Machine or garden?

If you view the church as a machine, then you’ll try to fix it when it goes wrong. You will listen out for every squeak or rattle or rumble and wonder if it’s a symptom of a more serious problem. You will try to oil the joints and moving parts to keep them running smoothly. If the church is a machine you will expect machine-like behaviour. You will expect it to go faster when you apply more fuel, you’ll expect it to respond to being steered. You will wash it, wax it and polish it until it shines.

But I’m not convinced that the church is a machine.

If you view the church as a garden you will nurture it. You will attend to it, weed it, and cultivate it. You’ll trim stuff but in a way that promotes growth, and you’ll recycle the old to provide nutrients for the new. You won’t force things to grow because you know that in the end that which is forced rarely has the flavour of that which is allowed to grow at its own pace. If the church is a garden, you’ll celebrate the unexpected when something good grows that you didn’t expect. You won’t worry too much about weeds, because you know they can’t be eliminated, but you will keep them under control. You will enjoy diversity as the seasons change and blossom turns to fruit and the vegetables grow alongside the flowers.

I think the church is more like a garden to be nurtured that a machine to be serviced.

Jesus said: I am the vine my Father is the gardener... you are the branches... When you bear "much fruit" you bring glory to my Father and show the world that you are my followers.