A fellow pastor once remarked that a church in our city would need to grow by ten to fifteen percent a year just to stay the same size. His evidence was clearly anecdotal without any survey data or other numbers to back up his comment, but I understood his point. People move from church to church and across denominations. Some people fall ill and become unable to attend as regularly. Some pass from this life to the next. There’s movement in and out of our busy urban and suburban area.

One family from our congregation relocated to another town to be part of a Bible study group that they pray will grow into a church. Another family spent some years in overseas ministry, and have now moved to a nearby community to take on pastoral responsibilities. Several young adults are away at school. As…