What is your life producing? I am particularly asking Christians. What is the result of your relationship with Christ? You are going to heaven, and that is an incredible, underserved, unearned blessing because of His love for you. But is your relationship with Him producing anything for those around you? They are our concern. Jesus himself made them our concern. He made it clear that we are not only rescued from hell for our own good, but also for the good of others. On the night when He was crucified He took time to tell His disciples this:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
John 15:1-8 (NIV)
Get it? Jesus is the vine. God is the gardener. Christ followers are the branches, and it is God’s intention for us to be fruitful. The symbol Jesus chose for this metaphor is the grapevine. I think that is significant because grapevines are not grown for ornamentation. Well, perhaps someone might put a small grape arbor in his yard for show, but in the time and place Jesus was speaking, growing grapes was not for fun, but for profit. The whole idea was that the vine would bear fruit. It was not planted for Tarzan to swing from, but for him to get grapes from. The fruit on a grapevine does not just fall into the gardener’s (God’s) lap; neither does it grow on the vine itself (Jesus). Branches (Christ followers) are the means the grapevine uses to produce fruit. Bearing fruit is expected of branches (Christ followers).
To enable the branches to produce more and better grapes the gardener prunes, or cuts back the branches. The pruning of grapes is radical. A freshly pruned grapevine looks quite bare. The non-producing branches are lopped off and burned as trash. Sounds pretty harsh, but it’s Jesus’ metaphor, not mine. The branches that are left are the ones that produce, are close to the vine and resemble the vine. The only way to produce fruit is for the branch to remain in the vine and the only way for you and I to produce fruit is for us to remain in Jesus. Our major concern should be to stay close to Jesus and become more and more like Him.
The Holy Spirit aids us in this. He keeps us close, and enables us to produce fruit for the Gardner. If we remain in Him we will obey Him and grow fruit. What does this fruit look like? The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:22 that remaining in the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So this fruit affects our inner lives and how we treat others. But there is more to the fruit that Jesus expects us to produce.
New followers are the ripe fruit. We are to help people become disciples. Too often Christians have stopped short. They want to do good and be good, but they seem to forget why. Doing good and being good are like buds on the vine. The fruit comes from the bud, but the mature fruit is people believing in Christ and choosing to follow Him because of your words and deeds. It seems to me that way too many of us have settled for producing buds. Buds are not fruit, they are promises. Our Gardener expects fruit. Producing fruit—helping people find Jesus—is not optional. If you expect God to recognize you as a disciple, produce fruit. “… by their fruit you will recognize them” Matthew 7:20 (NIV). It is not as hard as we often make it out to be. Let people know you and see Jesus in you. Instead of pushing sinners away, learn to love them as Jesus did. There are no excuses good enough. The world is headed to hell. More specifically, the guy you work next to, the woman across the street, the guy that checks you out at the grocery store are headed for hell. They need God’s love, hope and salvation, whether or not they know that is their need. They need you to show them the way. God has given you the assignment: bear fruit.
How is the harvest? Who has found new life in Christ because of you? Who is closer to Christ because of you? Has your life influenced people toward Christ? Does your life attract people to the Lord? Is the Gardner picking a big bunch of grapes from your branch?
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Is Your Church Like a Toys R Us or the Post Office?
Before Christmas my wife and I made the trip that every grandparent of year-old twins must make. We went to Toys R Us to look for some fun presents. I hadn’t been in a toy store since our son, the twin’s father, was the toy receiver in our family. When we entered the store, someone asked us if we needed help, which was to be expected. Soon another employee offered to help us. I began to think we must have looked lost, which we were, but we declined the help. Not two minutes later someone else asked us if there was something she could show us. A minute or two later another employee, I think it was the manager, asked if they could help us find something in particular. This happened about 10 times in the 40 minutes or so we were in the store. Frankly, I was impressed. The store was not jammed, but it was busy. (There were about 10 shopping days until Christmas.) They clearly wanted our business.
A few weeks after Christmas, I went to a post office in a neighboring town to mail a few packages. I send packages often, so I had everything needed and ready and I thought I would be in and out of there pretty fast. But I had never been to this particular post office. I stood in line (I have never been a patient line stander) while the two clerks moved at what seemed to me to be a glacial pace. There were only four people ahead of me, and their transactions didn’t seem complicated. The clerks simply moved slowly and made a lot of small talk. At one point a man who looked like a supervisor came out to the counter area, and I thought he was going to step up to one of the unused workstations and help serve the line of people, which had by now reached out of the door. Instead, he just stood there. He didn’t say anything to the clerks, he didn’t help them, and he didn’t help us. Then another man came out and stood next to him, joining him in looking at the line of impatient customers. None of the post office employees seemed to care that their customers were dissatisfied.
What is the difference? I think it is primarily this: the people at Toys R Us were very aware that they were not the only place that this grandpa could buy gifts for his grandkids. On the other hand, the post office personnel were just as aware that they were pretty much the only place in that town where I could send my packages. Toys R Us wanted their customers to be happy and satisfied. The post office (at least that particular post office) didn’t care if the customers were happy or satisfied.
Some churches act like the post office. They act like they are the only place people can go to worship, and don’t seem to care if new people come. Their concern for visitors and prospective members is very low. They have their church and their salvation. “Let the others find their own,” is the attitude they project. People can’t find a place to park? Who cares? The toilets are dirty, ugly, out of style, and /or hard to find? Let them use the bathroom at home. The nursery is inadequately staffed? Who cares? I took care of my own kids. I didn’t need a nursery?
Other churches are like Toys R Us. If people come anywhere near their church they do anything they can to make them feel welcome and do whatever they can to serve them. Visitor parking is near the door and clearly marked. The bathrooms are clean and easy to find. The nursery is beautifully decorated and staffed by competent, smiling people. They have people who actually talk to newcomers and are interested in seeing newcomers become members. The whole church makes it easy for a new person to decide to make that church their home.
Take a look at your church this Sunday. Remember this, the things that bug people at a place like the post office, like lack of attention and apathetic service, also bother people who are looking for a church. Watch what happens at your church. If you are the pastor, get somebody to be your spy. Try to get the feel for what it would be like to come to your church for the first time. Take note of how welcome you would feel if you were the newcomer. Then, declare yourself a committee of one to do what you can to make people feel welcome at your church. Asking to help me was not the primary job of everyone at Toy-R-Us, but they certainly knew it was important, and all of them did what they could to make sure I had a good experience. What are you doing to make sure your church visitors have a good experience when they visit your church?
A few weeks after Christmas, I went to a post office in a neighboring town to mail a few packages. I send packages often, so I had everything needed and ready and I thought I would be in and out of there pretty fast. But I had never been to this particular post office. I stood in line (I have never been a patient line stander) while the two clerks moved at what seemed to me to be a glacial pace. There were only four people ahead of me, and their transactions didn’t seem complicated. The clerks simply moved slowly and made a lot of small talk. At one point a man who looked like a supervisor came out to the counter area, and I thought he was going to step up to one of the unused workstations and help serve the line of people, which had by now reached out of the door. Instead, he just stood there. He didn’t say anything to the clerks, he didn’t help them, and he didn’t help us. Then another man came out and stood next to him, joining him in looking at the line of impatient customers. None of the post office employees seemed to care that their customers were dissatisfied.
What is the difference? I think it is primarily this: the people at Toys R Us were very aware that they were not the only place that this grandpa could buy gifts for his grandkids. On the other hand, the post office personnel were just as aware that they were pretty much the only place in that town where I could send my packages. Toys R Us wanted their customers to be happy and satisfied. The post office (at least that particular post office) didn’t care if the customers were happy or satisfied.
Some churches act like the post office. They act like they are the only place people can go to worship, and don’t seem to care if new people come. Their concern for visitors and prospective members is very low. They have their church and their salvation. “Let the others find their own,” is the attitude they project. People can’t find a place to park? Who cares? The toilets are dirty, ugly, out of style, and /or hard to find? Let them use the bathroom at home. The nursery is inadequately staffed? Who cares? I took care of my own kids. I didn’t need a nursery?
Other churches are like Toys R Us. If people come anywhere near their church they do anything they can to make them feel welcome and do whatever they can to serve them. Visitor parking is near the door and clearly marked. The bathrooms are clean and easy to find. The nursery is beautifully decorated and staffed by competent, smiling people. They have people who actually talk to newcomers and are interested in seeing newcomers become members. The whole church makes it easy for a new person to decide to make that church their home.
Take a look at your church this Sunday. Remember this, the things that bug people at a place like the post office, like lack of attention and apathetic service, also bother people who are looking for a church. Watch what happens at your church. If you are the pastor, get somebody to be your spy. Try to get the feel for what it would be like to come to your church for the first time. Take note of how welcome you would feel if you were the newcomer. Then, declare yourself a committee of one to do what you can to make people feel welcome at your church. Asking to help me was not the primary job of everyone at Toy-R-Us, but they certainly knew it was important, and all of them did what they could to make sure I had a good experience. What are you doing to make sure your church visitors have a good experience when they visit your church?
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