUMC.

I believe that we are being called to continue making room for others not only in physical space but also in how we relate with one another. A year and a half ago I attended a seminar led by Alice Mann who wrote a book about congregations in transition. The following notes come from her book “Raising the Roof.”

Between sizes, churches that have been growing steadily tend to hit an attendance plateau. Often they notice a mismatch between their flat year to year attendance chart and their other measures of growth – the number of visitors, members, or dollars contributed may keep increasing while attendance remains stuck.

The movement from family size to pastoral size involves a change in the way a system centers its life. . . . When attendance exceeds 50, the congregation encounters a crisis – the unbroken circle of members no longer works well as the defining constellation of the congregation’s life. Members experience distress because they can no longer keep track of all the relationships. . . . In order to grow further, the system must allow the development of two or three different networks of family and fellowship

We are facing significant change in how we create space for others. The reality is that most folks will not know everyone at the church. Our challenge is to continue to build relationships with one another as we continue on our spiritual journeys.

One sign of this change is that instead of one Sunday evening class we now have two. Instead of One Bible study group we have three groups meeting on two different days. The networks are developing. While we continue to grow I encourage you to find ways that you can build new relationships and to make room for others.