ARE YOU CONNECTED TO GOD??

Kenneth H. Carter, Jr

Fruitfulness involves accountability. When I hear Jesus say that “I appointed you to go and bear fruit,” a word occurs to me: accountability. We are accountable to Jesus for the life we have received from him. Sometimes accountability can be measured, and sometimes it cannot be measured. What is important is that we allow the grace of God to be poured out through us. We allow the inward and spiritual grace to become an outward and visible sign.

I am aware that there are dimensions of ministry that cannot be measured, that are hidden — acts of grace or justice or reconciliation known only to God. And yet this truth does not prevent us from engaging in the difficult process of speaking the truth about who we are. The absence of professions of faith in many of our congregations and an inability to identify persons served in mission are symptoms of a deeper crisis: a lack of connection with Jesus. To be honest, I prefer not to be the judge of whether we are bearing fruit. God will take care of that. But there are some things we can measure.

We are stewards of the vineyard. Sometimes we can measure the fruitfulness, acknowledging that God gives the growth. We each have a stake in this vineyard. My inclination is to want to measure the fruitfulness because I am caught up in the American way of wanting to quantify everything. There is a discipline to that, a discipline that makes us more efficient, perhaps even better stewards. But the harvest, finally, is God’s to judge. God will measure our fruitfulness. Jesus simply calls us to bear fruit.

. Used by permission:

Kenneth H. Carter, Jr., is superintendent of the Waynesville District in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church