How does your garden grow?

Outside the box

I'm looking down upon the family garden from our upstairs window and am reminded again of the gift my wife and I have to destroy plants.

Each spring we seek to revive something of our agrarian roots, only to have it become abundantly clear that the Lord saved himself much aggravation by directing us away from the soil-leaving only a 20'x50' plot of ground to our muddling hands. So the gift of those who can produce beautiful gardens always amazes me and my observation of those botanists teaches me something about the nature of getting the most out of nature-time and working with the Lord of heaven and earth.

This leads me to the enterprise of growing disciples. Why does it appear that our gatherings of disciples, known as the local church, all too often reflect my garden? Oh, we're producing a crop, but it seems to be far from the yield that Jesus promised.

Canadian communities are dotted with emptying church buildings; there are many who like spirituality these days, but few who enjoy discipleship. Mennonites have been in Canada since 1786 (that's 219 years) and yet Mennonite Church Canada has only 35,000 baptized disciples in 235 churches!

I say "only" because the send-off Jesus gave us was: "Go and make disciples of all nations." He also told us to open our eyes because the fields are ripe. So why is our harvest so paltry? My farmer friends would bemoan such a poor yield.

I am beginning to think the problem is akin to my gardening expertise-or lack thereof. Truth be told, Jen and I, though liking the idea of a garden, spend far too little time in it to realize its full potential. Can the same be said of our disciple-making efforts?

Disciples are made through time and working with the Lord in people's lives. They grow as they are watered by the Word of God, exhale the confession of sin, inhale God's truth, are encouraged in the Way even as they veer off course, and are guided in the growth of godly living that is the fruit of their abiding in Christ.

My growing (no pun intended) conviction is we are far too stuck on the notion of church as a performer of religious services or a building for social gatherings, and give far too little time in the garden of disciple-making. Disciple-making requires more than just shaking a hand on Sunday morning or having a name on a membership roll. And it is the mission of the body of Christ!

The challenge in our day is thus: It is time to make disciples, not build churches. It's time the garden starts producing again. It's time we get on our knees, work some dirt under our fingernails, and grow people up as disciples of Jesus, not even primarily as Mennonites.

We've been letting the garden go for too long and, frankly, it's looking a little pathetic. Our biblical understanding and worldview is shallow; our conversations reflect that shallowness. We are blind to the spiritual realities of our communities. Our radical discipleship is a pithy theological slogan of a glorified past. And our understanding of the church is consumeristic on the one extreme and socialistic on the other.

The garden is pretty weedy, but let's see what happens if we put some time and effort into it.

[Author Affiliation]

Phil Wagler, after having his dream of a professional hockey career ended by reality, has gone outside his box to serve Christ, now labouring as the leading servant (pastor) of Zurich Mennonite Church, Ont.