My wife Carol has a green thumb. The joke around our house is that my daughters kill their house plants, bring them to their mother, and she brings them back to life. Carol loves her house plants. She is always pruning and transplanting them — she hardly ever throws one away. Sometimes our kitchen table, which faces a large bay window, is full of mason jars filled with house plant stems soaking in water. She’s making new starts.

Every spring, around March, Carol cuts back her Knockout Roses along the fence line. It’s a process of pruning and purging. She cuts away the dead canes and prunes the new ones. When she’s finished, the bushes are cut back to about 10 to 12 inches off the ground. To me, it looks like she has completely butchered the rose bushes. But as I was pulling in the driveway the other day, I looked at her Knockout Roses — they are absolutely beautiful! Full of blossoms, full of new growth.

Did you know you can even start a brand-new weeping willow tree by simply cutting a branch off and sticking it in the ground? In nature, we see that the process of pruning, purging, and transplanting always produces new life, new growth, new fruit.

John 15:2–5, 8 “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

I believe most of you can interpret John chapter 15 on your own. But in this post, I want to make a simple application for the local church. I have had the privilege of being at Bible Baptist Church, Mount Orab, for over 32 years. I have watched the ebb and flow of the church’s growth — spiritual and numeric. Sometimes the Lord is pruning or purging the church, and other times He is transplanting. Sometimes He is pruning, other times He is taking away. Both are positives in the life of a church.

Notice John 15:2 again:

“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

The Lord takes away those in the church who are not fruitful, but He also purges those who are fruitful. The result, either way, is more fruit. The Lord takes away the unfruitful, and He purges the fruitful.

In the life of the church, the Lord even transplants — like my wife’s mason jars with new starts on her kitchen table. At Mount Orab, we have had the privilege of sending out four missionary families and birthing multiple baby, grandbaby, and great-grandbaby churches. These were the “fruitful” ones that the Lord purged from us and transplanted to another field. We did not lose these people — we reinvested them so that we might bear much fruit!

Why does the Lord do this pruning, purging, and transplanting? John 15:8 tells us:

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.”

For the glory of God the Father, and for the souls of lost men.

Maybe today your church looks like God has butchered it. Well, you just need to wait and trust the Lord. In just a little while — as you pull into the parking lot some Sunday morning — you will see a church that is absolutely beautiful. Full of blossoms. Full of fruit. Full of new growth.

Ted R. House is pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Mount Orab, Ohio, where he has served for over 32 years.