Richard Blackaby challenged the IBSA staff at our annual Spiritual Focus Day. “If glorifying God is the goal of life, how do I increase that each year?”
For all of us in ministry, especially those who set goals and count results and live by metrics, that’s a tough question. Can we always do more than we’re doing now?
He pointed to a biblical text often cited by his father, Henry Blackaby, co-author of the groundbreaking study, Experiencing God. In it, Jesus pointed to “much fruit.”
Blackaby and his sons, Daniel and Mike, have produced a sequel to Experiencing God, which they will unveil at the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando. The follow-up is shorter, to accommodate busy schedules, but it includes regular study sessions and teachings for group meetings.
“We’re always looking for a spiritual steroid to help us grow quickly, but spiritual maturity is a process in which we’re doing healthy things day in and day out,” Blackaby said.
The original series included videos that made the elder Blackaby renown in SBC circles. More than 8-million copies in English have sold since 1990.
To the IBSA team, he issued Jesus’ challenge from John 15:8: “My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.”
“God’s love for you is constant,” Blackaby said, “but his glory increases where fruit increases.” But fruit increases not only on effort.
Richard Blackaby speaks to IBSA staff.
“God has no patience for fruitless activity,” he told a room full of pastors who help pastors measure their churches’ productivity. The Father is the gardener in Jesus’ farewell discourse. God knows the fruit, the soil, the health of the branches, and the potential yield. He also knows which branches should be lopped off to make the others healthy. “Even Godly, fruitful ministry (and people) need pruning to be more fruitful,” Blackaby advised.
He left us wondering, What in my ministry and my life should be pruned to produce much fruit?
─Eric Reed, with Ben Jones and Baptist Press