Back in May, during a meeting with the St. Alban's Vestry, Bishop Catherine Waynick made quite a powerful statement about our parish's future.  It's well worth remembering.

In response to a Vestry member's question about the future, the Bishop said emphatically that, if the parish is not growing it will die.

Because she later said that she did not plan to close the church's doors, her message came across not as a morbid pronouncement, but as an application of the general notion that any organization not moving forward will move backward.

However, she did issue a wakeup call -- at least for me.  The statement also sounded like a challenge, and perhaps even a prayer.

So how can I help St. Alban's to grow in healthy ways?  How can you?  With God's help, we can all help in any number of ways.  Opportunities abound.

After a year and a half on Vestry, I have become more aware of the need for growth at St. Alban's in several key areas, including but not limited to regular prayer for the parish's stability and growth, inviting more individuals and families to church, lay persons following up with Sunday morning visitors, and increased pledges and plate offerings.

These are merely the issues that occur to me at the moment.  Do you have goals of your own for St. Alban's?

Many in the parkish have been doing some pretty heavy lifting in one or more of these areas.  Thanks to each and every one of you.  You may or may not be serving on the Stewardship Committee, but you are good stewards of the parkish just the same.  You are truly a blessing to St. Alban's, day after day.

And if we openly and consistently seek out others to join us, obviously there will be more heads to bow in prayer, and more hands to do the work.

At about the time of Bishop Waynick's meeting with the Vestry, I happened to spot petunias in two unexpected places.

One was a volunteer in my side yard.  Probably five years ago, I planted bedding plants in a mulched bed, and ever since, without further planting, a volunteer petunia has cropped up in a different place of its own choosing.

The second petunia sighting was a large plat of unplanted flowers in my brother's yard in a Cincinnati suburb.  As I was getting into my car to leave one evening, I spotted the plat, and he confessed that he has a bad habit of buying petunias, and letting them die before he has time to get them in the ground.

While driving home, it occurred to me that good intentions alone won't get a petunia growing.  But if it's nurtured and cared for in a timely and careful fashion, there's no telling how many times it will come back.  Isn't that also true for attracting new parishioners to St. Alban's, and taking care of those already with us?

-Whitney Smith, whitinindy@hotmail.com