No Fruit, Rotten Fruit or Good Useful Fruit

When I lived in Chattanooga, I had some really big Bradford pear trees in my yard. They were so overgrown when we moved in, one of my first yard work tasks was to tame them. So, I cut them way back. The next year they bloomed so beautifully.  But a week or two later the blooms fell off and began to stink.  They smelled like a cross between bad preteen-slider-eating-boy-in-plastic-shoes kind of foot odor and week old diaper genie bag sitting in a hot wet trashcan.  Those trees looked really good, but they produced no fruit and they smelled bad. It made you want to avoid being near them.

Since moving to Ohio, I have discovered that many yards have apple trees, many with big red, sweet and tart delicious apples.  But in several of the yards, the apples had just fallen to the ground, rotted and begun to smell.  Those trees were full of apples, but the fruit they produced had just been neglected and left to decompose on the ground.

My daughter, the paleo-test-kitchen-chef, who my other daughter says "is too skinny for skinny jeans," actually picked some of the apples off a tree and made wonderful-whole-house-smelling, delicious-can't-stop-eating, gluten free, apple pop-tarts and strudels. She completed the process, making the fruit nourishing and enjoyable to others.

So, where is this discipleship pastor going with this orchard observation?  You knew there had to be an illustration somewhere. Here we go: some Bradford pear churches look really good, but they produce no useful fruit, they just look beautiful for a while, but then drop their blooms and begin to stink... people eventually discover that the beauty is all a facade and stay away.  Other churches look good and produce good fruit, but then the fruit is left to rot and it is no longer useful... people come and have great potential, but there is no mentoring or discipling going on, so the fruit is wasted.  But some churches produce useful fruit and actually use it to make something wonderful, nourishing and enjoyable to others... people are discipled; they not only look good, smell good and taste good, they  really are good and do good. They are developed to make a difference in the lives of others.

Jesus gives a warning in one of His parables about wasting valuable fertile soil space in  Luke 13:6-9 ... “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. ⁷  He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil??’ ⁸
 “But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹  Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’”  

The vineyard owner was full of grace, he expected fruit every year, but for three years it never produced. The vineyard worker showed even more grace and said, "I will fertilize it." But after a total of four years and some extra attention, if it doesn't produce, it will be cut down.

Churches all over the US are closing their doors.  Some looked really good, "back in the day," but now they are producing little to nothing and/or what they are producing is going to waste.  Let's add some fertilizer, produce some fruit, make that fruit useful and see if there is some hope of production, before it's too late.

John 15:1-8 (CSBBible)
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²  Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. ³  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴  Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. ⁵  I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. ⁶  If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. ⁸  My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.