Pruning Long-Established Vines: Fruitful or Futile?

Can Mindsets Really Be Changed Toward Serving?
by Wes Wick, YES! Young Enough to Serve

My wife and I recently reviewed goals written a couple years ago when we started YES! Young Enough to Serve (www.yestoserve.org), a ministry targeting the untapped serving potential of adults in life’s second half.

One goal sticking out like a green thumb in the dead of winter was our intent to help re-shape the mindset of seasoned adults as it relates to serving. 

Of course, we’ve all heard that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.  And, more biblically, you don't try to pour new wine into old wineskins.  What were we thinking?!

 
Herding through the Grapevine 

Should we focus our efforts only on adults already branching out with a passion for serving others, and ignore the branches convinced their fruit-bearing years are over?

Too old to bear fruit?  Truth is, if you're not getting pruned and sprouting new side shoots, you are too old, at least for grapes!  

Before you start jabbing me with your bypass pruners, allow me to clarify:  All grapevines produce fruit on one-year-old wood.
Old Wineskins with Tamper-Resistant Caps

Jesus had frequent encounters with people very set in their minds and ways.  The Pharisees perhaps best personified this unchanging mindset.  They were entrenched and entitled.

They were not about to let Jesus tamper with their wineskins. 

Jesus shared many parables directed at the rigid ownership mentality of the Pharisees, but it was clearly not pruning season in their vineyards.

The Pharisees had deep religious roots and were certainly not lazy.  They didn’t lack zeal or intelligence.   They were even fair-minded from their own(er) perspective.  (They were own-ly trying to do what’s fair, I see, but the “I” got in the middle!)

Union Stewards

With no offense toward those of you who belong (or belonged) to a labor union, the Pharisees appeared to adopt the role of union steward, protecting themselves and the religious elite from unwelcomed changes Jesus represented.

After a ministry introduction at a senior adult retreat, one minister humorously expressed thanks for second half adults finally having a couple of their own union stewards, protecting their interests within the Church.

We know some adults in churches are devalued, marginalized and disenfranchised.  Many hearts along with ours break for you, and we will continue to do our part to speak out against these injustices in the Church.

But union stewards?  That’s going a bit far!

 Jesus’ parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20, delivered intentionally in earshot of the Pharisees, gives a broader picture of the challenges we see in many churches today.

Delirious Over a Denarius 

This is the story of the landowner who hires day laborers throughout the day to work in his vineyard.  The early risers and first hired get a firm commitment from the landowner, payment of a denarius coin, the typical pay for a day laborer. 

The landowner then makes several additional trips to the marketplace that day where he finds prospective workers standing around doing nothing, at 9 AM, noon, 3 PM and even at 5 PM, just an hour before the end of the workday. 

On each visit he hires the available workers, agreeing to pay them a fair but unspecified amount, “whatever is right.”

You probably know the rest of the story, how each of the workers were paid the same amount, a denarius, regardless if they had worked all day or for just an hour.  This angered those who had worked the full day, even though they were paid the amount promised.

There is no account of the workers griping while working in the vineyards.  The sour grapes of wrath emerged during the idle after-work hours when they began comparing coins. 

And it was those with longevity who resisted the grace and generosity shown by the landowner to others seemingly less deserving.
Two Sides to the Denarius Coin  

Many of us grew up in church and have served the Lord faithfully for multiple decades.  The danger for us, like the Pharisees, is to feel a bit special and entitled, even though we’re all just common day laborers. 

We know the hymns by heart, including the page numbers for some of them.  We still have our Sunday School perfect attendance pins tucked away in our drawers. 

We know that the book of Deuteronomy is in the Old Testament, not the New, and can even spell it.  We can recite long passages of Scripture by heart.

We’ve been baptized.  We know the value of tithing.  We’re comfortable praying publicly.  We know missionaries and leaders within our denomination personally. 

Our family name is inscribed somewhere on a plaque within the church.  We’re insiders, familiar with the in-house lingo and acronyms, comfortable in our surroundings. 

As board members at First Church of the Pharisees, we presume we are there to be advocates for our peers. After all, they elected us, and we have a mandate to look out for our mutual interests, right? 

We’re also committed to preserving the history, integrity and vision of the church, while keeping the pastor in check.  

In our budget meetings, we choose to ignore the investment strategy of the landowner.  What did he know about 21st century finances anyway?! 

How foolish to invest in people who have flittered away their day and who will only be able to work an hour! 

How unwise to invest in these latecomers at the same level as ourselves, considering we've worked here since the church doors first opened!  We got here first, and we deserve better.

From the Senior Union Stewards within Us

On the other side of the coin, some churches are being completely unfair to older, faithful workers and are withholding even the denarius they deserve. 

In many churches there is little or no observable investment in the serving potential of older adults.  The early workers in the parable were upset over a 12 to 1 disparity at worst.  In many churches the investment disparity is 50 to one, or even higher, between the young and the old. 

“Thanks for what you did in the past, but you are no longer needed in this vineyard.  Maybe the vineyard down the street will still appreciate what you have to offer.”

“I’m just four or five funerals away from things really getting good,” one pastor quipped with his friend.  He’s convinced that the remaining older adults are just a cadre of Pharisees feverishly clinging to the vine, slowing the harvesting operation.

For a young pastor intent on growing a young and vibrant congregation, it’s easy to look at older adults as late afternoon marketplace visits, and these appointments never quite make it to the pastor's iPhone calendar application.

“I love older adults.  But really, why invest in them or put them to work?  They won't be here much longer, and they can't even work a full day as it is.  Besides, shouldn't they just be kicking back and enjoying the grapes at this season of life?”

“I’d rather save a whole life than half a life,” a zealous youth worker chimes in. 

Stomping Once More on Older Toes in the Vineyard

Let's face it.  Some churches are dying because they are spending all their time at the vineyard and are no longer out in the marketplace recruiting additional workers. 

They’ve settled into an ‘owners of the club’ mentality.  “The church [clubhouse] is well kept and looking fairly decent.  We’ve got our operation covered and don’t really need more workers. 

"Those demoralized people in the marketplace feeling useless?  Certainly not our responsibility.  They're not even club members!”
For older adults with significant history in the church, children, youth and even new converts may represent afternoon latecomers. 

“Why invest so much in them?  They're certainly not paying the bills around here.  Pretty soon the kids will be off to college, and we may never see them again.  And who knows if these new believers will ever start tithing?”

Landowner Deserves the Last Word

Enough already with the misguided opinions among day laborers!  No more hurling squashed grapes back and forth between generations!

At the start of the workday, no one in the parable had a job, and no one deserved a job.  Everyone got more than they deserved.
We can be eternally grateful for the Landowner who:

• Left his property several times throughout the day and went to the marketplace to find more workers.
• Was genuinely concerned about the untapped potential of people standing around doing nothing.  He knew they were designed for usefulness and that they still had a longing to be useful.
• Had an overriding concern to put people to work, even late in the afternoon.
• Knew there was no limit to the amount of worthwhile work to be done.
• Invested generously in all the workers who were willing to work.

The Apostle Paul gives us hope that hearts and mindsets can change.  Vines can be pruned and reshaped for fruitfulness. 

How grateful we are for the miraculous pruning of this Pharisee of Pharisees, transformed from persecutor of the Church to repentant bond slave of Christ.

Let's not give up hope.  Hearts, minds and behavior, even in later years, can be shaped into the image of Christ! 

In the end, we will not change minds that are set.  It will be the Spirit at work within us and within others calling people to Himself.

Yes, we are young enough for new wineskins, new side shoots and new fruit!