A Little Closer to Home...

A Little Closer to Home…

Have you noticed the little growth spurt Salem is experiencing?  Our worship attendance will average over 425 per Sunday for the first quarter of 2006.  This is the first time in the history of the church Salem has been over 400 for an entire quarter.  The odd thing as I look at the data is that Easter, with it’s traditionally large numbers, is not until the next quarter.  This growth is happening without either of the big holidays of Christmas or Easter.  

As you know this church has been on a pretty steady growing curve for over five years.  In fact most everything that really matters, from the attendance, to the finances, to the building has about doubled.  I believe all this activity is really a function of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.  I believe it is our relationship with Jesus Christ, each other, and our neighbor which is the real muscle at work behind the scenes.  Yet what we can measure, which surely must reflect the Spirit, are things like attendance and giving.  

All churches go through seasons of up and down.  Salem has not experienced a spike of growth every quarter, some are more level and adjusting than other quarters.  But just know that this past quarter has been very special.  As we look to the future we see the Children’s Worship Design Team hard at work.  We know that the JAM (Jesus and Me) children’s worship beginning this September will also offer further growth into our congregation.  We see that the Manna Project continues to offer grace and love into the community and the path towards establishing a more permanent ongoing presence offsite in Manawa proper may be only months away.  That will also mean a new and different type of growth for Salem.  Did you know Salem is in the preliminary stages of visiting with our architects again to vision a new Sanctuary for our current setting.  This three to five year project will accommodate our continued growth and spur on additional new growth.  We are currently working  with the SPRC to add additional staff to keep up with the changes taking place.  We are also very interested in ways to assist the membership to grow in their leadership.  We will need to grow more leaders and provide opportunities to experience ministry firsthand.

This June, I will be finishing six years as your pastor. When Cheryl and I arrived the worship attendance was about 180, today it is over 425.  We continue blessed and amazed at the ways God works through this congregation.  When we arrived in June of 2000, the budget was about $190,000 with no apportionments paid for the year.  Today our budget is about $475,000 (with much of this going directly to missions) and all the bills are paid.  And as a note, Salem is making good and steady progress on the building loan.  Our financial position is as strong as anytime in the last six years.

All this to say, “God is not done with us yet.”  We will continue to grow and reach out and gather in the Holy name of our Savior Jesus.  The vision I have been given and offer to you is a church preparing to become more than we ever imagined.  We are going to reach 500 new folks for Jesus by the year 2010.  It is to this end we pray, and plan, and prepare.  And we acknowledge it is not in the attaining of our goals in which we are given new life, it is the blessing of the journey together.  This expanding relationship is where we will find our real growth that the numbers will never be able to discern.  This is going to be something!  See you on Sunday.  Dave.