"Have you been personally fruitful, and let me spell it out for you. Someone you met, someone you studied with, and someone you personally baptized. Who’s been personally fruitful since last year? Raise your hand. Well, it’s better, but I want you to look around. These people with their hands raised are not to be commended, they’ve simply done their duty. But you that don’t, you need to be rebuked! You’re in sin! Sin of cowardice, sin of unbelief, and the sin of laziness. And you need to talk to someone right after this message."

These are words ICC founder Kip McKean said in his sermon Preach The Word at the Johannesburg World Leadership Conference in August of 1995. Now that he's spelled out the ICC's idea of "personal fruitfulness", I will spell out what I believe is the Bible's definition of fruitfulness.

The first scripture that comes to mind when I think of "fruit" in a Biblical sense is one I've seen many times before, Galations 5:22-23. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against these things there is no law." Here, fruit is more of a mindset and something expressed in dealings with others. This is a very different kind of fruit indeed, and sometimes these appear to be rare fruit indeed in the ICC, particularly patience, peace, and gentleness.

Then there's Luke 6:43-45. "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." There's a lot of lessons we can learn from this passage. First, not all "fruitfulness" is good; it is possible to bear bad fruit too. Second, fruit is something that comes from within and is expressed in our speech and actions. Someone who is evil will do evil deeds, and someone who is good will do good deeds. There's even a certain degree of implication that these things follow almost automatically from the heart and will come naturally depending on one's nature. Again, fruit here is something that comes from within, and is definitely not the production of new converts.

Then there is the time in Luke 3:7-14 when John the Baptist calls for the crowd to "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." He gives some very specific examples: "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one with food should do the same." To tax collectors, he says, "Don't collect any more than you are required to." He tells soldiers, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely - be content with your pay." All of the examples he gives illustrate turning away from sins to doing good deeds. Not once does he mention spreading his message or baptizing new disciples as an example of fruit.

There are many more references to "fruit" in the New Testament, of course. Not a single case where bearing fruit is use as a metaphore for a believer's actions is fruit or fruitfulness equivocated with producing converts.

Well, I've made a case that the ICC has made a very poor choice of words with their phrase "personal fruitfulness." The times Jesus threatens people who do not bear fruit with being "thrown into the fire," he's not giving them threats as to what happens if they don't make more disciples. But does the idea that each Christian is responsible for leading non-Christians still remain, by some other name?

First, this brings up the entire issue of saved by grace versus saved by works, which is something I will discuss elsewhere. So even if Jesus expects every Christian to directly bring in new converts, bringing in converts will not save anybody. Rather, if Christians bring in new converts, it is something God leads them to do because they are already saved and following God.

However, I believe that God intends for Christians to work to fulfill the Great Commission in many different ways. There's certainly a lot to teaching people to obey what Jesus commanded them to do, and getting them into church isn't the half of it.

The ICC likes to talk about how the calling of the first disciples, where Jesus told Simon Peter, James, John, and Andrew that they would be "fishers of men." However, notice that Jesus did not appear to have extended that sort of calling to everyone. If Jesus told any of the other eight disciples that they would be "fishers of men," it is not recorded. He simply told Levi, "Follow me," for example.

Now, let's have a look at 1 Corintians 12. All of it. There are specific verses which I will cite, but this entire chapter is full of information on the nature of the church and God's plans for individual Christians. To start with, there's verses 4-6. "There are many different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."

Paul goes on to describe how different believers have very different gifts to be used for different purposes. He also makes it clear that God has given Christians different talents for a reason. He writes in verses 18 and 19, "But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?"

I believe that God gave you your talents for a specific purpose, and the best way you can serve God is to find what that purpose is and apply your talents towards it. Paul says, "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!'" I believe that by trying to tell all their converts they must be fishers of men and dedicate a lot of time to evangelizing, they are trying to make a body of just one part.

I will leave you with these final words from Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:6-8. "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his labor."