How Does your Garden Grow?
Steve Matthews, FaithX Senior Associate Consultant

My partner and I bought a house in Western North Carolina in April 2022. We knew we had a lot of work to do inside this 1914 bungalow, but since we had to wait on permits and contractors, we decided to focus on the outside first. We love growing vegetables and flowers (focusing on native species whenever possible), so these gardening projects were low-hanging fruit for us (pardon the pun) in the big picture of all that needed to be accomplished. We faced some challenges. There was no existing vegetable garden space, so we had a lot of work to do. The area in the picture above (taken last week) was a large treeless, gravel driveway (imagine helipad). We aren’t professional garden designers, but we tried to follow three basic guidelines:

• Improve diversity.
• Work with what grows naturally and is adaptable with the changing climate.
• Enjoy the process.

We have had some failures along the way (we are still trying to manage the voles and snails), but for the most part we like the direction we’re heading. We are harvesting many flowers, beans, eggplants, squash, peppers, and kale this summer. The hummingbirds, bees, and
butterflies are loving the landscape, which makes us happy too. What if we applied these same principals to church redevelopment and vitality?

• Improve Diversity. Data nerds, like those of us at FaithX, know that diverse communities, are more vibrant and inviting to investors and to new residents. How well does your church reflect the diversity of your neighborhood? When your signage reads “All Are Welcome Here”, do you really mean it, and show that you mean it? Are all voices courted and honored (even the cranky ones)? Are you encouraging and nurturing diversity and a sense of welcome in the neighborhoods around your church – even if they never walk in your doors?
• Work with what grows naturally and is adaptable in a rapidly changing landscape. Often churches think they know what their neighbors need, but they never take time to notice or ask their neighbors what their needs are and more importantly, they fail to notice, name, and nurture the places where life is already budding and thriving. What if we went looking for assets and gifts before looking for need?
• Enjoy the process. As you seek to nurture and grow relationships within the church and with neighbors, what can you do with ease and with a sense of levity and curiosity? I wonder how church might be different if you assigned one coffee hour a month to story-telling focused on recent encounters with neighbors – stories of unexpected connection, new understanding of someone’s background or gifts, stories of grief and hardship, or perhaps surprising joy. Perhaps an intention of nurturing connection might begin to emerge within the church community.
  Vitality is not a strategic plan. Vitality grows from attention to relationship – the fruits of connection. So how does your garden grow? Feel free to reach out to us here, if there are ways, we can accompany you into the gardens of possibility surrounding you.