Fruit of the Church: Fruit of the Spirit
I’m in the middle of Kristin Hannah’s “The Four Winds,” and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t almost thrown it across the room multiple times and mentally committed to returning it to the library a handful of times as well.
It’s so dark.
It’s so depressing.
It’s so infuriating.
If you aren’t familiar with the book, it’s historical fiction set during the Great Depression that details the destruction and devastation of the times through the lenses of a mother and her daughter forced to leave Texas due to the dust storms that annihilated their family farm. Thinking they would find prosperity in California, they enter the state, only to be met with harsh discrimination, mistreatment, the inability to make a living wage, and pure hatred because of their status as “migrants.”
It makes me righteously angry.
Time and time again, this family is knocked down, treated as less than, and discriminated against by the middle class, the upper class, the politicians, the business owners, and the Christians and their churches.
The members of these churches won’t even let these migrants in their doors.
I realize this is historical fiction, but I also realize this isn’t a stretch. I have no doubt this happened, and, sadly, this type of behavior still happens today. Typically, though, today it’s a little more veiled than it was in the 1930s.
That doesn’t make it any less infuriating though.
I’ve mentioned over the last couple of weeks that I thought I was going to be done with this series weeks ago, but God keeps placing people and situations in front of me that nudge me to write more, and this week has been no different.
I have strong feelings about church hurt, spiritual abuse, toxic faith communities, hate masquerading as love, and churches spewing faulty theology. It grinds my gears, to say the least.
Whenever I see a new documentary that seeks to expose these things in churches, I find myself drawn to them, and I never have to look far because it seems like every few months there’s a new series, podcast, or book that highlights spiritual abuse. I first got sucked in when Christianity Today highlighted “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” From there, it was like an onslaught of information from other sources. From “The Way Down” to “The Secrets of Hillsong” to “Shiny Happy People,” the litany of spiritual abuse tales never seemed to end.
To be completely honest with you, I think there’s a large population of people who don’t know how to process these documentaries or podcasts, and I get that. It’s so much easier to see these stories and to think, “That would never happen here” or that these are isolated incidents in megachurches.
It’s easier to attempt to put distance between ourselves and these stories than to realize these same scenarios are playing out in churches down the road from us every week.
Photo by Kamil Zubrzycki on Pexels.com
Churches and their Fruit
I don’t pull many punches.
I work hard to filter enough that I attempt to have some tact, but I have a really difficult keeping my mouth shut about the important issues.
Church hurt and spiritual abuse are important issues.
I have experienced firsthand the damage of these issues, and I have witnessed the fallout over and over again, so when it comes to churches that spew hate, bigotry, misogyny, and oppression, I lack patience and a filter.
Because they’re doing it wrong.
I said it, and I stand by it.
If you’ve been reading the past couple of months, then the chances are likely that you have this passage memorized. In Galatians 5, Paul talks about the fruit of a life lived by the Spirit. He says:
But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions:
joy that overflows,
peace that subdues,
patience that endures,
kindness in action,
a life full of virtue,
faith that prevails,
gentleness of heart, and
strength of spirit.
Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.
Keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus Christ have already experienced crucifixion. For everything connected with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Messiah.
If the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives. So may we never be arrogant, or look down on another, for each of us is an original. We must forsake all jealousy that diminishes the value of others.
Galatians 5:22-26 TPT
If a church does not exude these qualities, does not bear this kind of fruit, then warning bells and red flags should be filling our minds, overwhelming our nervous systems, and triggering our fight, flight, or freeze instincts.
It confuses me why we give churches passes on this.
Jesus was so clear on what matters. He told his disciples, the disciples who would be the very foundation and ultimately cornerstone of the new church:
“So I give you now a new commandment: Love each other just as much as I have loved you. For when you demonstrate the same love I have for you by loving one another, everyone will know that you’re my true followers.”
John 13:34-35 TPT
While this command is pretty powerful on its own, the context behind it makes it even more powerful. This was at the last supper. It followed the moment when the disciples came into dinner and Jesus humbled himself and washed their feet–each of their feet. John describes this scene:
Jesus said. “You’ve called me your teacher and lord, and you’re right, for that’s who I am. So if I’m your teacher and lord and have just washed your dirty feet, then you should follow the example that I’ve set for you and wash one another’s dirty feet. Now do for each other what I have just done for you. I speak to you timeless truth: a servant is not superior to his master, and an apostle is never greater than the one who sent him. So now put into practice what I have done for you, and you will experience a life of happiness enriched with untold blessings!”
Jesus’s message to his disciples, to the church, was never one of hatred, bigotry, misogyny, or oppression–it was one of humility, love, and service to everyone–even the betrayers and the deniers.
If we take a step back from everything we’ve been taught to believe about church, theology, and tradition, and we look at Jesus’s words to his disciples and Paul’s discussion of the fruit borne by a connection to the Holy Spirit, it forces us to look at the church differently. It’s not the rockin’ praise bands, the millennial ministers, the Christanese, the small group ministries, or the kids’ program that will show the world we are Christians. No, “they will know we are Christians by our love” (John 13:35).
And, love in action looks like:
joy that overflows,
peace that subdues,
patience that endures,
kindness in action,
a life full of virtue,
faith that prevails,
gentleness of heart, and
strength of spirit. Galatians 5: 22-23 TPT
If those aren’t the qualities you see in a church, then I would strongly encourage you to move on…quickly.
Photo by Robert Stokoe on Pexels.com
Fruit or Flipped Tables
I love Carlos Rodriguez and The Happy Givers. If I could afford every item in their store, I would absolutely make room for one of everything. While all of the sayings on their shirts, tote bags, and stickers resonate with me, I keep coming back to this one over and over again:
Stop trying to sit at the tables Jesus flipped.
I’m not sure what your experience has been with teachings on Jesus flipping the tables. For me, it was only ever the financial aspect of the scene. Matthew records it this way:
Upon entering Jerusalem Jesus went directly into the temple area and drove away all the merchants who were buying and selling their goods. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the stands of those selling doves. And he said to them, “My dwelling place will be known as a house of prayer, but you have made it into a hangout for thieves!”
Matthew 21:12-13 TPT
That’s the part most of us have heard, but do you know what comes next in this story?
Then the blind and the crippled came into the temple courts, and Jesus healed them all. And the children circled around him shouting out, “Blessings and praises to the Son of David!”
Matthew 21:14 TPT
After Jesus flipped the tables in the church, he met the needs of the least of these and was engulfed in the praise of children. The three things Jesus brings to the church that day are prayer, healing, and praise.
Are those the fruit your church is bearing today?
This is a tough topic. We can handle the idea that we need to live in the Spirit and constantly allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us cultivate all these fruit of the Spirit. For some reason, though, as soon as we start to expect that same fruit in our churches, the conversation goes quiet.
If you’ve been around here for a while, then you know this is something I don’t pull punches on. I want us to be able to see and identify the toxicity in our faith communities, the spiritual abuse in the churches down the road from us, and the church hurt that sometimes happens right under our noses.
I want us to be able to see it because it will never change if we fail, if we turn a blind eye, or if we’re oblivious.
The scandals and hurt that are highlighted in those documentaries on Netflix and HBO aren’t just isolated events. They are the same scandals, faulty theology, and spiritual abuse that are happening in our communities and the communities down the road.
They are the scandals, the faulty theologies, and the selfishness that would make Jesus flip their tables today, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get comfy at the tables Jesus is flipping.
Photo by Irina Iriser on Pexels.com
Faith without Fruit and Works is Dead
I had a comment on one of my posts recently that said we should pray for the membership of these churches instead of bashing them.
It was an interesting statement.
And, here’s the thing–I get why it feels easier to simply pray for people instead of actively engaging in this fight.
Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s right.
It’s like this: If I see a woman who’s in an abusive relationship, I’m not going to simply tell her I’ll pray for her. I’m not going to ignore the abuse that’s happening to her to focus on the good aspects of her partner’s personality. I’m not going to turn a blind eye to the abuse altogether.
No. I’m not going to do that and neither would you.
That’s what we’re doing with these churches if we pray for their members without doing anything to end the toxicity, abuse, and hurt that is happening in these churches.
We can’t just “focus on the positives” of what is happening here and ignore the trauma and devastation!
The last time I checked when the Pharisees drug the woman caught in adultery in the street to stone her, Jesus didn’t tell them he would pray for them. He acted, and his actions made those religious men drop their stones and end their abuse.
Praying for the members of these churches isn’t a bad thing. Praying for these churches and doing nothing to stop their abuse is a problem.
stepping off my soapbox
Friend, we need to be cautious and careful of the churches and faith communities with which we align ourselves. We need to be aware of the abuse, toxicity, and trauma that is present in too many of these churches, and we need to work every day to ensure the fruit in our lives and the fruit in our faith communities is the fruit Jesus and Paul taught us to cultivate. After all, they’ll know we are Christians by our love–not our judgment, hatred, oppression, bigotry, misogyny, or toxicity.
Photo by Nikko Tan on Pexels.com
Reflections:
What words come to mind when you think of your primary faith community?
Are these words consistent with the fruit of the Spirit and Jesus’s command to love each other?
If you’re in a toxic faith community, what’s keeping you there? When should you start looking for a new community?
Subscribe via Substack and get my posts delivered straight to your inbox!
