From God's point of view they are uninteresting. There is joy in heaven only when the prodigal comes home, the sinner becomes a saint, superstitious terror turns to joy unspeakable. This is church growth. It influences nations and creates civilization on a vast scale, but at its growing edges it has no news value. And yet no man can say anything relevant about the church unless he has seen as God sees.
Faith is intensely personal.
Its origin is as invisible as the failing of a speck of dandelion seed. In time the leaves will appear and yellow flowers will cover the lawn, but the actual moment of conception is unpredictable. Church growth can only be observed well after God's work has been done. It is a commonplace that the foundations of western European civilization are Christian. They go back to the conversion of savage tribes that had pillaged across the forests of Europe and Britain.