Easter and the Promise of Flourishing: A Good Friday Reflection
by Jo Plummer
Today it is Good Friday, a day of stillness and reflection for Jesus-followers around the world.*
We are in the middle of the story that is at the centre of our Christian faith. We are not yet at the empty tomb. We stand and wait at the Cross.
But it is in this waiting, in this in-between place, that we remember the words that Jesus himself gave his disciples:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:24
Jesus said this in the days before his crucifixion, words that must have felt counterintuitive and perhaps even jarring for the disciples in the immediate aftermath of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Jesus was telling them, and us, in no uncertain terms, that His death was not going to be a defeat, it was a planting. And this is where we sit on Good Friday. The seed is in the ground. The tomb is sealed. And we wait.
The Promise of Flourishing
As we have been praying and preparing for the BAM Global Summit 2026, coming up on Thursday 7 May, the theme God has given us is Flourish.
It might seem, at first glance, an unusual theme to bring into a Good Friday reflection. But I believe it belongs here, precisely here, because flourishing is not something that comes without cost. Flourishing grows out of what has first been surrendered and buried. The seed that is planted and dies bears much fruit. Out of a small seed of faith, a great mustard tree can grow. Generous sowing will reap an abundant harvest.
Seeds and plants are used many times in the Bible as metaphors for growth and fruitfulness. Here is another one that the Lord has been impressing on us as a BAM Global team in this season:
“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.'” – Psalm 92:12–15
This is not the flourishing of the world—quick, shallow, dependent on favourable conditions. This is the flourishing of something deeply rooted.
If you have ever lived surrounded by palm trees you’ll know they can bend dramatically in a storm but do not break. The cedar of Lebanon grows slowly, almost imperceptibly, over decades and becomes something that endures for generations. Both trees flourish, not by the ease of their environment, but by the depth of their roots.
And in this Psalm 92 picture, the psalmist locates the source of that flourishing in one place: planted in the house of the Lord. The fruit and flourishing come from where we are rooted.
We hear the echoes of this picture in Jesus’ words, again in John:
“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. 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. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” – John 15: 5-8
God Loves Flourishing
As we anticipate the celebration coming on Sunday, this is the picture we have of Jesus’ people on Easter morning. Not the crushing weight of Good Friday, but the deep-rooted, fruit-bearing, ever-green life that the resurrection makes possible. The psalmist is not describing a fleeting or fragile flourishing—it is the flourishing of a deeply rooted tree. It is flourishing that is sourced not in our own strength or giftedness, but in being planted—deeply rooted in the Lord, grafted to the Vine.
The theme of the BAM Global Summit this year is Flourish. Not because everything in the world is easy, or because BAM is without its share of challenges and setbacks, but because we believe that God loves flourishing. It is only through the transformational power of His risen life in us that people, communities, and nations can fully flourish and bear good fruit.
Thriving companies grow from thriving people—and thriving people are those who have learned what it means to be planted. To stay fresh and green, not because everything is going well, but because they remain in the Vine, abiding in Jesus.
This is what we are gathering around at the BAM Global Summit 2026, online on 7 May. We want to ask together: How do flourishing businesses enable people, communities and nations to flourish? How do we as a BAM movement flourish in the coming decade, not through our own ingenuity or effort alone, but by remaining planted in the house of the Lord.
As God is the Rock of our lives, we will be able to bear good fruit that spills out—bearing witness to the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus, and, through His life in us, able to have a transformational impact on the people and communities around us.
So this Easter, may you be reminded that you are planted, you are deeply rooted. That the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you and in your business.
He is risen. And we will flourish.
But we are not there yet. Today is Good Friday.
Today we sit with the Cross. We hold the grief and the weight of a broken world—the places where injustice continues, where underserved communities remain unreached with the Gospel, where employees are exploited, regions where soils are degraded and the air is dangerously polluted, where communities are fractured by poverty.
We do not look away from that darkness.
We wait with the seed in the ground.
Sunday is coming. New life is coming. And the seeds that have been buried in faithful, costly, prayerful obedience—in businesses and ventures and lives surrendered to the mission of God—will bear fruit.
More fruit than we can ask or imagine.
*We do recognise that many around the world celebrate Easter next week. Easter greetings to you whenever you celebrate!
BAM Global Summit 2026
Thursday 7 May
The BAM Global Summit 2026 theme Flourish reflects that God loves flourishing!
Flourishing businesses help people, communities and nations to flourish.
Join us at this annual gathering of the global BAM community, to hear from God and learn from each other. Come and be equipped to flourish in your own BAM journey—to help you build flourishing companies and communities.
Jo Plummer is the Creative Director & Co-Founder of BAM Global and a Lausanne Movement Catalyst for Business as Mission. Jo is the co-editor of the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission and the executive editor of the BAM Global Reports series. She has been developing resources for BAM since 2001 and currently serves as Editor of the Business as Mission Resource Centre website and The BAM Review Blog. Jo is married to Mark and they have three adult children, Jack, Edward and Evie.
Photo by Viviana Rishe on Unsplash
