Setting Roots to Reproduce: A Living Picture Of The Church In Missions

Dumra In April, Wildwood hosted the ‘Hold the Rope’ missions conference centered on the varying ways in which Christians are called to obey Christ in his Great Commission work. Each attendee received a plant at the close of Saturday’s sessions to spur them on to considering how we hold the rope for those missionaries who are going down into the pit. Now, you may ask, how does a plant communicate the ways in which the church is called to send and support missionaries?

Recently, I heard a story of a Wildwood Missions Team member attending the commissioning service of a supported missionary in Des Moines. After the service, she visited their home and noticed a particularly healthy Spider plant. She stated that something compelled her to ask them for a small cutting. They graciously obliged, cut a snip, and wrapped it in a damp paper towel.

At home, later that night, in a glass of water, she began to reflect on the process of propagation. A healthy plant creates offshoots. That plant, with proper care, grows roots of its own. It has the potential to reproduce new, thriving plants. What had truly drawn her curiosity earlier that day is that it was a living symbol of the very missionaries being commissioned—a tangible reminder to support, pray for, and care for the workers being sent out.

You see, a healthy Spider plant can produce new offshoots only when it’s well-nourished, given sunlight, water, and the proper conditions. When an offshoot is clipped and nurtured in water, it begins to develop roots. Over time, once the roots are strong enough, it is planted in soil and begins to grow independently. In time, that plant will produce offshoots of its own.

This simple illustration is an incredible picture of how Christ designed the church and commanded his followers to carry on his work. The apostle Paul spoke to the church at Colossae, encouraging them to be rooted and built up in the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:7), while the apostle John records Jesus’ own word picture of himself as the vine and his followers as the branches who can do nothing apart from him (see John 15). The Bible is replete with that type of imagery, communicating that Jesus alone is the source by which the church can accomplish anything of eternal, lasting value.

Wildwood Church has a long, 160+ year history, but was planted nonetheless by God to fulfill his Great Commission purpose; that his glory be praised through Jesus, among all languages of the world. By God’s grace alone, Wildwood is a church rooted in Christ and is committed to the truth of his gospel and the world-wide export of its message. A friend of Wildwood in Minneapolis encourages Christians to “participate in the family business”. So if we are rooted in Christ, what does it mean for us to begin to reproduce?

Consider the delicate balance in the caring for the plant. If we clip too many shoots too quickly, or neglect the original plant, we risk damaging or even killing it. The parent plant must remain strong and healthy to continue producing its offshoots. That does not happen haphazardly, where no intentional process and care are implemented.

The Church as the Parent Plant

The church is the original plant, rooted and built up in Christ, established in the faith. Its God-ordained design is that from its health and strength, missionaries are raised up and sent out—cuttings taken from something vibrant, and alive. But just like a plant cutting needs proper conditions to grow, missionaries need care, prayer, and support in order to thrive.

They cannot raise themselves up, nor can they grow in isolation. Left unsupported, they struggle to take root. But under the care of a Christ-rooted congregation, they form strong roots and become sustainable new “plants” in the places where the name of Jesus is scarcely to never spoken. But that doesn’t happen without the rope holding efforts of the parent plant—sacrificial praying, sacrificial living, sacrificial giving.

The Risk of Over-Clipping

There’s another caution in this image. As stated before, too many shoots too fast spells disaster—both at home and abroad. The number of missionaries who leave the field every year is staggering, shaking out to roughly 50% of all new field-workers abandoning their post within five years, and 43% never fulfilling their long-term commitments. Sadly, 71% of those cases, were due to preventable reasons, including support, team-dynamic, and training.

We must be intentional and calculated in the development of our future missionaries, but it also cautions us to consider those who remain here at home. We must simultaneously raise up new disciples to replace them as rope-holders. If not, our churches risk becoming unhealthy and failing to support its offshoots. A plant clipped too frequently weakens, and a church that fails to cultivate and maintain its own spiritual health will wither. Missions should never come at the cost of local discipleship and church health, but rather flow from it.

A Call to Action

Those plants from the conference on the window sills of Wildwood member’s homes is more than just a piece of greenery. It’s a weekly reminder to pray for the missionaries we support and help send. Every time it’s watered, it serves as a reminder that those field workers also need care to thrive.

Let us be a church that both sends and sustains. Let us nourish our home community so that we are constantly producing healthy ‘shoots’. And let us not forget that every missionary we send needs to be surrounded with love, support, and prayer as they take root in the nations. May our church be a flourishing garden—deeply rooted, constantly growing, and faithfully reproducing.