The Sacred Art of Pruning
By W.J de Kock, ThD
Educational Consultant to Partners in Ministry
Professor of Practical Theology at Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University
9 minute read
It’s late September, and the golden wattles are quietly doing their thing. You can set aside your colour-coded calendars for a moment—these cheerful blooms aren’t waiting for permission to brighten suburban streets. While Wattle Day officially falls on September 1st, these trees follow their own timetable.¹ They flower when conditions suit them, reminding every ministry leader across Australia that pruning isn’t about loss but renewal—and that sometimes the best course is simply to trim back and see what fresh growth follows. There's something prophetic stirring in the bush telegraph, and it's not coming from the usual suspects.
Meet the lignotuber—possibly the most punk-rock adaptation in the plant kingdom.²
It's a woody swelling at the base of eucalypts, banksias, and countless Australian natives that looks unremarkable but functions like a resurrection machine. When fire sweeps through, when drought hits, when life gets cut down to ground level, these underground storage organs explode into action, sending up dozens of new shoots from what looked like complete devastation.³
The lignotuber doesn't just store energy—it stores hope.⁴ It's like a secret vault buried beneath the surface, quietly accumulating potential until disaster strikes. Then it cracks open like a treasure chest, releasing dormant buds that transform scorched earth into a garden of second chances. When everything above ground gets torched, the lignotuber yawns, stretches, and gets to work growing something completely new.
This is exactly what Jesus was talking about in John 15, except he was using Mediterranean imagery for an Australian audience.⁵ "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener," he said, but imagine if he'd grown up in the Grampians: "I am the true wattle, and my Father knows exactly when to set the controlled burn."
Here's the uncomfortable truth that September keeps whispering.
God might be calling your ministry to the sacred art of coppicing.⁶ That's when you cut a plant back so hard it looks like destruction, but actually triggers the most vigorous regrowth possible. It's the difference between careful pruning and prophetic surgery—between trimming the edges and trusting the lignotuber.
Most Australian churches are carrying programs that started with genuine life but are now functioning as ecclesiastical dead wood. The committee that exists to organise other committees. The weekly meeting surviving purely on volunteer guilt. These aren't just neutral—they're energy vampires, sucking resources from the lignotuber of real calling.
But there is pruning and there is pruning? Like removing finished wattle flowers to encourage next season's spectacular display,⁷ some ministry programs have had their moment and need graceful retirement. The key is timing—you don't deadhead in full flower, but you don't wait until the plant is exhausted either. That outreach initiative reaching mainly backward toward its glory days? Time to deadhead with love and trust what emerges.
Then there's the gentler art of tip-pruning. Australian natives respond to regular tip-pruning by producing multiple new shoots from each cut point.⁸ In ministry terms, this means constraining growth in one direction to encourage expansion in others. Sometimes saying no to the fourth Bible study creates space for the youth ministry to finally breathe. The courage to limit programs often multiplies impact—just like pinching back a grevillea's growing tips forces it to bush out with twice the flowering potential.
But the most radical option is coppicing—cutting established ministries back to ground level and trusting the lignotuber of calling to generate something entirely fresh.⁹ It requires the kind of faith that only comes from understanding that some plants are built for exactly this kind of dramatic renewal. Not every program needs coppicing, but the ones that do will surprise you with their resurrection capacity.
Think of it as ecclesiastical controlled burning—clearing away accumulated undergrowth so the real fire can spread.
The wattles are asking every ministry leader in Australia the same uncomfortable question: What are you keeping alive that's already finished flowering? What's exhausting your lignotuber that should be composting into next year's possibility?
Here's the thing about Australian plants—they evolved with fire.¹⁰ They didn't just survive catastrophe; they designed their entire life cycle around it. Many species actually require fire to trigger their most spectacular growth phases. The seeds that only germinate after heat shock. The lignotubers that explode into action after everything above ground gets eliminated.
Maybe that's the real scandal of September: God designed the church like an Australian native, built for renewal through apparent devastation. The early church didn't just survive persecution—it thrived because of it, sending out shoots in directions nobody expected. Those weren't setbacks; they were controlled burns, clearing space for something wilder and more beautiful.
The golden wattle gives every overcommitted ministry leader official permission to cut back radically.¹¹ This isn't punishment—it's preparation. The Father as divine vinedresser understands lignotuber logic: sometimes the most loving thing to do is eliminate everything competing with the root calling.
Stop trying to keep every program artificially alive on ecclesiastical life support.
The wattle doesn't apologise for dropping spent flowers—it uses that energy to build next season's even more spectacular display.
This September, consider the prophetic possibility that some of your ministry exhaustion isn't a sign of failure but a signal for coppicing. What if the burnout is your soul's lignotuber trying to send up new shoots, but there's too much old growth blocking the light?
As the wattles stage their annual rebellion against winter's attempted dominance, they're inviting every ministry leader to join the underground resistance. Not the kind that undermines authority, but the kind that trusts the lignotuber of divine calling over the careful preservation of human programming.
The most prophetic act might be the courage to cut back to what matters most and trust what emerges. To stop managing decline and start cultivating conditions for the kind of renewal that makes angels break into spontaneous applause and neighbours lean over fences to ask, "How did you get it to grow like that?"
September's golden conspiracy is spreading across the continent, one audacious bloom at a time. The wattles are showing us that sometimes the most faithful response to God's calling isn't careful preservation but wild trust in the underground economy of resurrection.
Notes:
¹ "Wattle Day," SA History Hub, July 3, 2024, https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/events/wattle-day/.
² "Understanding Lignotubers in Trees," Arboriculture Victoria, July 28, 2024, https://arboriculturevictoria.com/learn/understanding-lignotubers-in-trees.
³ "Fire blog 6: The eucalypts will be back," Know Our Plants, May 13, 2020, https://know.ourplants.org/fire/fire-blog-6-the-eucalypts-will-be-back/.
⁴ "Underground Storage Swelling Enables Regeneration," AskNature, March 30, 2024, https://asknature.org/strategy/underground-storage-swelling-enables-regeneration/.
⁵ Bible Gateway, John 15 NIV - The Vine and the Branches, July 7, 2024, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15&version=NIV.
⁶ "The Courage to Prune as a Pastor: What We Must Learn and Let Go," ACTS Network, October 23, 2024, https://www.actsnet.org/blog/the-courage-to-prune-as-a-pastor-what-we-must-learn-and-let-go.
⁷ "Prune flowering native plants," Gardening Australia Magazine, April 29, 2024, https://www.gardeningaustraliamag.com.au/prune-flowering-native-plants/.
⁸ "Pruning Australian Native Plants," Australian Plants Society Victoria, accessed September 12, 2025, https://apsvic.org.au/pruning-australian-native-plants/.
⁹ "Fire blog 6: The eucalypts will be back," Know Our Plants.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ "The Golden Wattle: A symbol of unity and resilience," Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, August 31, 2025, https://www.pmc.gov.au/news/golden-wattle-symbol-unity-and-resilience.