God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

*          *          *

I was watching Justin Taylor interview John Piper and John Macarthur the other day. He asked them what they do when they encounter faithfulness but also fruitlessness (or something like that).

I think the intent of the question was, What if a person is in ministry and there does not appear to be any obvious fruit? What if a godly man who is called to preach, preaches biblically, but the fellowship he is ministering to still melts away?

A lack of obvious, short-term "fruit" often leads people to question the faithfulness of the pastor. This may be appropriate, and indeed, accountability to remain faithful is a hallmark of a good pastor.

But too often a lack of short-term “fruitfulness” weakens a minister's resolve to endure, even though a Biblical call for endurance is exactly what is needed in so many cases.

What about the fruitfulness of prayer? Or the fruitfulness of obedience? Jeremiah, Hosea, and others were faithful in their calling, but none of them saw "fruit" in the way we usually think of it. They called people to repentance and no one repented. Yet God seems to make much of their fruitfulness of obedience, their fruitfulness of endurance, their fruitfulness of faithfulness, their fruitfulness of doing what is right even if the stars fall.