Evotional.com - Mark Batterson

This blog continues the blog series I'm calling The Buzz Commandments. These buzz commandments are taken from a variety of gospel episodes. No one was better at buzz than Jesus. He set the buzz standard.

Here are the Buzz Commandments I've blogged about thus far:

I--Thou Shalt Preach From Boats
II--Thou Shalt Hang Out At Wells
III--Thou Shalt Not Wash Thy Hands
IV--Thou Shalt Wash Smelly Feet

Here is Buzz Commandment V:

Thou Shalt Curse Barren Fig Trees [1]

One of the more intriguing miracles in the gospels is the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. All the other miracles bring life. This one brings death. Here's a thought: sometimes it's harder to kill something that is alive than it is to ressurect something that is dead.

It takes a miracle to kill some things. Like committees that should have disbanded 27 years ago. Like a church program that lost its purpose and relevance in 1976. Like a church that hasn't produced evangelistic or discipleship fruit since the 1980's.

Please don't take this out of context, but some things need to die because they aren't producing fruit. The agrarian word is pruning. Jesus talked quite a bit about pruning in John 15. Check it out.

Are there any barren fig trees in your church? Are there any committees, programs, or ministries that are just taking up space? Overprogramming is the natural tendency of most churches. The result is diffused vision.

Maybe we don't need to do more. Maybe we need to do less.

Why? Because saying yes to one thing is saying no to something else. If we're saying yes to the wrong things we're saying no to the right things. We've got to make sure we're investing our time and energy in places where it will take root and bear fruit.

We have two goals for everybody who attends NCC: plug into a ministry & plug into a small group. It will never be more complicated than that. Ministry is where we get our spiritual exercise. Small group is where we get our spiritual food. We want to keep offering more and more small groups. So on one level we're expanding exponentially. We have sixty-one groups this sememester. But we try to keep it simple. We want NCCers to do two things: get excercise via ministry and get discipled via small groups.

In my estimation, no one is better at that than Northpoint. Everything fits into their foyer, living room, and kitchen approach to church. By the way, 7 Practices of Effective Ministry is a must read.

Cursing fig trees is all about knowing who you're not and what you don't do.

We focus alot of our series on issues that face twenty and thirty-somethings. Why? Because those are the people God is sending through our doors at NCC. Does that mean we neglect everyone over forty? No. But we understand our niche in the kingdom. We want to help twenty-somethings with quarterlife issues. We want to help young couples and young families. We don't have many ministries targeting fifty and sixty somethings, but that doesn't mean they don't have a place in our spiritual family! They play a vital role as mentors. Just last night a group of married couples that have about 100 years of combined marriage experience got to together to plan our Marriage Matters event on April 2. Permission to speak frankly? As you grow spiritually you ought to be producing more than you're consuming. It becomes less about getting your needs met and more about meeting the needs of others. We provide those opportunities for the spiritually mature.

Maybe we shouldn't be wasting our time trying to salvage fig trees. Maybe we ought to curse those things that aren't producing fruit in our ministries.

I know there is a doctrinal dimension to faithfulness. But we tend to overlook the practical dimension. I've always believed that fruitfulness is faithfulness and faithfulness is fruitfulness.

One of my favorite Jesus sayings is this one: "Wisdom is proved right by her children." In other words, the proof is in the pudding. If you want to buzz you can't just talk the talk. You've got to walk the walk.

I know that innovative churches like Fellowship Church and Willowcreek and Seacoast and Granger and New Spring are criticized by alot of people. But how can you argue with hundreds of people coming to Christ and getting baptized? You know what I'm saying? The proof is in the baptism!

I honestly think that most people criticize innovation as a way of validating the status quo. Criticizing something someone else is doing is easier than changing something you're doing.

Final thought.

Are we measuring the right things as churches?

Here is what we measure at National Community Church. We try to keep a pulse on these numbers because they are vital signs. They help us know what trees are producing fruits and which ones we ought to curse:

1) # of attenders--growth is a sign of health
2) $ given to missions--God will keep blessing as long as we keep giving
3) % involved in small groups--this is where discipleship happens at NCC
4) % involved in ministry--this is a measure of how functional our body is
5) % inviting unchurched friends--helps us know if we're outward focused

Let's curse the barren fig trees in our lives so we can keep growing!

[1] Mark 11:12-14, 20-26