Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Have you ever thought about how various plants spread their seeds? Genesis 1 tells us God created plants to spread their seeds. Some plants use exploding pods and popping pinecones to spread their seeds. Other plants spread by catching a ride on animal fur or stick to the beaks of birds. In general, the plants that hitch a ride on an animal or bird do not need as many seeds as the exploding pod plants.

Plants using exploding pods are very inefficient. The explosion of the pod or cone generally only spreads the seed short distances. Then, only a small percentage of the seeds take root and grow into mature plants. Most of the seeds are lost. Thus, these kinds of plants must produce thousands of seeds in the hopes that one or two new plants will survive.

Thistle and sticky plants that hitch rides, on the other hand, produce fewer seeds since they are more efficient in reproduction. Mistletoe is a good example of this kind of plant. The birds transplant the seeds from a tree by wiping the seeds stuck to their beaks onto a tree. Relying on animals and birds to carry their seeds, helps these seeds go further distances from the mother plant.

By domesticating plants humans have found ways to make plant reproduction even more efficient than nature. Is it possible to make nearly every seed successful? A farmer can intentionally plant the seeds in soil that is carefully prepared. The farmer can tend the seed, by fertilizing, watering and weeding, until it grows into a mature plant. Thus, a farmer can harvest most of the seeds for human consumption and still preserve enough seeds for the next generation of plants.

Using our understanding of how plants reproduce, let's consider Jesus' parable of the farmer who went out to plant some seeds. How does this parable instruct us about evangelism? What is the difference in efficiency between "exploding pod" evangelists, "thistle" evangelists, and "farmer" evangelists?

Read Luke 8:4-15.

A little girl came home from second grade, excited to tell her mother what she had learned. "Mom, today we learned how to make babies." Her apprehensive mother sat down and asked, "Really? How do you make babies?" The girl proudly announced, "It's easy. Just change the y to i and add es."

I sometimes wish that making baby Christians were as easy as adding a plural ending. How do we make babies when it comes to sharing our faith?

Even as a baby Christian I realized that "in your face" aggressive, confrontational evangelism was not for me. “Exploding pod” evangelism uses the idea that if we just broadcast broadly on the television or hand out enough Christian literature, some small percentage will receive it and become Christians.

I recall one of the early conversations Kate and I had during our engagement was about Christians sharing God’s love in these inefficient ways. She recalled trying to have a thoughtful conversation with a Christian who stood on a corner of her college campus. The person wanted to hand her a Bible tract, but not engage in any kind of relationship. We agreed early in our marriage that this was not how we wanted to share God’s love with others.

Unfortunately "exploding pod" evangelism is very inefficient. Perhaps a few may meet Christ through this form of evangelism, but most gospel tracts end up in the trash and few listen for very long to televangelists. Let’s explore a more efficient way to share God’s love.

My mom used to say that she did not need to share her faith verbally, like I do, since her lifestyle would help bring people to God. She seemed to believe that the seeds of Jesus’ love for others were clinging to her and could drop at any time into someone else’s life.

It is true that mom was an incredibly loving person. I respected her engagement in the community through multiple venues of volunteerism and service. Not only did she serve on many boards, she also was down to earth and pragmatic about what it took for volunteers to run an organization. Many nights in my childhood I recall folding letters and stuffing envelopes for one of mom’s community projects. She believed that her service made her a carrier of the gospel.

I don’t disagree. I just wonder how efficient it was. The problem with thistle evangelism that trusts the clinging seeds to drop on someone else, is that it is too casual and haphazard. Sure someone may pick up a seed of god’s love. Then again, it may pass them entirely. Isn’t there a more intentional way for a follower of Jesus to be a blessing to others?

Yes, serving evangelism is more efficient than merely handing out tracts, but isn't there some way to improve the intentionality factor in our evangelism?

Let’s consider Jesus' parable of a farmer planting seeds. Many of us first heard this parable in Sunday school or perhaps Vacation Bible School. As a child I pictured the farmer as standing there tossing seeds every which way. Some land haphazardly in the weeds, while others land on the path and still others land in the rich soil.

Years ago I made a passing reference to the fact that our nation is no longer an agrarian society so since we are not farmers it makes it hard for us to understand this parable. A man approached me after the service. “Bruce, I’m a farmer.”

I listened as he explained something I had never appreciated. A farmer is very careful with the seeds. Farmers don’t waste seeds. They plant intentionally so that each seed may be productive. While a small amount of seeds may bounce onto the bad soils of a hardened path or weed patch, most of the seeds are intentionally planted in the rich soil. The farmer wants to maximize his harvest.

Jesus reminds us that while some seeds land in hard places, the most productive seeds land on the farmer's prepared field. The farmer cultivates the field. They turn the soil and fertilize it. They water and weed the field in order to maximize the harvest. Isn't Jesus describing our role in the spreading of the gospel seeds? How can we work the soil so that a person becomes more receptive to the seeds of the gospel?

"Farmer" evangelists are less concerned about mass efforts to spread the seeds of God’s Word through media and print. That is too inefficient. "Farmer" evangelists are more intentional and deliberate than the "thistle" evangelists who assume their lifestyle will drop some seeds of God’s love in haphazard ways. The farming style of evangelism involves developing caring relationships where we can love people as Jesus loves them. Just as a farmer tends the soil and patiently waits for the right season to plant, so the farmer evangelist knows that there are key moments when a person may be open to hearing about God's love. Since farming evangelism depends so heavily on loving relationships we could call it "relational evangelism."

You want to see what happens when someone gets intentional about growing seeds? Just wander through the vegetable tent at Del Mar Fairgrounds. You see those huge squash and pumpkins? They didn’t happen by a stray seed dropping haphazardly onto the ground. They were nurtured and tenderly grown. Those prize winning plants come from 4-H students who took time to cultivate the harvest.

Jim cultivated our friendship my freshman year of college. I stopped attending the church where I grew up with my parents. Been there. Done that. Doesn’t seem to work for me. I didn’t walk away from Christianity so much as leave the familiar nest to explore other options.

My best friend and college roommate, Roy, was dating a pastor’s daughter so we started attending a Friday evening home group for college students at that little Brethren church. We were there mostly for Roy’s romantic hopes. Somewhere along the way I became friends with Jim.

Jim and his wife hosted our Friday group at their home. They were a young couple with small children. I liked playing with the kids and laughing with the family. I admired Jim’s obvious love for his family. Sure, I had come from a Christian home, but it was refreshing to see this kind of love in someone else’s home.

I watched when one of the girls in our group announced she was pregnant out of marriage and how Jim and his wife accepted her right where she was. Eventually Jim kind of took me under his wing. He invited a group of guys to go shooting at a local target range. I came from a home that had no guns. It was fun and different. We went to a couple movies together. We discussed anything and everything. He made our friendship a safe place to be real.

After several months, I asked Jim to tell me more about his faith. He had no theological education. He was just a businessman who loved Jesus. I don’t recall that his words were profound. What I do remember is that he made a pitch for my deciding to follow Jesus and making your decision public. I figured that if I chose to follow Jesus it was between me and God. Jim suggested that my decision would mean more if I made a public profession of my faith. I prayed and struggled over this idea for the next several weeks.

That little church always ended their Sunday evening service with an altar call for anyone who wanted to come forward to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Week after week I almost went forward, but didn’t. Finally, one Sunday evening I went forward. You want to know the truth? I think I did it as much for Jim as for Jesus. In fact, for me as a baby Christian, Jim was my Jesus with skin on.

There are people all around us who need Jesus with skin on. Will you be their Jesus? Let me ask it another way. Who are you cultivating?