We need to do one more follow-up to Relational Evangelism from last week. I reported four practices from The 2:7 Series, Book 2:
- Initiate relationships
- Show love and acceptance
- Boldly identify with Christ early
- Pray
What’s the primary lesson from the Parable of the Sower?
Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times…
Then Jesus said to them, “…The farmer sows the word.” (Mark 4.3 – 8, 13, NIV)
There are a lot of potential applications in this parable: be the right kind of soil, don’t let wealth and other distractions choke the word, etc. But the main and obvious lesson is: sow seed. Go after birds? Or sow more seed? Try to find that guy who allegedly professed faith but couldn’t be found the next day? Or sow more seed?
When we’re trying to practice “Initiate Relationships,” whom do we initiate relationships with? Those we think will eventually respond? Or the ones God puts in front of us?
We don’t know what kind of soil the seed will land on, but, as hockey great Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1.28, ESV, emphasis mine)