pat loughery

Found via Kedge, who got it from the Northumbria Community website (though I can’t find where at the moment). This speaks to me as a church planter whose growth “curve” isn’t quite where I plotted it in my first 2-year plan documents 😉

“If you want your dream to be, build it slow and surely.
Small beginnings, greater ends. Heartfelt work grows purely.
If you want to live life free, take your time, go slowly.
Do few things, but do them well: simple joys are holy.
Day by day, stone by stone, build your secret slowly.
Day by day, you’ll grow too; you’ll know heaven’s glory!”

This reminds me of the Scripture that the Lord continues to remind us of:

Then will all your people be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.
The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the LORD;
in its time I will do this swiftly.”
– Isaiah 60:21-22

And looking for that one I just found this one:

But if you will look to God
and plead with the Almighty,
if you are pure and upright,
even now he will rouse himself on your behalf
and restore you to your rightful place.
Your beginnings will seem humble,
so prosperous will your future be.
– Job 8:5-7

Maybe this makes it sound as though I measure my worth by the attendance in the church. I try not to, though it’s a tempation. But fundamentally, I know that a healthy church is, in part, a growing church.