Fruitful Churches Know Their Why
by Rev. Mark E. Tidsworth, Founder and Team Leader
Please notice this article’s title again. I considered titles starting with, “growing churches,” or “transformational churches.” Each good in its own way. But “fruitful churches” seems to communicate what we yearn for more than the other options. John 15 is that beautiful description of interconnected aliveness, where we bear much fruit because we are connected to the vine. The goal in John 15 is not numbers, but fruit. Yes, this includes new-to-the-faith people, while fruit includes all kinds of growth, not only new persons. Fruit is a more wholistic image, more than simple numerical, financial, or organizational development can capture.
As we go about serving with churches, their leaders, and denominations, we clearly see the desire for fruitfulness rising up in nearly every interaction. While the Christian movement is in decline, this is not surprising. Those churches experiencing fruitfulness are over-the-top giddy and happy, while those churches in organizational decline are wistful, nostalgic, and concerned. All of them, at least those with whom we interact, want fruitfulness.
Naturally so. Jesus describes fruitfulness as a natural result of our organic connection to the vine. Wanting to be fruitful indicates churches and their leaders are alive, paying attention, and hopeful for a John 15 kind of collective experience as churches.
So, in order to become more fruitful churches, there is primal soul work to do. First, we must grow clear on our WHY (thank you Simon Sinek). WHY do we want to be fruitful? How we answer shapes everything flowing downstream.
We encourage you to engage your church leadership, and perhaps your entire congregation in this discussion. Describing the healthy fruitfulness laid out in John 15 is a great starter. There is nothing wrong with the desire to grow and flourish in every way. That’s the result of strong vine connection. That’s the growth impulse within those who are enlivened by the Holy Spirit; those caught up in the Way Of Jesus. Affirming this helps us align with scripture and healthy faith expression.
And then, there comes a time to honestly answer the WHY question. WHY do we want to be fruitful as a church? Collecting answers in no particular order and without any judgement is a great way to move forward. Here’s a list of answers we typically find when engaging congregations. We want to be fruitful as a church…
To help more people find the light of Christ
To grow our children, youth, and their families population, since they are the future of the church
To strengthen our finances, given our downturns and expenses coming
To help us make a difference in our community
To join in the life transformation we are experiencing through this church
To make sure we can pass on our legacy to the next generation
To help us care for this aging building
To welcome in those who are ignored and looked over in our larger culture
To break through the rampant isolation and loneliness around us
To replace those who left during the conflict, filling the pews and seats again
To have children come down for the children’s sermon again (we miss that)
I could go on, yet these are a good sample from what we hear. Now, comes the sorting. We have to ask ourselves what it means to love in the name of Jesus. WHY are we interested in the people of our community? WHY do we want them to join us in our church?
Certainly every one of us (me included), are a mixed bag of motivations. None of us is completely noble nor altruistic in our motivations. At the same time, there is an ideal here worth growing toward: investing in the people of our community because we love them through Christ. Most people in churches with whom we discuss this issue agree: we are called to love our neighbors. Yet, being human, our interest in neighbors drifts away from this ideal toward what they can do for us. Look again at the list of sample answers above. Each leans toward one or the other of these two motivations; these two answers to the WHY question. Are we interested in them for what God and we can do for and with them? Or, is our interest driven more about what they can do for us as a church?
This may be a challenging conversation for your church, or perhaps you’ve already done this soul work. I believe it’s a necessary conversation, requiring a high degree of clarity, else nearly everything downstream will drift out of alignment.
Fruitfulness grows from love. Because God loves us, we are branches on the vine. Growth in ourselves and in our churches; spiritual, numerical, transformational, and so on… has love as its lifeblood.
One last word about the WHY… a very practical consideration. When our motivation is to seek growth (spiritual and numerical) for what this does for our church, it is counter-productive. People quickly sense that we are interested in them for their children or youth, as potential giving units, and as fresh blood for committee work. This motivation drives people away. There aren’t people in our communities who are eager to help save our churches. They don’t exist. So, these self-focused motivations driving our WHY are actually self-defeating. Practically, they are of no help, and actually destructive.
Instead, there is something else that is compelling to the world around us… the unconditional, undeserved, transformational love of Jesus Christ embodied in a living, breathing, caring church. When we are church to the world, loving like Jesus loves, then fruitfulness is already happening.
So please, churches and your leaders, clarify your WHY. You will increase the energy and vitality of your church, and this entire Christian movement, as you do.