Episode 223: Fight Like A Gardener — Jason Ruis
"We need to fight like gardeners. A gardener's work involves five main activities: plowing and preparing the ground, planting, watering and fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting. You cannot simply focus on one aspect. You are a poor gardener—an extremely ineffective gardener—if you do not do all of these things." — Jason Ruis
Summary of this Episode
As we prepare for the upcoming Messy Reformation Conference and look ahead to Synod 2025, it's worth reflecting on how we approach reformation within the Christian Reformed Church of North America. Over the past four years, many have taken up arms as soldiers in the battle for reformation, fighting for necessary changes within our denomination. While this warrior approach has accomplished much, it has also created a mentality where we're constantly looking for the next battle, the next hill to take.
Scripture warns us about this approach. In Galatians 5:15, Paul cautions: "But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another." John Calvin's commentary on this verse is sobering, noting how distressing it is when members of the same body are "leagued together for mutual destruction." History shows us that reformation movements can easily spiral beyond their original intent, as seen in how Martin Luther's theological insights inadvertently sparked social upheaval in the Peasants' Rebellion of 1524.
This presents our core challenge: How do we balance legitimate concerns for reformation without unleashing chaos? How do we fight for what matters without becoming consumed by fighting itself?
While Luther's firebrand approach mobilized people, it also resulted in chaos. Calvin's approach in Geneva suggests a different path: structured, orderly reform through proper channels can prevent chaotic uprisings by creating legitimate pathways for addressing grievances.
Ecclesiastes reminds us: "For everything there is a season... a time for war, and a time for peace." Following Synod 2024, we have entered a new phase in the CRCNA's reformation journey. Now is the time to build. We must move forward with a clear vision of where we want to go and who we want to be.
Michael Bentley suggested we need to "fight like gardeners," a metaphor that offers a comprehensive approach to reformation. A gardener's work involves five essential activities: plowing and preparing the ground, planting, watering and fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting. An effective gardener doesn't focus exclusively on one aspect but balances all five.
Many reformers have been focused primarily on weeding—identifying and removing problematic elements within the denomination. While weeding is necessary—there are indeed things that need to be uprooted—an obsession with removal creates a destructive culture of criticism. When everything becomes a battle, when every council meeting becomes trench warfare, when every classis gathering becomes a political showdown, we're not advancing reformation but fostering destruction. If we recklessly rip out everything green from the garden, we risk devouring the denomination itself.
Before weeding, there's important groundwork to be done. The first step is plowing and preparing the ground through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit. Abide has modeled this well with consistent prayer for over three years. But are the rest of us praying, or just complaining? Are we asking the Spirit to soften hearts—including our own—or are we simply hardening in our positions?
The next stage is planting—actually building something new. We must be equally focused on creating what we need as we are on removing what we don't. This is a time for new podcasts, blogs, conferences, and resources to flourish across the denomination, similar to how the printing press facilitated resource creation during the Reformation.
We also need to focus on watering and fertilizing—nurturing what is already good in our denomination. Not everything is broken. We must identify and strengthen existing ministries that are bearing fruit, such as Resonate Global Mission and ReFrame Media. How can we support these ministries to become stronger and healthier?
Finally, a gardener understands the importance of patience in waiting for the harvest. Picking fruit prematurely leads only to disappointment and distaste. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." We are called to be faithful in our planting and watering, but the growth and harvest come in God's timing, not ours.
Practically, this means three things for our approach to reformation in the CRCNA. First, we need to balance our activities across all aspects of the gardening process, not spending 90% of our energy on identifying problems and only 10% on building solutions. Second, we need to recognize our different roles, with some gifted at planting, others at nurturing, and still others at discernment about what needs to be removed. Finally, we need patience and perspective, recognizing that reformation unfolds over years and decades, not overnight. We must take the long view, trusting that God is at work as we keep fighting the good fight in this messy reformation.