Bruce's Message - March 2010
Growth
Whatever you say about growth of a congregation, sometimes it just happens. It’s like the rising tide. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the water deepens and takes up more and more of the shore.
Why has Evergreen been growing in the last few years? Why are we consistently filling most of our chairs for our Sunday services now? Well, there are lots of reasons. Chief among them is the warm way people at Evergreen welcome visitors. A year ago we had a “secret shopper” visitor who told us how welcoming we are. She tried to stand by herself in the coffee hour, just to see what would happen, and several times, within a minute, someone came up to her to welcome and get to know her.
The result of more people in our Fellowship is that we need to be thoughtful about how we use our space. When late-comers arrive on a Sunday morning, there are often no seats easily accessible. There may be several in the middle of rows, and there are surely several in the front row. But nothing easy to get to, especially now that the service is under way. If we would just move forward a bit, using the front row as a real row, and filling in the spaces mid-row, it would leave more space. Also, if people would fill the seats in the Parker Room to the left of the sanctuary, that helps us get everyone in and seated.
The balcony is another matter. Until we revise it, it isn’t prime seating. Yet, by modifying the risers to elevate the chairs and by exploring plexiglass or other alternatives for the front railing, this could become great seating for people who don’t have difficulty with stairs. Just using the balcony would increase our capacity by perhaps 25 people. What it will take is some of us consistently seating ourselves in that area.
Why is this important? The Evergreen Futures strategic planning work we did a couple of years ago suggested that we do everything we can to get everyone into the sanctuary on Sunday morning (in a safe and comfortable way) before we think about going to two services. Two services would divide the congregation into two groups on Sunday morning. Even with a coffee hour between services, you just wouldn’t be able to see everyone. The day may come when two services are needed to accommodate all of our members and friends. If we are actively finding ways to bring more people into our sanctuary, we can defer the need to provide two Sunday services.
How we use our space as a growing community has many implications. How can we best serve our children and youth in the space that we have? With many new young families in the congregation, it will take creativity to be sure that the classes have ample high-quality space. With more people, communication becomes more challenging, and the Board is considering ways to improve our information systems. For example, it may be that a change in the format of the Evergreen Edition newsletter will increase its accessibility to you. In the meantime, printing off a copy at home, or reading the newsletter on-line, saves a great deal of money in our Administrative budget. In the months ahead we will explore new and creative ways to be sure that everyone in the Fellowship can get the information they need in a timely way.
We are the same community we were fifty years ago. We have the same values, the same commitment to justice and the same joy of community connections that we had then. The difference is that there are many more of us who have gathered together, for the joy of fellowship and the common purposes that we find together. Part of our mission is to be that Beacon of love and justice for our Snohomish County area, that is the core of liberal religion. How big do we need to get? Big enough to do what we believe is important in our community and our world. But we don’t have to try to grow. If we just be who we are, do what we do, and welcome those who are new to us, growth will continue to happen by itself.