Tree

	Worship Here's an image that makes it easy to think about health and growth: a tree. From our discussions of The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren, we've seen that a healthy, mature believer is one who embraces all five purposes of the church: Worship, Fellowship, Disci-pleship, Ministry and Evangelism. So, like the roots of a tree, worship is part of what "grounds" us, and it's through these roots that we are fed and nourished. For many, worship is also the place where faith begins. They are drawn to the faith by their experience of gathering with believers as they worship together. And when worship gets weakened, the life of the tree is in danger. Put down deep roots, friends. Make worship a priority Sunday and every day. Trees with deep roots
can hold their ground, even when the hard winds blow.
Fellowship Together with the roots, the trunk provides stability and strength to the whole tree. And in the same way, believers find strength, support and stability in fellowship with each other. So, in our image fellowship is the trunk. In worship we say; "You are my God. I belong to you." In fellowship we say; "You are my people. I belong, with you." Fellowship begins in chat around the coffee pot but goes much, much deeper. Mature and healthy fellowship comes when people really know you, and know how you're really doing. There are real and deep bonds between the people. It allows genuine intimacy and gentle accountability. Fellowship turns a gathering into a community. Atonement has a long history as a friendly congregation, and many people have friendships here that stretch back decades. But even long-lived relationships need more than a couple of minutes a week to flourish and grow. And new people need opportunities, and invitations, to nurture deep connections in the community. In our culture, building Christian community through fellowship is a major challenge because it requires one absolutely essential ingredient that seems to be in terribly short supply: time. Take the time, friends. You'll be stronger and so will the Church. Invite someone over. Go out for brunch together after worship. Stay for coffee - maybe even sit down together! Branches, leaves and fruit may catch our eyes more readily, but no tree will stand for long without a stout trunk. Grow deep in worship. Grow strong in fellowship.
Discipleship The strength and stability of the tree is invested in its roots and trunk. All the other parts look to them for support and strength and food. So also, in the life of a disciple, we find our strength and support in worship with God and in fellowship with each other. We're strong, we're stable, we're fed - but what comes next? What's all this strength for? Want an easy answer? Ask the tree. To the tree it's obvious what it's for. It's for growth. And growth means branches, and branches mean discipleship. Now, in a broader sense, "discipleship" covers everything we're talking about with the tree metaphor. Disciples worship, they fellowship with each other, the do evangelism by inviting other people in, and so on. But here we're using discipleship in a narrower sense to talk about *intentional growth*. Lots of people play basketball, but "disciples" of Michael Jordan put themselves into training. That means working at what you love, and that takes discipline. Incidentally, that's where all that fellowship comes in, helping us to keep at it and not get discouraged. So, discipleship is about training. And disciples of Jesus go all out to train their heads, their hearts and their hands. We train our heads in Bible study. We train our hearts in prayer. And we train our hands (our whole lives, the way we act) in giving. That's our "program". And just like in basketball, we don't train for the sake of training. We train for the game. The tree doesn't end in branches, it uses the branches to make leaves. And our discipleship isn't an end to itself either. It's a means to an end. Discipleship makes us grow, and we grow for the sake of Ministry. Ready to grow? Put out those branches and reach up into the sky.
Ministry Last month I wrote about how followers of Jesus "branch out" into Discipleship. Like athletes, they put themselves into "training" and work hard to train their hearts, their hands and their heads. Ministry is about putting your training into action in service to others. Ministry is about getting off the bench and into the game. But what's your position? And which game are you playing? First of all, it depends on you. If you're built like a racehorse jockey then sumo wrestling is probably out. So we begin by asking what kind of shape the Lord has given you. Your shape for ministry includes your body - your physical gifts and abilities - but much, much more. God has given you particular spiritual gifts, passion and concerns, personality traits, intellectual capacities, possessions, life experiences and so on. And wherever your "shape" matches the shape of a need in the world, your ministry has a place to emerge. And so we have the leaves on our tree, growing out and up, filling in the "gaps". John's vision in Revelation 22 picks up this image beautifully when he talks about the tree of life in heaven; "and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." You are that tree to the hurting world and your ministry can help bring healing to many. Find your place to serve and let your leaves stretch out in the sun. That's a piece of heaven on earth.
Evangelism Rooted deeply in worship, bound together in fellowship, branched out into the disciplines of discipleship and blessing the world with a canopy of leafy ministries, what then could be more natural than bearing the fruit of evangelism? And evangelism is natural! We have been so duped into believing that it's hard and that it's all a head game. A technical exercise in answering questions, best left to theologians and students of dogmatic. Not true! Evangelism is simply this: inviting and sharing. The scent of the tree invites the bee, and the fruit is begun. And the life of the tree is shared, everything it has contributing, from the root to the fruit. And so, Philip invited Nathaniel (and didn't answer his question) saying; "Come and see!" Is that so hard? And the man born blind simply shared his experience, saying; "I was blind, and now I see." Did that take a theologian? Grow, my friends, grow, and you will bear fruit. Fruit that endures.