Pruning is vital if the church is to be effective

In our home we have a very large garden, both at the front and the back of the house. Trees are everywhere.  Not surprisingly every four or five years we call in a tree surgeon to prune our trees. This was the case this autumn when a tree surgeon together with his son came to prune our trees.  They removed a good deal of dead wood, and then even cut away at good wood to ensure that the trees were brought back into reasonable shape. The whole operation took over seven hours, but what a difference it made!

This experience of trees being pruned reminded me of the words of Jesus, where Jesus was not speaking of the kind of trees we have in our garden, but rather of a vine. Jesus said, “I am the true vine” (John 15.1), and he went on to say that God “removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit” (John 15.2). Most Christians in reading this passage apply it to themselves individually. Although that is a legitimate way to apply this passage of Scripture, Jesus first and foremost was speaking of the church.  Jesus in effect was saying that if a church wants to bear fruit and be effective in its witness to the difference that Jesus can make to people’s lives, then it must be prepared to be pruned.

In the first place, dead wood needs to be pruned. Dead wood is only fit for the fire.  But even branches that bear fruit, need to be pruned to make them “bear more fruit”. Moving from the metaphor into the real world of our lives, all of us have dead wood that needs to be cut away. For instance the dead wood of sins of pride and of anger, selfishness and self-indulgence, impatience, greed and jealousy, all of this needs to be cut away. There are two ways in which God can do this.  He can do it when through the Scriptures, either in our personal ‘quiet times’ or when God’s Word is preached on a Sunday. The writer to the Hebrews wrote that God’s Word is “sharper than any two-edged sword” and “is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4.12).

But even living branches need to be pruned. I still vividly remember going on an Ignatian retreat in the wilds of Norfolk with an old Jesuit priest, when for every day over a week he gave me three passages of Scriptures upon which to meditate throughout the day, and then return to hm in the evening to tell him what I believed God was saying to me. It was the most painful and exhausting of experiences as he scourged my soul. But as I now look back upon those seven days in spiritual terms it proved to be amazingly beneficial to my walk with God.

At other times God uses circumstances to do his work of pruning in our lives. It is amazing how disappointment, suffering and even bereavement can be made to make us better people. We see this in the life of Joseph, who toward the end of his life said to his brothers, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good” (Gen 50.20). Even the unfairness of life can be for our good. This too I have found in my own life. Without going into details, there was a period in my ministry when some well-meaning Christians did their best to get rid of me. At one level they were successful, for I found myself having to resign from my post. Yet it actually made me a better pastor. As I wrote in my book This Is My Story: A Story of Life, Faith and Ministry, up until that point I had lived a relatively trouble-free life. In my first church it seemed as if everything I touched ‘turned to gold’: over thirteen years of ministry in Altrincham, the church quadrupled in size, and at one stage we had over 100 young people engaging in Bible study after the evening service. But when everything went ‘pear-shaped’, I now knew at first hand what it was to experience pain and suffering, misunderstanding and rejection. I knew too what it was to have to struggle with forgiveness. All these experiences made me more sensitive to others going through the ill. For I had been there too. I became what Henri Nouwen called a “wounded healer” and as a result was better placed to help others.

There are occasions when it is good for churches to experience pruning. In my first church God used me to be a catalyst for growth. For most of the time my people were very supportive of me and my leadership team. But at one church meeting the members decided that our desire to bring in an evangelist to help us to reach out to the community was a wrong decision. Initially I felt very disappointed and indeed we had to pay the evangelist a cancellation charge of £1,000 (which then was a good deal of money). But in fact it proved to be the best thing we did, for instead of relying on somebody else to speak of Jesus, all of us – not just me but every member of the church – had to take personal responsibility for sharing with our friends and neighbours the difference that Jesus made to our lives and could make to them too. This in turn made us a much more effective church.

Yes, pruning can be painful, but only in this way can we “bear more fruit” and be more effective in our mission in our local communities.