Great Things He Has Done

We had a surprisingly huge turnout yesterday at church. We've been averaging about 135 people (and that was a 10% increase over six months ago) but now we're having a significant surge in attendance. Not only did we have 228 on Friend Day but we followed that with 182 yesterday. 182! That would have been a record just a few years ago!

We track the attendance on a spreadsheet that charts five-week averages and 13-week averages for each Sunday. Both lines are shooting skyward, now 35% above our old averages and climbing. And they have been edging up for months. It's really encouraging!

But even more important is the overall healthy atmosphere. In church, you always have a few hurt folks who throw stones from the sidelines and you can't help but have people who tend to rub folks the wrong way. That happens and we can love difficult people through their rough times. But it's becoming kind of infrequent around here.

I know churches that are absolutely overwhelmed by the infighting and discontent. It dominates the life of the church. But at WCCC people seem to be in a genuinely good mood when they're here. They are surrounded by people they like and seem eager to serve. This kind of atmosphere can't be manufactured--the majority of folks have to decide to act with grace toward one another for it to be this way. I think the Holy Spirit is the only one who can make that happen.

We now need to trust God as He leads us into a new phase in our church experience. There are already many new Christians that need to be nurtured and taught. There will be new ministries that were not needed before and old ministries that will now need to be re-imagined. We have needs, factors and circumstances that have never been true here before--and that's a little scary.

But I believe that God is behind this. I believe he's given us challenges that we can meet (by his grace). I believe that these new young families were placed here because the Lord who loves them wanted them to be somewhere healthy. I believe this is where God is going to do great things.