April 2025

“Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding
thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” [Mark 4:8]
We ordered ten small pine trees from the University of Illinois Extension Office recently. They
arrived last week. Each one is about the size of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, though they are
healthier and not cut off from their roots. We have been looking for places to plant them within
the five acres around our house.
Much of the soil is clay, so digging holes for planting takes considerable effort. I am reminded
of a saying I read many years ago: “It is better to put a two-dollar plant in a ten-dollar hole than
to put a ten-dollar plant in a two-dollar hole.” That means, of course, that if we dig a small hole
and squeeze the plant into it, the roots will eventually be unable to push through the clay around
them. Being unable to draw water from a sufficient area, the tree will die. We must dig holes
that are very deep and wide, and poke holes in the surrounding ground with a pitchfork, and
mix potting soil and compost in when we refill the holes with our trees standing in them. I hope
we have sufficiently prepared the holes so our trees will flourish.
I learned the saying about ten-dollar holes from a book about church life. The book suggested
that people often imagine that if they start a fancy, new program, or add a fancy, new style of
worship service, or select a fancy, new minister, then their church will suddenly start growing.
That is like planting an expensive tree in a cheap hole in the ground. It takes a lot of preparation
for any new program, or worship service, or minister to take root and produce results in a
congregation.
This Sunday during worship we will commission the Search Committee. Our conference
minister, Rev. Shana Johnson, will speak to us after worship about the search process. The
Transition Team has led the congregation through much specific preparation work to get us to
this point. But it is a continuing task for the whole congregation to work at making sure that the
“soil” we will eventually plant a new settled pastor into is as healthy as possible. It will still
take significant time for the search process to move along. May we all be attentive to the ways
that we can assist in preparing the soil for new growth to come.

Peace, Rev. Tim Darmour-Paul