During the pandemic quarantine, my son, Corder, had a great idea: “Let’s plant a garden!”
My wife, Leisa, thought this was a good idea, but I knew who would be doing the cultivating. So, Leisa and I got to work, and Corder got to play. For those of you who are gardeners, you understand the work that goes in to getting the soil ready, planting the seeds, pulling the weeds, watering, and keeping the pests away.
Our neighbors let us use a plot they had, and even helped us with a few techniques. We knew that in order for us to reap a harvest of fruit, we needed to do the work, plant more seeds than we needed, and pray for God to show up.
Our garden looked nice, but the win isn’t a nice-looking garden. The win is a nice-looking harvest. Success is found in the production of the fruit, but this is dependent solely on God.
We can hinder this process by not working or planting seeds.
One of the shifts that must take place in the church is to shift from counting trees to counting seeds. Sometimes there aren’t any fruit-producing trees, because there isn’t any seed sowing going on. We tend to pray for a harvest of fruit, but do little work in planting seeds and cultivating the soil of the souls around us. We judge success based on the new fruit-producing “trees” in the baptismal pool, but really don’t set goals to do the work to see them there.
For instance, a church may set a goal for baptisms, and then pray to God to see them happen. Instead, we should set a goal for the number of people we will share the hope of the gospel, which will lead to the baptismal waters being stirred.
Chris McChesney, in the book, “4 Disciplines of Execution,” urges leaders to focus on the lead measures vs. lag measures. What are the lead measures that produce transformed lives?
• Inviting lost people into your lives to become friends.
• Praying for them by name.
• Sharing the gospel with them regularly.
At the end of the season, we reaped a harvest. Maybe the Lord was thrilled to see a family working together, turning off their phones, having fun, and planting seeds. The fruit was nice, and each one had more seeds that could be planted.