How Can You Tell?
In the old days, when someone came upon a person lying motionless and unresponsive, one way to determine whether they were having a REALLY good nap or had shuffled off this mortal coil was to place a mirror beneath their nose. If the mirror fogged, they were breathing. If not, the situation was considerably more serious.
Since the Hebrew word ruach can mean breath, wind, or Spirit, I suppose one could try something similar with a church. Place a mirror under the church’s nose and see whether the Holy Spirit fogs it up. If only I knew where to find it…
I do not recommend this as a particularly reliable method of congregational assessment.
Still, it raises an interesting question: How can you tell whether a church is alive?
Attendance figures, budgets, and participation numbers can tell us something important. We should pay attention to them. But they never tell the whole story.
Over the past year, CPC has formed a Financial Health Team to help us think carefully about our future. We chose that name intentionally. Health is about more than survival. Healthy things adapt, grow, respond to changing circumstances, and continue doing what they were created to do.
In the coming weeks, you will hear more about our stewardship theme for this year: A Firm Foundation. A Living Faith.
The theme comes from Jesus’ image of a house built upon rock. The rain falls, the floods rise, and the winds blow. The foundation does not prevent the storm. It enables the house to withstand it.
Churches today face strong winds of change. CPC is no exception. Yet challenge is not the whole story.
The Holy Spirit rarely announces a presence with a fogged mirror or any other dramatic proof. More often, the Spirit becomes visible in the life we share: when a visitor returns, when someone is remembered in illness or grief, when a meal arrives at the right moment, or when people continue to worship, serve, and care for one another.
None of these signs eliminates the challenges before us. A living church still needs attention, resources, and care. Yet they remind us why that work matters. We are not trying merely to keep an institution breathing. We are tending a community in which the Spirit is already at work.
Perhaps, then, we do not need to find the church’s nose or hold up a mirror. We need only look around.
The signs of life are already here.
I needed this, along with your outdoor service sermon. I’ve been fearful because of declining attendance and finances. I look around and see the love and devotion of our congregation. I’m reminded, whatever our future, wherever we go, God is still speaking.