Communities of faith and desert wildflowers

“Good morning new person. There’s not many of us here at church today. The Smiths are on holidays and Barbara is recovering from her hip operation.”

“You should have been here in the old days.  We had 300 kids in the Sunday School and the church services were packed.”

Sound familiar?  There is much anxiety about our shrinking congregations.  We worry about smallness.

What does this have to do with wildflowers?

Recently I came across an article on the way desert plants survive and flourish in extremely arid conditions¹.  Occasionally, when there is a good rainfall, a carpet of flowers spreads out across the desert; and isn’t it glorious.  However, when the rain is poor the wildflowers are few and far between but they never die out. Because of a unique method of adaptation to their hot, dry, hostile surroundings, the species is able to survive.

How do these tiny flowers persist, year in and year out, in such dreadful conditions?

Scientists have found that each flower produces many seeds which lie on the ground when the plant dies. There are so many of them that not all are blown away or eaten by birds or animals. Interestingly only a proportion of the seeds are meant to germinate at any one time.  If there is some rain in the winter about 10% of the seeds are designed to germinate and produce beautiful flowers which in turn create more seeds.  If there is more rain than usual, then more seeds are designed to germinate, perhaps 20%, thus producing a greater profusion of flowers.

At no time are 100% of the seeds meant to germinate. There are always seeds left for future years and, depending on the rainfall, they may lie there for up to 10 years.

What has this to do with small churches and their groups?

Many congregations and faith communities in western mainline churches are declining due to the arid desert-like conditions of today’s society.  Few people see church attendance as part of their lives.  This has led to a decline in numbers. Small churches wonder what has happened and often experience feelings of shame and despair. Smallness means impending death in the minds of many.  We know we should take comfort from Jesus’ words, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”²  Matthew 20:18.  Nevertheless we secretly feel that Jesus is more likely to be present when two or three hundred are gathered together.  Our smallness can feel like approaching death and that makes us feel anxious.

In our society success is largely defined by big numbers.  Big is beautiful.  However Jesus reminds us to “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”³ Matthew 6:28-29.

Lilies are tiny and each wildflower is lovely – as lovely as a whole carpet of flowers -and each flower has bloomed at just the right time.

So each small deed inspired by the Holy Spirit, each worship service that touches someone’s heart, each act of ministry however little it may seem, is a beautiful thing to be celebrated and enjoyed.  We need to stop asking how many people attended an event and ask instead about the message of love and hope that was conveyed and received.

The message of the germination of the wildflowers teaches us that blooming takes place in God’s time, not ours.  God is responsible for the long term survival of the Christian message.  Eventually the rains will come in one form or another and the desert will be covered again in flowers.  In the meantime let’s celebrate each one of our beautiful little acts of ministry as they occur.

References

1. DESERT PLANTS THE ULTIMATE SURVIVORS in Science News For students. https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/desert-plants-ultimate-survivors
2. The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version
3. The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version