We ask a lot of questions about our churches, don’t we?
This is especially true around this time of year as we are in the midst of the charge conference season, as well as budgeting and planning for the coming year of ministry. We ask things like:
How many people are coming?
How is giving?
Are our ministries growing?
Do we have enough volunteers?
What should we start?
What should we stop?
Those are important questions. As church leaders and faithful church members, we have a responsibility to pay attention to them.
But lately, I have been thinking about a different question:
What are we becoming?
It is possible for a church to become busier without becoming more faithful. We can add programs without deepening discipleship. We can become more efficient without becoming more loving. We can even grow larger without necessarily growing deeper.
Jesus seems particularly interested in what is happening within us.
In John 15, Jesus describes himself as the vine and his disciples as the branches. His instruction isn't complicated: “Abide in me.”
Stay connected. Remain. Make your home in me. And then Jesus says something remarkable: when the branch remains connected to the vine, fruit comes.
The branch doesn't manufacture fruit. It doesn't strain harder to produce it. Fruit is what happens when the branch is healthy and deeply connected to its source of life.
I wonder what might happen if we thought about our churches that way. Certainly, we should care about attendance, finances, ministries, and all the other things we measure. But perhaps those things should never become substitutes for the deeper questions, such as:
Are we becoming more like Jesus?
Are we becoming more loving?
More generous?
More courageous?
More attentive to the people around us?
More willing to go where Jesus leads us?
More deeply rooted in prayer?
More capable of extending grace?
Those questions are harder to put on a spreadsheet or a statistical report. But they may tell us far more about the health of a church than some of the numbers we usually count. And there is something hopeful about that.
A congregation may not be as large as it once was and still be becoming something beautiful. A church can be in a season of transition and still be growing deeper roots. A handful of people deeply connected to Christ can bear remarkable fruit in a community.
Perhaps the most important question isn't simply, “What is our church doing?”
It is: “What are we becoming as we follow Jesus?”
And maybe that question shouldn't stop with our churches. As pastors, leaders, and disciples ourselves: What am I becoming?
Because ultimately, the goal isn't simply to build better churches. It is to become people who look more and more like Jesus.
Grace and peace,
Rev Dr Jathaniel Cavitt
District Superintendent
Southwestern District
