Intimate Leaders are Fruitful for Jesus
Issue #405, August 20, 2025
Leaders love results! They measure progress, celebrate wins and dream of seeing their vision become reality. But serving leaders learn that fruit comes, not from their striving, but because of their intimate relationship with Jesus. Consider His words to the disciples:
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned (John 15:4-5, NIV).
Jesus calls His disciples to produce results. He desires fruit. But He teaches that the fruit will come only through intimacy.
Intimate leaders are fruitful when they focus on relationship.
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you...If you do not remain in me you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers...” Jesus begins and ends these verses on fruitfulness with a reminder that fruit comes from remaining or abiding in Him. He calls His disciples to focus on their relationship with Him above all else. Where there is a strong relationship with Him, there will be fruitful results. Where that relationship does not exist only dead wood results.
Some leaders focus on the tasks at hand and focus on producing fruit. They focus on the results instead of the relationship. But serving leaders see their task as strengthening their relationship with Jesus. When they focus on the relationship the fruit will come naturally.
Intimate leaders are fruitful when they acknowledge their inadequacy.
“No branch can bear fruit by itself...apart from me you can do nothing.” These are tough words for an action-oriented leader used to producing results by their own efforts. But Jesus calls us to first acknowledge that without Him, we cannot produce the kind of fruit He desires. He doesn’t say we’ll produce less without Him—He says we’ll produce nothing without Him! Without intimacy we may work like the disciples trying to catch fish the whole night without results (see John 21:1-6). But as we remain in an intimate relationship with Jesus, fruit is produced from our lives.
Some leaders refuse to acknowledge that they need help. Others are willing to admit they need some help. But serving leaders acknowledge that in themselves they are inadequate to produce anything of lasting value.
Intimate leaders are fruitful when they remain in Jesus.
“If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit...” Jesus teaches that our fruitfulness as leaders will be in direct proportion to our continued intimacy with Him. It is a relationship that goes both ways, the leader remains in Jesus and Jesus remains in the leader. It is so easy to think that to be fruitful we need to work harder and do more; but our fruitfulness will only increase as we learn to remain in Jesus. This is much more than a one time commitment to follow Him; it is a commitment to remain with Him through all the challenges of our leadership journey.
Some leaders start well, knowing that they have much to learn and areas that need improvement. But with time, they become more self-reliant and less intimate with Jesus. But serving leaders remain in a strong intimate relationship with Him realizing that intimacy produces eternal fruit. Without it, all their efforts fade away.
For further reflection and discussion:
· As I reflect on my own leadership regarding how much my life yields fruit for Jesus, how would I rate myself on a scale of 1 to 10? What blocks me from greater fruitfulness?
· What steps can I take to strengthen my relationship with Jesus on a daily basis? How might this strengthen my leadership?
· Do I act in ways that indicate that I am capable of all that is needed in my leadership? In what ways is Jesus inviting me to acknowledge my inadequacy?
· In what ways am I tempted to produce fruit (results) without intimacy? What is the result in my leadership?
· After reflecting on these questions, read the entire chapter, John 15. What additional insights do I find in this chapter about how my intimacy with Jesus shapes my leadership?
Until next time, yours on the journey,
Jon Byler
In the next issue, we’ll examine how intimate leaders bring glory to Jesus.
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