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And we started with a pretty good number of folks. somewhere around 11. And we gained one or two along the way.
Until after Christmas. After that point in time, we had about 6 people. That dwindled down to about 5 coming regularly, with maybe 1 or 2 more depending on the month.
Ministry is not unfortunately immune to being focused on the numbers. So to me, I was concerned. Was I doing something wrong? Had I screwed up somehow?
I sat down with Heidi, my boss and mentor, at one point to talk about what was going on. I was hoping to get some advice on how to turn things around.
But what Heidi told me was a bit different than what I expected. She said to me, “This happens sometimes. You usually have a big group to start that drops down to the core membership you are going to have. And don’t forget, it’s not about the numbers. Look at Liz in your group.”
Now Liz was a young woman who had been focused on finishing school at the time and didn’t really have a social group to meet up with. But when the Young Adults program started, she started coming regularly. She met other people that were part of her church community. She gained support of friends thanks to the group.
Heidi told me with Liz that she might not have had this support if we hadn’t started the Young Adults program. She told me to take this as a win.
That’s really what the group was all about at the end of the day. Support. And we slowly gained a few of others by the time I left Montana. These were people desperate to find more people their age in the area. And another person who rejoined us was going through a divorce. The group was there for her in the exact time she needed it.
Sometimes it doesn’t take much at all to have a big impact on the lives of others.
That’s what the first part of our Gospel this morning is about. We have the mustard seed and the yeast. Two things that are very small. Almost insignificantly small. And yet, they grow into enormous things.
We’re told these things represent the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven seems small. At times it seems insignificant. Just a small part of our busy lives.
But though it appears small, it has a huge impact. If we let it, it has a huge effect in our lives, and in the lives of others we come across.
We see this here at St. Paul’s as well. We are a small church. Yet during first session of Sawyerville Day Camp this summer, there was not another church that had as much, or as good, of food as many here helped prepare for myself and the other staff members during the week. And every month, though we are small, we manage to provide a luncheon where no one would dream of going hungry.
Small things can have a huge impact. And that goes for us at St. Paul’s. Through the power of Jesus Christ, we have the potential to make a huge impact on this community and the world.
There’s another part of our Gospel lesson this morning. The Kingdom of Heaven is also compared to a treasure. One that a merchant goes and sells everything to gain. Or that another finds a field it is buried in and doesn’t just take it, but buys the entire field in order to obtain it.
The Kingdom is so valuable for the reason of it’s impact. Because it seems so small, and yet it has the ability to grow. It starts out as little, but has the power to change lives. And those lives can go on to change more lives. And it all goes forward from there.
So how can we be better servants of God as St. Paul’s? How can we turn our focus to be solely on God? How can we insure that our mustard seed of a church can grow into one of the greatest trees possible?