3 The American Church is a Christmas Tree

I was watching my momma pour the second watering can of water into the Christmas Tree bucket and I realized how clear an image it was for so much of the Church as we have it today. How you may ask?

photo by takfoto

The Christmas tree can be beautiful and adorned in so many wonderful ways. You can look at it and admire it for what it is and what it has become. It is kept alive by copious water and plant food. A particularly hearty one may actually begin to show new growth at the end of branches. Then it dies. It will always die because it has no roots.

Our churches can be quite the same. They can look great and people will admire what they came to be and huge amounts of human effort and resources will go to sustain them perhaps even showing some new growth. Soon though, apart from the life-giving roots in a spirit-filled life of faith, they too will die.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. / I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." - John 15:1-8 TNIV