Avoid Being Pruned (4)

It was just this past Sunday that our family was over at another family’s house celebrating the husband's achievement of a Masters of Divinity.  He, another friend – a local pastor – and I were discussing how church’s become stagnant, how many begin to face inward and only see the faces of those in the church, that outreach is now an unreasonable burden or an undesirable habit.  They somehow decide that the world isn't good enough to receive their grace anymore and their own body is more important. 

In the midst of this discussion, I suddenly remembered a sermon message back in my college days where the speaker/business man/discipler (I guess you could call him), devoted his life to studying the discipleship of Christ and how it applies to businesses and churches.  One of his stories dealt with a church he was involved with.  It was surely inactive and dead inside.  Those who wanted to move in Christ’s direction were sluggishly moving in mud created by the other members; there were getting nowhere.  It wasn't until senior leadership made the bold decision to come together and agree to prune the church.  They decided which one’s were producing fruit and which weren't.  They then approached those that weren't and graciously told them: “We are not seeing growth in your life.  We are not seeing fruit.  We want this church to grow and thrive and it is not happening so with you here.  If you wish to stay, to grow fruit, and move along with us, you can stay; however, we will not be offended if you leave.”  60% of the body left that day.

After telling that story, the local pastor in our discussion mentioned, “Have you heard of Mark Driscoll?”  He’s the pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle – very different from the Mars Hill of Grandville, Michigan.  Years ago, he had moved into another home and noticed he had a very large apple tree in his backyard.  The first year he was there he couldn’t wait for the fruit to appear.  He expected hundred of fresh, sweet apples that first fall.  There were none.  Baffled, he hired a gardener to investigate.  The gardener advised him that the tree needed to be pruned in order to produce any fruit.  So Mark let him go at it.  As he watched the gardener, his face turned gradually from pleasure to shock.  He kept cutting off more and more branches until he was finally done.  When he came out, it didn’t look like a tree but rather a trunk.  Wondering what had been done, the gardener told him bluntly, “It’ll either produce more fruit that you can handle in two years time or it’ll die.”  Two years later, Mark had more apples than he could handle. 

That’s the not the end of Mark’s story however.  In his large church of 3,000 to 4,000 members, it was going nowhere.  Outreach was nil and people were only focused on themselves.  In fact, he didn’t know if the staff was going along for the ride as well.  So, in application of his apple tree, and ultimately application from John 15, he pruned his congregation.  He stood up one Sunday and announced, “If you are a member here, your membership has just been revoked.  If you currently are on staff here, you’re fired effective immediately.  You can all reapply tomorrow for your membership or jobs.”  He lost 1,000 members that day.

Both stories of “church pruning” are very drastic just like pruning of Mark’s apple tree; however, both churches began to grow and thrive as a result of cutting off its dead branches.  Chances are you won’t be pruned from your church the way that these churches handled their dead members, but if you worry that this could happen to you, chances are you’ve already allowed yourself to be pruned from the vine; you’ve been trying to do it all on your own anyway.  “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (v. 4).

I’m not saying this to scare any of you – although a healthy fear of not bearing fruit is a good for us – but rather I’m saying this for myself.  Am I bearing fruit?  Can people pick from my fruit, taste, eat of it, and find that it is good and pleasing?  Thrive from the vine.  Enjoy its nourishment.  The fruit you bear is sweeter than anything you could ever try producing on your own.

¹ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² 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. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also 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.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15:1-13

4 days!