From Faithfulness to Fruitfulness

In pastoral ministry, the word “faithfulness” often feels like a sacred benchmark. Many pastors, myself included, have been taught that being faithful—faithful to the Scriptures, to our calling, and to God—is the ultimate aim. And while the core of that message is true, the longer I’ve studied Scripture and walked with Jesus, the more I’ve realized that faithfulness is not the goal - its the baseline. It is the minimum standard. It is the ground we stand on. But Jesus has called us to more than mere faithfulness. He has called us to fruitfulness. Look at John 15.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 ESV)

Faithfulness is assumed—Jesus doesn’t deny it or question it. He calls it “abiding” or “remaining”. Apart from him we can do nothing. Faithfulness is abiding and abiding is the baseline.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:8 ESV)

His desire for us, and His glory through us, is bound up in the fruit we bear. When I began to embrace that truth, it changed the whole game.

The emphasis on faithfulness alone, while critical, can sometimes lead to a ministry of survival—a motif of enduring struggle, where just staying faithful feels like enough. I’ve seen how it can keep followers of Jesus, and specifically pastors, from stepping into the full freedom and mission Christ has set before them. Jesus’ ministry wasn’t solely about staying obedient and faithful to the Father in the face of temptations to do otherwise. It was about bearing fruit in the world - fruit that was rooted in the soil of his obedience.

Fruitfulness flows naturally from faithfulness, just as a healthy vine produces fruit when connected to the source of life. In ministry, fruitfulness shows up in a variety of ways; from the subtle shift in someone’s thinking about Christ to radical repentance on conversion to Christ. In short, fruitfulness is lives being transformed—people coming to Christ, growing in faith, breaking free from sin, and walking in their God-given calling. It’s seeing the fruits of the Spirit flourish in individuals and witnessing a community become more vibrant in their love for God, for Scripture, and for one another. Faithfulness is the soil, but fruitfulness is the harvest.

By way of personal example, one area where I experienced this shift is in my preaching ministry. Early on, I was consumed with ensuring every sermon was a faithful exposition of Scripture. Expositional faithfulness had been drilled into me, and rightfully so! My goal was to say only what the text said and nothing more. But over time, I realized faithfulness in preaching wasn’t the goal—it was simply the expectation. The true goal was to proclaim God’s truth to people’s hearts so it could bear fruit in their lives. When I focused less on proving my faithfulness to myself and to others and more on letting the Word of God work powerfully, I began to see lives transformed in ways I had not seen before.

For pastors, the path to fruitfulness begins with abiding in Christ. I wonder what insights you would glean from meditating on passages like John 15. I wonder what would happen if you began to cultivate a holy imagination for fruitfulness by asking questions like, “What would it look like if God poured out his blessing on my ministry?” or “What would ‘much fruit’ look like in my context?” Vision is born from such holy imagination; by taking the truth of God in faith and into prayer and allowing it to reshape our expectations for our lives.

Faithfulness is crucial but it isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning.