Jesus intends for us to prune our churches to bear more fruit. (Photo by Margarita Shtyfura on Unsplash)
Special to United Methodist Insight | November 10, 2025
The awakening we are experiencing today is one of pruning of the kind Jesus spoke of in John 15:2. I have been pondering his metaphor for a while, recently completing a five-part series that will run this week. I hope you find it helpful.
Jesus said it’s necessary to prune grapevines so they can bear more fruit . When we read his words abstractly, we readily nod in agreement. But when it comes to applying them concretely, we struggle with the idea. But clearly, Jesus intended to for us to enact his teaching.
harper ident 2024
In this time of awakening, Jesus’ words about pruning are playing out in spades with respect to institutional Christianity. The National Council of Churches stands by its 2023 prediction that in the coming years, 100,000 churches will close. That’s about 25% of congregations. [1]
And more, an additional 15,000 are likely to require part-time pastors in order to stay open. Even now, 70% of existing congregations have fewer than 100 people in worship, with 65 being the average. And for the churches that do continue, many will face the inevitability of property sales reallocations, and relocations.
Pruning, plain and simple. Pruning, inevitable. Pastors and congregations together must learn to deal with these kinds of things. We must practice pruning
It begins with the recognition that the pruning Jesus commended is so that the vines “can bear more fruit.” In sociological language, this means seeing where the current institutional-church infrastructure can no longer bear the weights placed upon it. To use another of Jesus’ metaphors, it means the old wineskins are leaking and must be replaced with new ones.
This is an almost unbearable challenge unless we see that it is a pruning unto greater fruitfulness. Pruning is paradoxical, and inevitable. Avoidance of the unavoidable is one way deny the inevitability.
But if we move Jesus’ words out of John 15 into our congregations, we will experience the paradox of less-is-more. Removing what is unsustainable, enlivens what remains. Pruning makes room for fresh expressions of faith.
In this time of awakening, we must learn the art of pruning. We must grow into the vision that saying “good-bye” to some things is a means for saying “hello” to other things. The next four posts will explore this further.
In her Hymn of Promise, Natalie Sleeth put Jesus’ idea of pruning into song, “In our end is our beginning, something God alone can see.”
[1] Jessica Eturralde, “Are 100K Churches Closing in America?” (Ministry Watch, October 22, 2025).