Struggle and Fruitfulness

                                                   Struggle and Fruitfulness!

  Everyone has grown a garden or a fruit tree or something in his or her lifetime, right? Ok, at least watered a houseplant and had the feeling of participating for a moment  in the wonder and mystery of growing things!

  So, growing a couple of robust bunches of grapes like you see in the picture wouldn’t be that unusual for a gardener, right? They would be pretty normal for my garden except for this one fact: the fruit was, unknown and completely hidden from sight, invisible in the tangled knots of my unkempt pile of bramble on the grapevine.

   A little backstory is needed here. I made great plans for these vines in the winter and spring. While dormant, I pruned them carefully and according to good instructions for grape production. The only thing that I never accomplished for them was to build the trellises they would need to be supported when they blossomed.

   Somehow, sadly, life got busy and days changed in to months and no trellis took form, my bad. That being the case, nature did want it does best, so secretly, it made a way for life! To my shock, one day, I harvested, an incredible, 20 lbs. of sweet delicious luscious fruit, very much, by surprise.

   You see, knowing I had failed to build the trellis, and to make the backyard neat in appearance, I went out on a warm July day to finally cut off the seemingly unruly and unproductive overgrowth of my grapevine. I had tried to ignore it feeling really guilty about the whole mess. I even considered taking the vines out altogether.

  The limbs of the grapevines were hopelessly choked and tangled. After I cut them, to my wonder, I had a hard time lifting the severed branches from the ground. I cut them free everywhere that I could see a clinging tendril and still there was resistance, weight!      

  I gave a mighty pull and up came a huge cluster of bright green, Thompson Seedless Grapes and then more clusters of perfectly dulcet grape berries!  Never had I expected this. A gimungous smile broke out on my face as I received the undeserved abundance of God, in nature’s goodness. I ran for a bucket to gather the bounty!

           So you might ask, “Why tell this story Ron?” Here are the reasons I did:

    I learned that day that sometimes a harvest can come to us by surprise when least expected and in an unlikely situation.

  I observed that what may seem unfruitful, unproductive and unsightly, like my overgrown vine nightmare can in fact hold hidden treasures. It just needs to be uncovered to be discovered and reveled in.

  And, isn’t it amazing that there is the possibility of fruitfulness when the favor of expected support and just (what is appropriate) care are neglected. Growth can and does take place through struggle and in spite of unlikely odds of success.

  These days I’m much slower to judge by the outward appearances of misfortune, insignificant social stature or a humble station in life. As I see it, this little true story applies to life, giving me hope and joy knowing that powers are at work invisibly making good in difficult circumstances; you see, a struggle isn’t the end of the story for a grapevine, or a human. A struggle is often a beginning of success and fruitfulness, sometimes by surprise. 

Finding a New Normal for the American Church

                                  Mission Minded Church Planters Create A New Normal

   Yesterday I had a defining and enlightening conversation with a new church planting pastor.  He and I were serving up our specialties to a wonderful group of Christ followers and potential seekers of God.  I offered a bible lesson and the planter offered crisis management packages (clean socks, toiletries and more) at a weekly outdoor service that benefits the poor in our city.  The lead Pastora, Linda, has loved her city, Henderson Nevada by providing church services, meals and practical assistance here for at least 10 years. It is a joy to serve along side her. 

   As the planter and I chatted this is the vision he shared: "I have a group ready to plant a new church from my church here. I have my pastors blessing! We are going to focus on THIS, like, what we are doing HERE! Serving the people of this community with Jesus love and making a difference outside the walls of a building, everywhere we go. Ministry HAS to make a difference to have real purpose and meaning for God and people."  All I could do is agree!

   This guy is passionate and has street credibility from years of hard work on mission in our city of Henderson. I know he is going to plant a church that cares. He needs no money because he is a volunteer for God along with his group. More people will get to know Jesus because of his vision for planting the gospel through first century style serving.

   By observation these are the kind of people, the church planters, which represent the new normal for the American church. They aren’t big shots, professional religious people or even charismatic. They are true New Testament apostles, prophets and evangelists exercising their divine gifting by serving. The work they do isn’t pastor-centric, organization-centric or teacher-centric as is often the current (and mission crippling) normal in the American Church today.  New normal church planters are Christian centered and infused in their community through service. Faith and works make new normal transformations possible.  

   New normal pastors and church planters blaze new trails in the cultural wilderness where many pastors or churched people won’t go. They willingly, lovingly mix and mingle in the multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-status and spectral-gender America we now live in. To put it pictorially, God has His hands in the mud of earth (creating and redeeming) and these planting leaders do too!

  It is important to state that any church can live the new normal too by getting their hands in the mud of mission. The best-case scenario is when the pastor jumps in first to serve, modeling Jesus style! Some of the members are soon to follow and the DNA of new normal serving is deeply planted in the church for life!

   Church denominations have made national news lately for the admission that they are slowly dying and can’t find the answer to the problem. Thom Rainer, a student of the church and denominational life has found this one thing in common in churches and organizations in decline. He says:

            “Simply stated, the most common factor in declining churches is an inward focus.”

                          (There is a link to this website and the rest of Thom’s article at the end of my blog.)

   Organizations and individual churches are consumed with their polity, management structures, comfort and image while Jesus mission goes neglected and human suffering screams for healing care on every front.

   For denominations and independent churches to grow again they should embrace new normal planters and individuals and their vision for mission and help them with resources to increase their effectiveness.

  For traditional inwardly focused churches and organizations to grow again the senior leadership can ask openly for help from God AND from their members and member churches.  The grass roots servants who are daily doing the work in their communities often already know the keys to opening new normal doors for mission and church plants.

   One big responsibility of senior leadership is to humble themselves and search for new normal leaders. They should open the gate to welcome any people called by God to plant new normal churches and ministries in any context, no matter how crazy it seems to the old administrative minds.    I have seen this work successfully again and again for over 35 years of mission observation. Humbly asking for help is the key to success and is very becoming of leaders of leaders. Ask and it shall be given…!

   All this being said, I was born and eternal optimist. When there is a dung pile, I assure myself that there must be a stable of plow horses nearby who are ready to break up the hard soil of the mission field and get a crop growing and going!  Hosea 10:12 baby! The inner cities, small towns and suburbs in America are starving for thousands of new normal churches to be planted.

   New normal church planters are the hope of a changing church culture in America. They are the apostles, prophets and evangelists that get churches planted, work for justice and healing amongst the suffering of all types and bring the fresh, simple, smiling love of Jesus to their cities and towns.

   New normal planters represent the healthy outward movement of the gospel message, as it has succeeded for over two millennia. New normal leaders function and serve seamlessly in a culture that is changing rapidly, understanding that it is the people that are precious to God and who are ready to be loved into a relationship with their creator through a new church plant.  

                 http://thomrainer.com/2014/05/common-factor-declining-churches/

The Almost Dead

The Almost Dead

   The Monty Python movie, The Holy Grail made the phrase, “I’m not dead yet” famous. The plight of the real, almost dead, is woefully visible and tragic.

    Each day as I drive through the streets of my city there are the cold, barely breathing, almost dead, wrapped in dirty blankets and greasy soiled cloths.  

   They lie broken on the sidewalks in the vacant lots and in the alleys. They are visible to all who walk, run or drive by. They are so close to eternity’s curtain, one breath away from passing through death’s mysterious veil. Are they aware of the peril?

   The living and thriving are on these same streets. They fare better, being in motion longer, carrying the sparks and flames of heated dreams and hopes. Their steps are varied strides apace with their mind’s desires and their body’s needs. Vision and vitality press them to work and love and play. They are the more free and fortunate ones.

   The fully dead on the street are tidied up quickly by the ambulance and the police. These dutiful servants string yellow barrier tape looking like horizontal rays of sunny ribbon adorning and heralding the gift of a disappearing life that has left earth and entered eternity. The dead are attended by a coroner, concerned police asking questions, some family (if they are aware of the death) or perhaps an Imam, Priest, Pastor or Rabbi who offer prayers for whomever may remain of the deceased’s estranged clan.

   The almost dead don’t receive as much attention. They have to wait their turn to be noticed.

   My hope for the almost dead is that somewhere in their lives they may have had the magic moment of experiencing God’s touch of grace and believing He cares for them and knowing that He loves them.

                                             

    However broken and downcast a human may be, he is never far from the love of the Maker. Another hope is that living, thriving humans may awaken to the reality that the almost dead are their responsibly to love and to care for. For in that act of loving and caring for life’s most vulnerable, are we truly found to be human and alive.