Some time ago, I was seeking the comfort and direction of the Lord, during a particularly stressful season of church life. I parked my Toyota pickup in an empty parking lot, behind an empty building, and stared out into a field. A few lonely palm trees stood among some scraggly bushes, and there were a good number of rolling tumbleweeds.

I took the time to pray a little, unwind from my stress a little, but mostly I meditated on what it meant to be a fruitful leader in God's church. I call the results of this hour of "pickup prayer" my "tumbleweed revelation."

If you are not from the Southwest corner of the United States, this illustration might require some explanation.

I have a long history of experience with the tumbleweed, which dates back to my youngest days. In my first few years of grade school, I lived across the street from a very large field with one large walnut tree, and hundreds of tumbleweeds in it. When these marvelously ugly, round sticker bushes turned from green to brown (which they faithfully do each summer), they would break off at the roots, and begin to tumble with the wind. (Thus the name.) My friend Bruce, and I would gather them all together, and pile them into fortresses, and mazes and tunnels, and all sorts of other fun boy-like shapes.

A little later in my grade school days, my family moved to the high desert of Southern California. Here is where I discovered the real glory of the tumbleweed. When the dust storms began to blow in the fall, the dried tumbleweeds would roll across the desert - blurs of brown stickers, and flying seeds racing with the speed of the wind. To a fifth grade boy, this was really cool. Especially since I lived in a place where some tumbleweeds grew as big as six to eight feet around! On windy days I loved to watch the really big ones rumble across the road, as my dad drove the family station wagon. I haven't been back to California City in many years, but I am sure that the people still break for tumbleweeds, when driving on windy days. A six footer stuck to the front grill of your car makes for quite a mess!

Back in my truck, in that vacant parking lot, I sat looking at this field of tumbleweeds. The wind was blowing, and a few of those vagabond bushes were doing what tumbleweeds do. They were rolling across the field strewing seeds as they went.

At that moment in time, a truth about ministry was birthed in my conscience, and I have not been able to shake it since. I have stated it in the job description which I have written for myself. It reads like this:

"I must invest myself in carriers. If I put the greatest amount of my time into programs, or institutional life, then my work will not have generational continuance. If I pour my life into people, they will become carriers of that same life, and my activities will become infinitely reproducible."

The tumbleweed is a carrier. As it turns brown and dies, it becomes brittle, and breaks away from the roots, which hold it to the ground. When the winds begin to blow, the seeds (which are everywhere on this wind blown bush) fall to ground, as the tumbleweed bounces across the landscape. This is a wonderful picture of the Christian life.

As the tumbleweed dies, so we too are required to die to self. As the tumbleweed breaks away from the ground, so the Christian should not be attached to this world, but should be free from its restraints, in order to roll with wind of God's Spirit. And as the tumbleweed leaves seed everywhere it goes, we too should spread the seed of God's Gospel wherever we go.

If I spend the strength of my ministry in buildings, or in the preparation of events, I will be giving myself to things which do not have eternality. I will be giving myself to things which do not live beyond the time it takes to perform an event, or the years in which the building stands. People on the other hand, can live forever. People can take my message, and my investment in them, and share it with others. They can be carriers, like the tumbleweed. Buildings, and events cannot do this. People can pass on the message for generations, and they have done so. Buildings, and events lose the sting of their initial impact. A visit to a service in many of the old, and beautiful church buildings, brings this truth home frighteningly. Like the Pharisees, who had be whited sepulchres," these old buildings are architectural wonders, yet, often they are without life, and void of truth in the assemblies which congregate beneath their vaulted ceilings.

If we are to pour our lives into carriers, then there are two separate concepts which we must follow: 1) What we do must have life - the life of Christ, and 2) We must invest our time with people. After all, Jesus came to bring life, and He came to bring that life to people. He spent His time with people, giving that life away. I guess that I should do the same.

Perhaps there is no place so fit for tumbleweed ministry, as the small church. So many small churches have so little invested in buildings, or programs. As a result, the leaders spend their time doing people things: Visiting people, training people, helping people, getting to know people.... This is a model for every church of every size. A "people church" is really the only kind of church there is.

In Heaven, I hope to have a mansion. As for now, I think I'll invest in a field of tumbleweeds, and when I've grown them as big as I can get them to be, I'll let them blow with the wind.