Why Churches Stagnate – A parable of the Tares

In younger years I spent a lot of time in the seat of a combine. A large machine used to harvest wheat. This is about that process, the growing of the wheat and the parallels to what happens in a church that causes it to stagnate and die.

Jesus talked a great deal about growing and harvesting wheat. He warned about not disturbing the tares in order to preserve the wheat.

Growing wheat in North Dakota was easy and hard. First you had to start with good seed. It had to be sown in good soil. There was a treatment to keep it from spoiling when it was cold in early spring. Once it emerged there were many dangers to keep it from coming to maturity.

There was the chance of drying out if it didn't rain from time to time.

If there was nothing to feed the roots the little plants would die.

If too many bugs and small animals pick away at the young plants they are they will die by being eaten.

But some will survive. Some will grow and begin to “Stool Out”. That means they begin to try to bear fruit. They shoot up a stalk. This becomes a crucial time.

If the heat of the day or dryness sets in there will be no fruit. It will look like the wheat is doing OK but it isn't. All appearances are there but no fruit and therefore no capacity to perpetuate itself.

Then there's the tares. Tares are weeds. Some weeds are like wild oats. They start out looking like wheat. But, later we would discover it was a weed imitating wheat.

Some tares don't look like the wheat at all but they are among the wheat. There's no way of really getting rid of them without destroying much wheat in the process.

When the fields look ready for harvest they look good at a distance. The difficulty comes later. When we would try to harvest the number of tares in the wheat would regulate how quickly or effectively the harvest would go.
Many times in fall harvest when things were going particularly tough I would find myself under the combine with the cylinder door open and a knife in my hand cutting out green weeds (Tares) that clogged up the works. Sometimes it would stop progress all together.

Then after the wheat was harvested and placed in the bin we would clean it up by putting it thru a cleaner to make ready for processing into bread. That cleaner sifted and screened the chaff which is the result of the fruit of tares and the wheat. The wind of the blower would winnow out the weed seeds.

Only then would the wheat be unified as one grain in wholeness.

The explanation of this parable:

Christians are made by the planting of a seed. Some plant others water and then some harvest. There are many dangers foils and snares that will try to stop the growth of a new Christian.

Dry times will discourage some. Some whither when persecution comes at the hands of scoffers. Only the refreshing and soaking of the HOLY SPIRIT coming like rain will keep the little seedling alive. The pests of worry, pain, disease and discouragement keep many from growing and they die before they can come to fullness. Others grow thru the situation and become more sturdy, deeper rooted and fruitful because of it. The problem is it takes more and more rain and the sun to allow the plant to recover when times are hard.

Only the rain of the Holy Ghost, early and latter rain will allow the plants to make it.

Sometimes the latter rains seem like they will wash away the plants, but the rain will cause them to grow if they are deep rooted and well established.

Now the separation begins to take place. Some plants begin to look like they are fruitful parts of the field. But they are weeds. In the same way, in any church there are some who look like they are part of it all but are just empty shoots or worse tares.

When the harvest time comes and the precious wheat is ready to be harvested there comes a quandary. The tares are there. They look much like the wheat. They have much in common. They grew up in the same place. It's just that some of what is being harvested is useless and fruitless.
What's worse like the tares that clog up the combine, the tares in the church slow or worse stagnate and stop all growth.

The tares look green and productive. But they suck the life out of any church.

The reason churches stumble and even fail is they don't recognize they are spending too much time on tares. Tares that have no calling to be part of the wheat harvest. So the church is half wheat ready and fruitful for the harvest, and half tares who only hinder the growth of the wheat. Pastors looking for numbers try hard to hang on to the tares in the vain idea that they have potential to become wheat.

They never will. There comes a day when the harvest is ready and the wheat and tares are harvested together. Then it will be too late. Much wheat has already been lost due to the strangling effect of the tares.

But, the harvest happens, the purifying begins, the wind of the holy spirit winnows away the chaff and it is burned in the lake of fire.

Yes, I believe that many pastors are tending to tares at the expense of the wheat. It's time to pray for a church split. Let the tares disappear and die. Let the true harvest come in and become unified set apart in holiness and purity.

If we read the parables and teachings of Jesus I don't know if we can come to any other conclusion.

Start praying for a major church split that weeds out the tares from the congregation once and for all. Then, become a better husbandman.