I’m not particular when it comes to my lawn. But my next door neighbor is. A few years ago he planted Zoisia grass. When he planted it he just laid down pieces of sod at various spots all over his yard. He said that within a couple of years the Zoisia would travel filling in all of the bare spots while replacing the old grass. He asked my permission to allow this new grass to travel into my yard. I said, “Of course!,” of course. Now we both have beautiful Zoisia lawns.

Being someone interested in Jesus’ church having this kind of influence in the neighborhoods where it is planted, it got me thinking about why we tend not to see the church traveling out into our neighbors homes like Zoisia grass.

I’ve since learned that Zoisia grass travels well due to it’s production of rhizomes. Rhizomes grow underground staying connected at their roots and sprout above ground to produce new plants. This is how it travels. Other grass types called “bunch grasses,” don’t travel well since they don’t have rhizomes. They can grow larger but they can’t produce new plants except through the seeds they produce.

Maybe this explains why church growth doesn’t usually result in the Kingdom transformation of our neighborhoods. Like bunch grasses, churches are mostly only working to grow themselves. They can produce new believers and send them out like seeds to plant new churches, but they tend not to stay rooted together with other churches in their neighborhoods to together grow Jesus’ Kingdom together. This may also help to explain why so many of our churches are dying and closing and why the Church in our neighborhoods is ineffective as a key cultural influence.

To function like the flourishing church of Jesus’ prayers (John 17:20-21, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”) will require a shift in our mindsets from striving to grow our individual churches to manifesting Jesus’ Kingdom transformational presence in our neighborhoods rooted together in love and service for his Kingdom purposes.