Wrecking Easy Care Roses. A Parable for the Church Shrinkers

This magenta Knock Out rose creates a blaze of color in our front yard,
with 60 blooms at once on  a total of 8 bushes.

I drove Mrs. Ichabod past a nearby house to show the wrecking of easy care roses, the same shrub roses we are growing.

Easy care does not mean "no care, no watering, no mulching, no pruning." They are not self-pruning. A rose bush does not read the ads, which say "self-pruning." They are endowed by their Creator with a simple plan - bloom, set seed, and go dormant.

They are purpose-driven to bloom on new wood, which means that pruning stirs them to grow more branches, send down more roots, and bloom more often.

The rose bushes of our distant neighbor are not mulched, not pruned, and not radiant with color. Like most red roses, those bushes are going bluish while drying up. The foliage (a big deal for rosarians) is drooping from lack of water and nutrition.

Plenty of blooms paint the area in color.

The Savior left relatively simple instructions to care for the Kingdom He established with His death, Resurrection, and Ascension.

• Go 
• Teach all nations
• Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• Teaching them to observe all I have commanded.

Matthews 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Missing from this set of instructions:

1. Stay in your plush office.
2. Study under false teachers: abusive, dysfunctional dictators.
3. Ape the business methods of unbelievers while begging for subsidies.
4. Make loads of plans while sitting around doing almost nothing,
5. Ignoring all that Jesus taught you about trusting in the Word.

Easy care of the Kingdom does not mean no care, no study of the Word, no reliance on the Word, no visiting of members and prospects. That is why so many congregations look like the eyesore of a garden near our home.

The Savior left us with a Promise, but that requires faith, not Manage by Objective Mission/Vision plans.

Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

By Norma Boeckler.