fruit?

Bev and I received "A Band of Brothers" as a Christmas gift. We spent a number of evenings since Christmas watching each episode. I was deeply moved at the end of episode ten when the narrator told us what happened with some of the surviving soldiers after the war. What moved me most deeply was the account of George Luz.

After the war, George lived in Providence, RI. At first glance, he lived a rather ordinary life. He was a handyman, or as his family put it, a maintenance consultant. Yet there was a great deal of significance in his ordinary life. How do we know? At his funeral, over 1600 people showed up! He never had an important title or position. He was not famous (at least not before A Band of Brothers was produced). Yet his life quietly impacted a large number of people.

For those of us in the church, there is a lesson to be learned from George Luz. Far too frequently we measure fruit by the amount of people we can motivate to attend a meeting. We strive to be important, to be noticed. We like to highlight our ministry achievements. We may have our moment of glory but that is the extent of our reward.

True fruitfulness can never be measured by the amount of people in our meetings. My experience has been that many people who sit in our meetings are never transformed. They might be impressed with our teaching ability and they may praise us for it. We may have a semblance of fruitfulness but the lasting transformation never occurs. Because we focus on building something impressive (at least by human standards), we frequently fail to impact people with the practical example of our life.

For a lot of years, I tried to build an impressive church and ministry. In 2005 God showed me that while Bev and I had created an illusion of successful ministry, we never really discipled people. As I looked at the example of Jesus, I realized that His most lasting impact was not with the crowds but with individual people. We began to change our efforts from building ministry to building the lives of people through deep heart to heart interaction. (Interestingly as we refocused from building a ministry to practically impacting individual lives, we received criticism for not having fruit in our lives. Oh well - religious people never change!)

People like George Luz impress me deeply. They spend their life in relative obscurity, all the while impacting those with whom they come in contact. They care not for the trappings of success. They shun the spotlight, choosing the way of the yeast in the dough, of the mustard seed in the soil. Religious people ignore them because of what looks like insignificance. Yet the true significance of their life will be revealed long after the heartless efforts of the religious have faded away.