Pumpkin Parable
October 19th, 2006 by Jon
The other day I came across this story:
A lady recently being baptized was asked by a co-worked what it was like to be a Christian. She replies, “It’s like being a pumpkin: God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off you may have gotten from the other pumpkins. Then he cuts the top off and scoops out all the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.”
Initially, I thought this was a neat little analogy, but then one of my co-workers adeptly pointed out some of its problems. The story seems to implying that once you become a follower of Christ, you become better than all of the other dirty, pathetic pumpkins. However, in life, it’s often hard to see a difference between the two types. We tried to correct the analogy in various ways. Maybe people are more like a pumpkin patch, and even though you can see God in one aspect of their lives, there’s still plenty of ‘dirty pumpkins’ that remain. Or, maybe the discrepancy stems from the side of the pumpkin you are looking at: the dirty side of the pumpkin or the side with the light shining through the carved out face.
Ultimately, we had to acknowledge that the analogy was imperfect. Although you could make some sense of it if you really wanted to, a seemingly innocent story could be very offensive to those thinking logically. There are plenty of examples of how “Christian” doctrine/language can create a feeling of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, but I’d like to examine how this happens in church facilities.
Facilities, like church bodies themselves, often grow slowly over time. The growth does not always occur uniformly, or logically. The resulting buildings can be extremely confusing, even offensive, to those using the facility for the first time. Fellowship areas tend to be small and crowded – people aren’t encouraged to stick around and get to know one another. Nurseries are often in the basement at the opposite corner of the building from the front door. Long, narrow sanctuaries separate congregants from the pastor.
The good news is that these facilities can be improved. As with the pumpkin analogy, they may never be perfect – but with a little effort, church facilities can better showcase the light of God’s love”
For more information on this topic see: Maintain frontline outreach spaces in your church facility
I enjoyed your perspective however;
I still enjoy the story and do believe there is meaningful points to it and that many can take different values from it. Just like reading a book or watching a movie- everyone comes away from it with what was important to them making one’s point no less important than someone else’s.
As you noted - the analog may not be perfect but neither are any of us.
I enjoyed your perspective of the pumpkin patch; however, there is no need to throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to an imperfect analogy. Are we to apologize for Christ redeeming us to those who may be offended? When Jesus comes into our lives we are made better than we were, but not more valuable.