Productive or Fruitful?
What is the Difference Between Productivity and Fruitfulness?
Often, in our post-industrial world, when we think about fruitfulness, we think about productivity. We think measurables. “How much fruit was produced?” “What is the value of the harvest?” “How efficient can we be in harvesting?”
There is a core difference between the motives behind fruitfulness and productivity. The aim of fruitfulness is flourishing. The aim of productivity is success. The outcomes might look the same initially on the surface, but the process that we get to the end result will be vastly different. And, I would argue, one makes an eternal impact and one may not.
New Testament Fruitfulness
And as we discussed in earlier posts, fruitfulness finds its source ultimately in the overflowing love of the trinity. When we consider fruitfulness from this perspective, then our approach to fruit bearing changes drastically.
The how of fruitfulness is just as important, if not more important than the end result of the fruit itself. We must be careful, then, in our utilitarian and productive driven culture, to slow down and look at not just the end, but the means for bearing fruit in God’s Kingdom.
Returning to the Source
God’s way of fruitfulness is described by Jesus through an overflow of loving, intentional relationship between the Father, the vinedresser, Jesus the vine (and His disciples the branches),
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” - John 15:1-2
In the Christian life, as we consider what it looks like to bear fruit for God’s kingdom, we have to ask ourselves: what is the source behind the fruit I want to produce?
When our minds are fixed on productivity and success, our source is ourselves and limited human resources working towards a limited human vision. When we pour all of our attention and resources into having something to “show” for our work, into success by human standards, we fall into the trap of idolatry. We start to worship what we have created.
Paul puts it this way,
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.”
But the aim of fruitfulness is the glory of God,
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
A year ago, I was doing some research on Vines and Vinedressing. I met with a vinedresser named Dave in Traverse City who had been farming vineyards for years - first in Napa Valley, and now in Traverse City.
Dave taught me so much not only about vines, but about spiritual life. He told me that good vinedressers actually pay very little attention to the fruit. Let me say that again.
Vinedressers pay little attention to the fruit.
They pay far more attention to the health, quality, and vitality of the vine and the entire farming system - like the root system, the soil, and how it is responding to the natural elements. If the vinedresser is paying attention and responding to these things for the sake of the vine, it will naturally produce fruit.
This is so opposite from the way we think about fruitfulness in our culture! In a productivity mindset, we pay attention to the end goal. We look at the outcomes and work backwards. We try to find the most efficient, cost effective way to get as much quantity as possible.
But what if fruitfulness was not about outcomes? What if it was about a demonstration of loving relationship with the Father? What if fruitfulness was a demonstration of love with one another? How would that change the way we approach ministry?
So much would change. We would be less inclined to perceive things by what we can measure, and more concerned about the quality, health, and vitality of people.
We would also be more willing to surrender to the process of fruit bearing and trust in “the only one who can make things grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:7)
True Fruitfulness
Any artist will tell you that in order to create, one must let go of focusing on the product, and focus on the process.
I once listened to Makoto Fujimura, a famous Japanese American artist speak of this truth in a Youtube video. He said,
“Even if I have lofty and ambitious goals in art and I accomplish them, it pales in comparison to being able to come into the studio everyday and immerse myself in loving the materials I use, loving what I do...I’m not looking for metrics here or whether or not they sell….They are too important to put on a transactional marketplace because art is ultimately a gift, not a commodity. If it is a gift that keeps generating life, then its value is not based on monetary or capitalistic value.”
This is true fruitfulness. Fruitfulness means creating work that keeps generating life in the heart of the one yielding the fruit and in those who taste it.
What Fujimura is referencing here is the distorted perspective especially in American culture that something is measured valuable only by “monetary or capitalistic value.” Our focus becomes fixated on product - and how quickly and efficiently we can produce it.
The Rhythm of Fruitfulness
But unlike the aim for productivity, fruitfulness is rarely efficient. This process for fruit bearing is slow, natural, and organic. It cannot be industrialized or reduced. Just think about all the waiting involved - the paying attention to the right timing and seasons to change. The time it takes to learn what the plant needs and then responding to those needs. The interactivity between different kinds of plants.
We also know that unlike industrial machines today that produce outputs in regular rotation, fruit bearing happens only in a short season. In all of creation this is true, from the cherry tree to the caterpillar to the human baby formed in the womb.
Dave told me that often he would consult with vineyard owners who were solely concerned about the outputs. Let’s get as many grapes as possible in a short period of time. This approach produced a lot of quantity, but not quality. These kind of grapes did not yield the quality of flavor cherished so deeply by wine connoisseurs, but were pressed instead to fill cheap bottles of wine.
There is no substitute for waiting and working to cultivate the right conditions for fruitfulness. The problem is, in a productivity mindset, we measure success by what we can see above the soil alone and the timeline we have enforced on it. But as we know from creation - fruit springs up in its own time and in its own way. It cannot be forced or manipulated to grow at our disposal.
What happens when we see fruitfulness as a process rather than a result?
Embracing the Seasons
We would be more open and willing to let fruit emerge naturally in its own time and way without forcing or manipulating it for a win. Instead, we could receive it as a gift.
Psalm 1 says that those who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night is like a tree,
“planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.” This means that even the most healthy tree isn’t always bearing fruit. How about that for a challenge to the way we think of ministry?
The natural process for fruit-bearing also shows us that in order to be fruitful, we will go through varying seasons to allow that fruit to grow. This means winter seasons and pruning seasons too. All these difficult times in life we will not resist, but value as essential for the process of fruit bearing.
Fruitfulness is at the mercy of God’s the one who makes all things grow. It responds to God’s command and His timing. Yes, we will reap what we sow - but only God can turn our meager sowing into fruitful abundant living.
The Infinite Source of Creativity
As an artist, I know there is a distinct difference between the work I create out of necessity for a product to be approved by human standards and work that is created out of loving intimacy with God.
The difference starts in the motivation. Work that is created out of loving union with God is motivated by love for Him and love for my neighbor. It ends up being work that is not only infused with divine love for me, but overflows in love for the viewer.
And as we surrender the end result by entering the process and intimate union with God, we co-create something far greater than we could have ever imagined with our eyes fixed on the end goal. Because when we are co-creating with God, we are creating from an eternal source beyond ourselves.
We are allowing the channel to be open for God to overflow a wellspring of creativity at will that emerges from loving relationships with God, one another, and creation itself.
Whatever your place of creativity - the place your true self thrives - you need to know that there is a wellspring within you that is infinite, that overflows with loving union with an infinite God through the work you create.
When we allow ourselves to be captivated by a generous and loving God in worship, what overflows is abundant fruitfulness that nourishes and multiplies.
