What A Church Plant Does

On Monday, September 22, Mike Newman and I were installed as Texas District Mission and Ministry Facilitators. The Texas Board of Directors set time aside in their agenda for this. The Texas District staff was in attendance and I am very grateful to all. Rev. Robert Preece was the liturgist and Rev. Ken Hennings installed us. Mike is serving Area C and I am serving Area A. Areas B and D are served by Paul Krentz and Lou Jander respectively.

The sermon text was Jonah. Yes, the book of Jonah. Robert read through the book and commented along the way. I indeed learned some things and saw this event from a different angle. For that I am very grateful.

Rev. Preece also made mention that the Bible is filled with the idea of planting churches.

Well, one thought leads to another and my thinking at that point went like this.

There is a biblical principle of planting churches.
A metaphor that describes a church is a plant.
The church has been described with the biological metaphor of a plant.

What does a plant do?

A plant can be decorative.
A plant, to be healthy, needs to be trimmed.
A plant can provide food.
A plant can provide shade (as in the case of Jonah).
A plant can reproduce (there are those you can't stop like bind weed or "bullheads" which have thorns that hurt like the dickens).

What does a plant need?

A plant needs water.
A plant needs nutrition.

What does a plant give?

In other words, without a human being using a plant for some purpose listed above, what is the function of a plant?
Well, I recall that plants convert (deliberate use) poison (Carbon Dioxide) into oxygen. That is what it does.

The plant may or may not be decorative or healthy or a source of food. It may not provide shade, but one thing it cannot help but do is convert CO2 into Oxygen. In other words, without plants we would die. But plants give life. And for all the other things about plants, this particular contribution is one that most of us take for granted.

But there it is. The purpose of the church. The purpose is to give life to a world that is suffocating. Without the oxygen of the Gospel, people die. And that oxygen is available from plants about which books are written for their size or beauty, all things to celebrate. But that oxygen is also available from plants that are not noticed. Size is not the issue. Beauty is not the issue. Location is not the issue.

As one of my professors pointed out, metaphors break down when it comes to describing the Living, Triune God and so also describing His body, the church. This metaphor is no exception. But I think that we need to recall that what we do in our words and actions, as members of the body of Christ, brings life to the world through Jesus' death and resurrection. Words filled with grace, patience applied, forgiveness extended; these done in joyful response to salvation given from the cross alone are a breath of fresh air full of Life.

Thanks, Robert, for stimulating the thinking. And I did hear what you said.