Growth is found in the depth of your ministries, the increase in outreach, missionaries support, well received sermon series and yes, the number of people that are showing up to all of those things.

Of course not every church can celebrate growth in all areas, there may be areas that need attention. Don’t shy away from that, in fact I might argue that every church should have at least one area that they should focus some added attention to. Take the opportunity to cast a vision for those areas that haven’t been growing, build excitement. This is the half time locker room talk when you’re down by 21. The second half is yours!

I came across this annual report, titled “Well Done” for the food company, Podravka. From the moment you are handed this report it starts to tell the story of food. Wrapped in aluminum foil is a large book containing a smaller book, the heart of the brand. The type on the pages of this smaller book is heat activated and not visible until you cook it!

“To be able to cook like Podravka you need to be a precise cook. That is why the small Podravka booklet is printed in invisible, thermo-reactive ink. To be able to reveal Podravka’s secrets you need to cover the small booklet in aluminium foil and bake it at 100 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes.”