---
title: Spiritual Vitality article (NEEDS TITLE)
author: Keelan
date: 2022.10.28
tags: Keelan, spiritual formation, missions
---

When I lived in Africa, I had to draw water from a well. During my time serving overseas as a missionary, I lived in a rural part of West Africa. Rustic doesn't quite describe the living conditions. There was no electricity or running water, and that meant water had to come out of the ground, and it had to do so by hand.

When I was in Africa, I used this analogy often. The daily trip to the well is, in many ways, not too different from our spiritual vitality as believers and as churches. On the equator, it gets hot and that water from the well is refreshing. It's more than refreshing; it's essential; it's life-giving. Without water a village cannot exist. The daily trip to the well was a nonnegotiable part of life. The water was, in many ways, the source of vitality in the village. What is more, without a bucket, a person had little chance of gaining access to the water. Wells are deep.

My first experiences with drawing water were laughable. You would think it's a cinch, but you would be wrong. I can remember my first trip to the well, bucket in hand. I was the new guy in the village and everyone knew it, so anyone nearby stopped for some entertainment. I'm sure they knew what was about to happen. I walked over to the well, peered down inside, and pitched my bucket into the dark water at the bottom. It hit with a splash, and that's when I discovered an important truth.

Here's the dirty little secret: buckets float. You drop a bucket down in a well, and unless you do it right, it just sits on top of the water. Even if the bucket is made out of metal, it still doesn't settle into the water in a way where you can pull it back up full. You must use the right technique. It took someone showing me how to use the tool correctly for me to benefit from it. After multiple failed attempts, one of my neighbors sent over their little girl to instruct me in drawing water. Let that sink in. Here I was the confident adult Westerner being tutored by a seven-year-old in how to do something everyone in the village knew how to do by the time they were three.

Of course, it's easy to see how this analogy compares to our spiritual vitality. The life-giving water is Christ, and that bucket becomes our means of access, the tool used to drink of that life-giving water. For the individual, this may be their routines of spiritual discipline, their prayer life and time spent in the Word of God. David Mathis refers to these as habits of grace in his book by that name. The habits or disciplines become the means through which grace is administered and applied to the Christian life.

However, this analogy can extend past the individual believer to a whole gospel community, or local church. For the church, these may be programs, systems, and resources used to facilitate the spiritual vitality of the congregation. Corporate worship services, music, preaching, small groups, and curriculum are all buckets used to facilitate that vital relationship between Christ and his church.

## Don't praise the bucket instead of the water.
In all my time in Africa, I never once heard someone praise their bucket as though it was the thing that gives them life.This statement is obvious when we're talking about buckets and water, but often not so when we're talking about spiritual vitality. Too often, we're guilty of praising the bucket instead of the water.
Simply put, programs don't fix a church's spiritual vitality problem. We must remember that life, spiritual vitality, comes from the source of living water. In John's gospel, Jesus tells us that he came that we may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). He continues a few chapters later by telling his disciples that he is the True Vine and that they are merely branches (John 15:5). The analogy is clear, the vine gives life to the branches so that they may produce fruit.

Endless means can be poured into designing the perfect system, perfect service, perfect outreach program, perfect curriculum and it will not refresh the soul. Only Christ himself refreshes the soul. Only Christ satisfies, brings life, and brings passion and drive to the mission of the church. Christ is the water, and the program or process is just the bucket.

## But don't neglect your bucket.

However, without a bucket, you can't access the water. I often hear well-meaning exclamations today that the church doesn't need any programs, processes, or procedures. While I understand the heart behind such statements, it is an overreaction to say we do not need any of these things. In fact, it's actually impossible for a group of believers to stay organized as a church without some form of structures and systems in place. If you choose to meet at the same time for worship and fellowship each week, then you have already created a program. We shouldn't lament this reality, as long as we understand the difference between the water and the bucket.

In *The Trellis and the Vine*, Collin Marshall and Tony Payne pick up this metaphor in a way that is profoundly helpful for conversations about church ministry. Throughout Scripture, the church is described in organic terms. In this way, Marshall and Payne claim the church is like a vine. It grows and thrives based on the things that nourish life. However, for vines to grow well, they need structures to support them. This is why vine dressers build a trellis for their vines. You want your church to worship together, but that requires (among other things) having a place and time that you all agree upon to meet. You hope that your church members can grow in their understanding of Scripture together, but that requires some structure and guidance in study and facilitation of the conversations where members can do this. You hope that your church would multiply by sending members to be missionaries or church planters, but that requires processes that identify called members who can be equipped and sent. For a vine to grow to its healthiest potential, it needs a support structure, a trellis.

Faithful local church ministry requires us to understand this difference. The real trick is not confusing the priority and purpose of the trellis and the vine, or in my analogy the water and the bucket. The church is a vine not a trellis, but it needs structure and tools to support it's life and growth. In the same way, Christ is our source of life, he is our water. These programs and processes are just the bucket. They are our means of accessing that water. If we understand this distinction, then we will praise the right thing and will have a means of measuring the effectiveness of our programs and tools. A bucket is not successful in itself but only when it brings us the water we seek to live from. In fact, a plastic bucket draws as much water as one made out of gold. When we confuse the bucket and the water, we become guilty of being that church that says, "look how nice our bucket is," instead of the church that says, "drink this and you will never thirst again."