Fruitfulness vs. Faithfulness | Leadership Tensions | Part 8 of 10

Welcome back to the Impact Leadership Podcast! In today’s episode, Chip Parker is shedding light on another tension that leaders face: Fruitfulness vs. Faithfulness. Listen in as he discusses how faithfulness is our posture, but fruitfulness is our expectation. Let’s dive in!

Thanks for listening to the Impact Leadership podcast! We are so glad that you're here. If you're looking to connect with Chip Parker, send him a message at chip@theorchardcc.org. New episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays. We'll catch you in the next episode!

Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome into the Impact Leadership Podcast. My name is Chip Parker and I'm the lead pastor at the Orchard Community Church, a multi-site church in North Central Florida working to impact lossness and impact the next generation. This podcast is all about helping you as a church leader grow your leadership to grow your impact. Let's hop into this week's conversation. All right, well, here we are. If you are around farming world, you may have heard this statement before, but man, we are getting in the short rows. We are coming close to the end of this long conversation we've been in that is all about tensions that we face as leaders. If you are a leader, you are going to face tensions. You are going to have to make choices. But the hard thing about tensions is that some tensions are tensions that we need to hold. And some tensions are really not tensions at all. They're decisions that we need to make. And we have looked at a spectrum of those, some that we have to balance as tensions, and some that we just simply need to make a choice. Well, today, what we're going to look at is the tension and leadership behind fruitfulness and faithfulness. Fruitfulness and faithfulness. And in church world, which obviously I'm a pastor, and maybe you serve in a local church, lead in a local church, or at least attend a local church, this is a conversation that gets had often as pastors, as leaders in the church world. Do we have to lean into fruitfulness or do we have to lean into faithfulness? And I would say you don't have to be a pastor to feel that tension. That's a tension that you face as a leader anywhere in anything that you do. But what I would say is, while it may seem maybe quote unquote spiritual to say that we must choose faithfulness over fruitfulness, I would say that this is not a decision that we have to make. This is a tension that we need to hold. So as godly leaders, we have to be both faithful and fruitful. Maybe we would say it like this faithfulness is our posture, but fruitfulness is still the expectation. I think that is something that really has been important to me in my leadership and my ministry for a long time. Because what I have seen, especially in church world, but again, not just in church world, is that we often use faithfulness as an excuse for a lack of fruitfulness. But I would say that faithfulness, yes, is always our posture as leaders. We want to be faithful to what we have been called to do. We want to lead in the right way. We do not want to, especially in church leadership, go outside of biblical principles. However, we still want to look toward fruitfulness as our expectation. What I would say is this is that faithfulness cannot be an excuse for a lack of effectiveness. Far too often we see people who have not been effective either in ministry or in or other leadership saying, well, it's just because they're doing it the right way. And other people like to cut corners, and other people like to tickle ears, and other people like to take the easy way out. So, really, the reason they're not seeing any fruit is because they're the only ones being faithful. And I'll be honest with you, I just think that is an absolute cop-out. Faithfulness is not an excuse for a lack of fruitfulness. However, on the other side of that equation, we also have to admit that fruitfulness is not fully controllable by us. Ultimately, we have to focus on the process, not the outcomes. We understand that in the church or in any kind of leadership, ultimately, the outcomes that we see are not completely under our control. We have to make sure that we do not try to achieve fruitfulness by any means necessary. We would say it like this the right things achieved the wrong way are still wrong. It's not just that because we desire to be fruitful that we can stop being faithful, that we can stop acting with integrity, that we can stop pursuing things the right way. Faithfulness cannot be a justification for the way that we do things. And what I've seen in ministry world and in business world is that leaders who prioritize fruitfulness above faithfulness will oftentimes create a terrible work environment. They will become hostile to the people on their teams because they are going to be fruitful no matter what. A leader said one time, if you're not going to get on the bus, you can just get run over by the bus. Look, that's not okay either. And that's why faithfulness and fruitfulness are not a decision to make. There's a tension that we hold. We want to be faithful in who we are and how we do things, but that is not an excuse to not still expect fruitfulness. As a matter of fact, I would say this as leaders, especially in church world, we are fruitful because God is faithful. It is because God is faithful to bear fruit that when we do things the way that He has called us to do it, we will see fruit. Now, the truth is that fruit is something that we have to define differently based on where we lead and what we are leading. Fruit can look different, but at the end of the day, if we are being faithful, then we will bear fruit because God Himself is faithful. And so what we have to do is we have to really balance that out. We have to hold on to both. We have to be faithful in what we do, in why we do it, and how we do it, and trust that when we are faithful in those things, that God will bring fruit. Now, he might not bring as much fruit as he does to the next business or the next church or the next organization, but that doesn't mean there won't be any fruit. And so we have to be careful. If we treat this idea of faithfulness and fruitfulness as a decision, we're either going to chase results at all cost and wind up eventually going off the rails, or we're going to hide behind our quote faithfulness as a reason that we are not seeing any fruit. And so I think as leaders, we have to be honest with ourselves. And let me speak especially to you if you are a church leader right now in this moment. Are you using faithfulness as a shield that keeps you from evaluating the fruit of your leadership? Are you hiding behind faithfulness as a reason why you are not seeing any fruit? Or are you willing to see fruit no matter the cost? Are you willing to use the people that God has entrusted to you simply as a means to an end in such a way because you are choosing fruitfulness over faithfulness? We can't go either direction. We have to maintain the tension of both. So let me say this one more time for you. I think it's going to be helpful to remember. Faithfulness is our posture, but fruitfulness is our expectation. We are fruitful because God is faithful. So I hope this conversation is helpful. We've got just two more in this series before we move on to the next one. So don't miss us next week. One last thing before we end this conversation is just let me say if you are a leader, specifically in the local church context or even outside of it, I would love to be able to connect with you if I can help. If you would like, I'm gonna have my email in the show notes. Reach out to me. We can set up a time to connect because here's what I know leadership is bigger than any one of us. If we are truly going to have an impact in our communities, we need to lean on each other and we need to learn from each other. So I would be more than happy to do what I can to connect with you and help you lead right where you are. So reach out, let us know how we can connect. But until then, we'll see you right back here next week on the Impact Leadership Podcast.