It feels like, at some point, we might have lost our way.
Perhaps we became more concerned with success than fruitfulness. Jesus says we evaluate things in the Kingdom based on their fruitfulness … but somewhere along the way it became about the size of your tree.
Now, having a big tree is a fine thing. Just know you’re only successful in evaluating yourself against the size of other trees, and God has never been terribly concerned about tree size. Just fruitfulness. That’s it.
The point of a tree isn’t how big it is, but how much fruit it has. It’s about fruit! And in the Kingdom, fruitfulness is always about reproduction. (Specifically, reproducing disciples … multiplying Jesus’ life into the lives of others who can then go and do the same.)
My experience tells me that having a big tree doesn’t mean you have a lot of fruit. In fact, what I’ve seen happen a lot more often is that people go after the big tree and hope to get fruit, rather than go after fruit knowing you get the tree along the way.
Choose the best, and you always get the good. Choose the good, you very rarely get the best.
Are we trying to start or lead churches, create Kingdom movements, and aspire to all the breakthrough Jesus saw apart from the way Jesus did those things? Am I trying to make Jesus like me, or do I honestly believe he was the best in the Kingdom business?
The Reformation was a significant moment because, among other things, it put the Bible back into the hands of the people. But when we look at the church of the last 100 years, I have to wonder if we have been more influenced by the Enlightenment than the Reformation.
This is the gut check question: If you had to choose between being known as a movement leader, but not really having one, or actually being a movement leader with no one knowing it … which would you choose?
Tree or fruit?
Here’s the good news: I believe we are on the cusp of a new Reformation, one that sees the kind of fruit we saw from Jesus’ ministry because we, once again, embrace not simply what Jesus did on the cross, but the way he led and made disciples.
Yes. I think we are on the tipping point of a new Reformation and it is about putting discipleship and mission back into the hands of ordinary people. Because when we equip the people of Jesus with the patterns, practices and ways of Jesus, it will once again be ordinary people equipped to do extraordinary things.
