When a plate of food is set before them, children from large families eat fast and furious. When these children grow up, even when food is no longer scarce and when they are able to return to the stove for seconds and thirds, more often than not, their eating habits remain the same. They continue to eat fast and furious. Children raised in scarcity have a hard time in adapting to abundance. The same can be said about congregations.
Churches have a way of holding onto to a scarcity mentality long after the crisis is over.
One of my colleagues in this diocese told me that, a few years ago, things got so tough with the church budget that the vestry had to cancel garbage collection. At the end of services on Sunday, parishioners were asked to load up a week s worth of garbage into the their cars to dispose of it back home. This church is so worried about the next crisis that it is not doing what it needs to grow. We are called to worship a God of abundance. I admire the church vestry I heard about that had an annual ritual each January.