Pastors, We Need Another Category of Success

Typically, when we gather for the Sunday morning message at the church I pastor in Wheelersburg, Ohio, we look carefully at what God has said in His Word. But once a year, for our annual State of the Church address, we consider what God has done in His church. Think of it as expositional pondering. Our aim in this special service is to expose the wonderful works God has accomplished in our midst in the previous year, thank Him for it, and anticipate what He has in store in and through us in the upcoming year.

And so, a few weeks ago, I began by asking, “Was 2023 a good year for Wheelersburg Baptist Church?” That’s a tough question to answer, isn’t it? What does it mean to say that a church had a “good” year, or for that matter, a “bad” year?

I remember a professor in seminary who talked to us about “bodies, bucks, and buildings.” That’s how churches often define success, he said. And now, after 36 years of pastoring the same church, I can affirm he was right. That is how churches tend to define success.

But should they? While bodies, bucks, and buildings matter, I’m convinced that we need a different category to assess the state of the Lord’s church. Thankfully, He has given us that category.

I woke up and dictated the seed thoughts for what I’m sharing with you at 2:00 a.m. on Friday, December 8. It was then, in the darkness of that night as I was pondering the state of the church, that I recalled some familiar words of Jesus:

It’s such a helpful passage for pastors seeking to assess their ministries. Success is far more than bodies, bucks, and buildings. Success, according to Jesus Himself, is fruit.

According to the Head of the church, fruit is the needed category.

Fruit is what Jesus desires, as should we. Fruit is vital evidence that He is at work in His church. This, of course, raises a fundamental question: What is fruit?

In one sense, the answer is rather obvious. My grandchildren know what fruit is. Fruit is apples, oranges, and bananas. But what does Jesus mean by “fruit?”

For starters, there’s an Old Testament backdrop to this. Fruit is what the Lord intended to receive from Israel. He called Israel His vine (Isaiah 5:1–8). Israel was supposed to bear fruit, to show the world what He is like by putting righteousness and justice on display. But Israel repeatedly failed to do so. The vine failed to produce good fruit.

So what did God do? He let the nations destroy His vine. But not completely. He left a stump, a remnant of people. And through that remnant, He sent His Son into the world, who announced in John 15:1, “I am the true vine.”

This is good news! Jesus came to do what Israel failed to do, indeed, what we’ve all failed to do. Jesus came to live the fruitful life God requires, and He did it on Israel’s behalf – and ours. And it wasn’t just His fruitful life that satisfied His Father, but His fruitful death as well. Jesus went to the cross, as He said earlier in this gospel, “to lay down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11) and “to give them eternal life” (John 10:28).

This means that now, through Him, we can experience a fruitful life.

What is fruit?

Jesus gives us two key characteristics of fruit. He says in verse 8, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit.” So, what is fruit? Fruit is that which brings glory to God the Father. When there is fruit, glory, honor, weight, and attention will be given to the Father. That’s what the true vine came to produce, and that’s what He intends to reproduce through His branches.

The Lord gives us a second characteristic of fruit in verse 11. He says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Therefore, when there’s fruit, there will be joy. Jesus says that my joy will be in you, and your joy will be made complete.

These are the key characteristics of fruit: glory to the Father and maximum joy to the person connected to Christ. This is what life in the vine is all about. This is what the Lord seeks in His church. He’s seeking the fullest display of His glory and the fullest experience of our joy.

How is fruit produced?

Fruit is the product of and reproduction of a plant. A peach tree produces peaches, an apple tree produces apples, and a grape vine produces grapes. What do Christians produce? Christians reproduce Christ. Christ reproduces Christ in the followers of Christ.

This happens in a couple of ways. The first is Christlikeness. Christ reproduces Himself by forming a people that resemble Him. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23).” This is a beautiful description of Christ. And this is the fruit His Spirit has come to produce in us. Christlikeness.

But it doesn’t stop there. Christ doesn’t merely reproduce Christ in His followers but through them. “In the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,” says Colossians 1:6. What kind of fruit is that? Not just Christlikeness, but more Christians.

Fruit is evangelism, reaching lost people with the gospel. And fruit is edification, helping saved people grow in resemblance to their Savior. This is fruit. Fruit is Christ reproducing Himself in us and through us, to the glory of God the Father.

What is happening in a fruit-bearing church?

The Lord has chosen to work through human involvement to produce His desired harvest. What kind of involvement? According to Jesus, there are four conditions associated with fruit-bearing. He identifies them clearly in verses 7-8.

1. We must abide in Him.

2. We must allow His words to abide in us.

3. We must be asking, that is, praying.

4. We must do all of this with the glory of the Father in mind.

It all begins with abiding. This is the key to fruit-bearing, according to Jesus. Again and again, we see the charge, “Abide in me” (twice in verse 4, again in verses 5, 6, & 7). What does it mean to abide in Christ? To abide in Christ, one must be connected to Christ. There will be no fruit if a branch isn’t connected to the vine. The same goes for a person. Only those connected to Christ, who are in union with Christ, can bear fruit for Christ.

But being connected isn’t enough. Jesus says we must abide in Him and take action to allow His words to abide in us. In other words, we must purposefully depend on Christ. For everything. We must allow Him to live through us.

Think of it as purposeful reliance. When we abide in Christ, we allow Him to reproduce His life in and through us.

We cannot produce fruit on our own, for we lack the innate ability to accomplish that miracle. Yet when we are connected to Christ, and when by His grace we’re living out these four conditions (we’re abiding in Him, allowing His words to abide in us, praying, and living with the glory of the Father in mind), then the Lord Himself works through us to produce the fruit He deserves, and we desire to see.

A successful year is when we see this kind of fruit.

My pastor friend, here’s the reality. There can be a lot of activity in the church (a lot of bodies, bucks, and buildings), and it may be fruit, or it may not be. The attendance graph matters, but it cannot tell the whole story. According to Jesus, when He is producing fruit, these are the indicators:

• We will see people who make it their priority to abide in Him, who want to be close to Him, who depend on Him, who yield their lives to Him.
• We will see people growing in their love for the Book, who love learning and obeying it and delight in helping others do the same.
• We will also see a lot of praying by people who freely and humbly admit their need to Him and for Him.
• Ultimately, we’ll see people consumed by the honor of their Heavenly Father, who wants to see His fame spread, His kingdom come, and His will done on earth, not their own.

Is there evidence that the Lord Jesus produces this kind of fruit in the church you serve? 

In some years, the attendance graph will go up. Other years, it may go down. But this is what matters most to Jesus. When we see evidence of our people abiding in Him, loving His Word, praying, and seeking to glorify God the Father, we see the kind of fruit that Jesus promised in John 15.

We have reason to be encouraged, my fellow pastors. It’s easy to focus on what’s not happening in our churches. Let’s not miss what is happening. He who is the Vine reproduces Himself in and through the churches we shepherd. And for this, He deserves our thanks.