Pruning is Crucial to Continued Health

I remember the time my dad decided that the overgrown, gnarly ash tree behind our house needed pruned. Some might say what he did went beyond pruning.  He cut the tree back to its core trunk and about four or five main limbs (stubbed off about three feet from the trunk).  Everyone figured the tree was not going to ever come back.  It became the talk of the neighborhood.  Eventually the tree began to show signs of life and grew back into a beautiful shade tree for our dog pen and the outhouse that sat directly next to it.


Pruning is used to encourage trees to develop a strong structure, to increase fruit bearing and to reduce the likelihood of damage during severe weather.  The same can be said about the ongoing pruning of organizations.  The growth-life expectancy of a church is ten to twenty years.  Most churches plateau at that point unless they remain intentional about their mission and vision.  That only happens when there is an ongoing pruning of out-dated programs, methods, decor, ill-placed staff and organizational structure that drain and distract from the mission and purpose of the church. 


Pruning is contrary to the nature of things.  Healthy trees and organizations will do some self-pruning as they grow, but left unmonitored, both trees and organizations will grow into cumbersome plants that use up all their energy to survive while producing very little fruit.  They even become dangerous as limbs break off and fall, causing damage as they fall and disease where they tore off the main tree.


God sent a message to several churches in the Book of Revelation that had been around for a while and had developed some problems.  He suggested some pruning and restoration of the mission and purpose of the church.  In Ephesus the business of doing church distracted them from doing "what they did at the first". (prune what distracts from evangelism)  In Pergamum there were wild branches that sprouted into immorality and political maneuvering. (prune them)  In Thyatira there was toleration of wrong teaching and immorality advanced by a strong, popular person. (prune it, risk the uproar)  In Sardis there was a hidden deadness and an appearance of being alive. (prune out the dead so there can be real life)  In Laodicea there was the stagnation of lukewarmness and comfortable pride. No waves  . . .  not hot . . . not cold. (prune the hypocrisy)


These letters sound pretty harsh . . . sort of like what my dad did to that old ash tree.  But God says, I correct and discipline everyone I love. (prune)  So be diligent and turn from your indifference."  


It is really great that leaders are planting new churches and branching out into multi-site campuses, but I think, with the proper pruning, many existing churches can be restored to healthy fruit-bearing bodies that once again advance the life-transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.  What do you think?   


Do you know what happens to an old orange grove if you just let it go natural?  I do. (next time)