I recently have taken up the fine art of gardening. It’s nothing serious, but I do like to buy plants and see how long I can keep them alive. Right now I have some petunias, coleus, daisies, and on the vegetable side beans, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers and some rosemary.
When I started with these plants in the spring, I took care to plant, water, and take care of them like I should. Some of them I grew from seed, so I planted the seeds, covered them with soil, and watered. Some of the plants though started as plants. These required me to take them from their growing containers and transplant them where they would be, some in containers and some in the ground. The seeds came with instructions, the plants did not. So I headed to the internet to get some advice. It was while looking that something took me completly by surprise. I was looking up how to transplant some of the flowers I had purchased and one of the first things it said to do was to pinch off the flowers.
I thought, “Now just wait a minute! The flowers? Thats what I bought the plant for!”
You see I really did not buy the petunias because of the green leaves, or the white roots going beneath the surface. I bought them because of the pretty flowers that opened up, smelled sweet, and attracted butterflies. Why in the world would I want to pinch off the flowers?
Well, according to this website, by pinching off the flowers you give the plant a chance to focus on the roots. When it doesn’t have to worry about putting out pollen, or making petals, it can concentrate on growing deep, and strong, and becoming a more healthy plant. And a more healthy plant will produce more flowers, not immediately, but they will come.
I wonder if the same could be said of a church as a whole, or the individual ministries within. I recently heard from a youth director friend of mine who said he was taking the summer off. No weekly gatherings, no Sunday School, aside from some big trips the program was closed for the summer. I will admit that at first I thought this a little strange but then I remembered about the plants. Pinch off the flowers now, so you can build strong roots and more flowers later, and have a stronger plant, or ministry.
And if you think about it God shows us this every year with something we call seasons. In the Spring and Summer everything is blooming and growing and producing. In the fall things begin to slow down, the leaves begin to die and descend, the fruit trees stop producing. In the winter bears hibernate, trees shut down, and the natural world kind of stops, refreshes and recoups. Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us there is a season and a time for everything.
This has made me wonder. Am I so focused on producing fruit that I am not taking time to develop roots? As a church would it be right to take time to grow stronger within, so we could then be a stronger witness to the world? Is it ok to spend time as a church focusing on discipleship, and fellowship and not on evangelism and witness, for a season?
No I don’t guess we could take the summer off from church services, but here are some suggestions I have thought of that could give me and my team time to focus on roots, more than fruits.
1. Guest Leaders- My team leads worship week in and week out. While everyone has the chance to take a week off here and there, bringing in a guest band or worship leader would give my entire team a chance to not be on the stage. Maybe they go to church and sit in the congregation, maybe they spend a Sunday morning with family, or maybe they even stay home and sleep in. Who knows, but a guest leader can give you that opportunity.
2. No New Songs- We have a list of about 90 worship songs that we use during the year. Normally we try to continue adding new songs to our repertoire. But what if for the summer we did not. Surely we can come up with enough variety in the songs we know, not to have to stress out learning new music.
3. Don’t rehearse- Actually by doing the No New Songs mentioned above we were able to do this one. We choose songs we pretty well know and instead of rehearsing during the week we meet up on Sunday Mornings to go through them. (This actually became our normal schedule.. read how!)
4. Retreat-Get away as a group and go do something fun. This would be made easier by utilizing a guest leader as mentioned in #1. I have thought of taking our group to a retreat center for a few nights. Have everyone bring instruments and sit around and jam. Take time to talk about the past year and think about the next year. Listen through and suggest songs to learn. Teach someone else your instrument. Have bible studies, play games, break bread, share communion.
What do you think?
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How can I remind people that worship does not just happen on Sunday Morning with 3 songs and a sermon. but all week long?
