I dig my hand into the seed bag and gently scatter its contents on the ground. Autumn has arrived and I'm faithfully seeding my lawn for the spring. It's difficult to believe that these dry seeds can actually grow to become the lush lawn I am imagining. I think of everything that can go wrong. Will weeds crop up to strangle my grass? Will birds peck away my labours? Fearful for these seeds, I actually say a little prayer over them.

My neighbour, Tom, saunters over from across the street. He makes some small talk about the yard and then the topic turns to church. It's always like this with Tom. He knows we are pastors. He tells us all he knows about the hypocrisy of the church, the impending end times and anything else that seems religious in nature.

He's testing us. He is spiritually aware, reads the Bible and has a distinct sense of calling about certain things. He wants to talk “spiritual”—we want to talk “Jesus.” We have prayed for Tom and his family from our first meeting.

“Y'know,” he says, “when the last guys moved out of your house I had a vision. God told me that whoever moved in next, that would be my future. And then you guys move in and there's a church in your house.”

“Maybe God wants you to be part of our church,” I smile, stating the obvious.
We've had this conversation before. It usually ends up with a rehearsal of the ills of every church in town, televangelists and bad Christians in general. But this time something else is stirring in Tom.

“Yeah, maybe …” he responds.

I feel as though I'm living the parable as I stand over my newly seeded patch of mud and watch the seed of faith begin to stir inside Tom.

What Seed Are You Scattering?
As a seed grows to a mature plant it produces fruit that, in turn, holds more seeds. As disciples of Christ we are meant to bear fruit that, as the Holy Spirit blows life into us, scatters seed everywhere we go. This is how we become the witnesses referred to in Acts 1:8. If this “scattering of seed” is such a natural product of our maturity in Christ, why does evangelism seem so overwhelming?

Last summer, I was reading the account of Jesus' Parable of the Sower in Luke 8:1-15, an allegory for the way that spiritual growth happens in people's lives. The seed is scattered on various types of soil with the result that some seed dies right away, other seed springs up and withers later, and yet other seed grows and yields a huge harvest. The story was very familiar to me, but what hit me like a ton of bricks was one sentence of Jesus' interpretation: “The seed is the Word of God” (v 11).

This seems obvious. But in that moment, the Spirit was convicting me about how much I had sown in the name of Christianity or The Salvation Army that was not the Word of God. And, conversely, how little of the Word I had actually sown.

The Wrong Seed
The term “Word of God” is twofold. It refers to Scripture, but it also refers to Jesus himself. He is “the Word” (see John 1:1-14), the one to whom all the Scriptures testify as the source of life (see John 5:38). As I examined my life and ministry I realized that a lot of the seeds I was sowing were not the kind that bring a spiritual harvest. Here are a few of the seeds that I was attempting to scatter:

Seeds of Healthy Life Values
Often when I thought I was sowing spiritual seed I was actually sowing this imitation version. The promise of this seed is that by changing outward behaviour—stopping drinking, getting a job, practising forgiveness, serving the poor—your life will become happier. At first, the result resembles spiritual fruit. But as it ripens, it becomes ugly, twisting into exhaustion and despair, duty and pride. Because this fruit is only created by human effort, it is not easily multiplied and there is no salvation or freedom in it.

Seeds of the Welcoming Church Community
Our congregation places a high value on loving relationships and enjoys a warm, friendly community life together. But I've noticed over time that when we've invited people to join us it has often been an invitation to a community of warm friendships—not to Jesus. The horrifying potential of this seed is that it produces fruit that looks like Christianity but is actually only conformity to the church culture. Many people could participate in the life of our church and never be spiritually renewed by a relationship with Jesus.

Seeds of Postmodern Ministry
In my early days as a church planter, I was influenced by the emergent stream of thinking that suggests young people are checking out of church because the modern church culture clashes with their postmodern values, making church seem irrelevant. As a result, I spent time sowing the seed of “postmodern ministry,” which suggested that the church could grow just by altering certain cultural particulars. The problem with this seed is that it only works if it's scattered along with a generous helping of the Word. Otherwise the plant that sprouts looks just the same as the “welcoming church community” seed, only with more candles, body piercings and indie rockers.

Seeds of The Salvation Army's Good Works
As an officer, I was scattering this seed through public relations in my community. The sprout is an appreciation for our work with the poor, partnerships with other agencies and general support for the Army's local ministry. The mature fruit of this seed is usually money and maybe the donation of volunteer time. These are all good things, but still not what the parable instructs.

If I'm honest, the reason that I chose to scatter these other seeds over the Word of God is because I had a sense that they were somehow more acceptable to people. Jesus is provoking, the Bible offensive, but everyone wants a warm group of friends. Everyone can affirm good works and a positive lifestyle. But what I have also discovered is that people are very willing to hear about Jesus. And as I have scattered spiritual seed on the instruction of the Spirit, much more of it has been readily received and taken root than I would have imagined.

Our job is to be patient and persistent, sowing the Word and waiting for God to produce fruit in people's lives

How Are You Sowing?
For most of us, the best evangelism technique is one that has not always been in vogue in evangelical circles. Simply put: Be normal. Just live your regular life as a friendly, loving, Spirit-filled person. Show hospitality to your neighbours, bring extra coffee to the hockey arena for the other parents, have people on your block over for dinner, mow their lawn when they're on vacation, ask the single mom down the street if you can pick up any groceries while you're at the store, and take every opportunity to branch out into new relationships with unbelievers. If you live as a person authentically led by the Spirit and genuinely love people, then it becomes a natural overflow of your personality to share Jesus.

There are two challenges with this normal strategy. The first is that, for most of us, our real friends are all Christians and our non-Christian friends (if we have any) are actually projects. We don't offer ourselves to them with the same candidness and vulnerability that we might with Christians because we are constantly trying to witness to them. We're always trying to find artificial ways to slip a Bible verse into the conversation or manipulate them into coming out to church for a special weekend. This breeds suspicion. When we do talk about Jesus, they wonder whether what we're saying is true or just something we're trying to sell them.

The second challenge is that, to sow the seed, we actually have to possess it ourselves. Often our neglect of Scripture or the fact that we frequently push Jesus into the periphery of our lives makes us nervous about sharing with our friends. When this happens, we are not experiencing the fruit of the Spirit. Instead of joy, we are full of depression. Instead of love, we manifest anger and resentment. Instead of peace, we are constantly stressed out. On the other hand, if we are genuinely transformed people—in love with Jesus and through whom the Spirit speaks truth, love and encouragement—then normal for us will look like Jesus.

“There has to be more to this plan,” you say. “What about the five steps to salvation? The four spiritual laws? Won't there be questions and loose ends?” Yes, there will. But God has not left the responsibility for the salvation of the world on our shoulders. He has given us the role of witnessesto point to him,but all the saving work is done by Jesus. Our job is to be patient and persistent, sowing the Word and waiting for God to produce fruit in people's lives.

A Rich Harvest
It's spring and the lawn outside my window is thick and green. Yes, we've picked a few weeds, filled a few patches and sowed a few more seeds, but my prayers over those seeds last autumn have come to fruition. That mass of muddy earth is now a carpet of living green.

Tom and his wife are relaxing on the porch. They wave and we meander over for a chat. The seeds in Tom's life have shot up dramatically since that autumn evening. In October he got involved in a Life Transformation Group (LTG), reading Scripture on a weekly basis.

His family started coming to church, his wife joined an LTG and, in November, she made a faith commitment to Christ. Their eldest daughter loves going to youth group and their four-year-old has memorized the worship songs we sing at “big church.” Over the winter this family hosted the Alpha course in their home, where three others made first-time commitments to Christ.

Tom has re-committed himself to following Jesus and his home now serves as a hub of hospitality. We pray that he and his family will mature into disciples of God, so that in their circles of influence more Kingdom seed will fall and we will have the joy of watching that harvest together.