One day, riding across the USA on the ole Harley, questioning the ‘shift’ of priority in the journey set before me, the words, ‘all soils deserve the seed’ began to ring.
It was so counter-religious training being taught: plant in good soil, make sure you are a wise steward, etc. The words began to ‘re-define’ my lifestyle. At the time coming out of a season of ‘church growth’ trainings, and now being broken for the ‘over-looked and neglected’ or the ‘least of these’ and viewing the road map of the most productive years of my journey on earth, it was revolutionary.
In years ahead, the church we pastored would be ‘diagnosed’ as sick, due to a lack of ‘branding our name’ rather than exalting the Kingdom (example: we went to airports for a returning soldier or a funeral of a veteran with a banner that said, “Churches of America thank you for serving” – not CHC). At the same time, this sick church fed over 80,000 meals a year, two meals, seven days a week, picked up children for decades on Wednesday night and fed them a natural and spiritual meal, had a small apartment for those coming out of prison and off the streets of addiction, carried on a Celebrate Recovery ministry, held an annual Free Camp where all kids came without dividing the rich and poor, Biker Sunday was the conclusion of a year of hanging with bikers at rallies, in bars and their fund raisers that drew one of the largest crowds of bikes in the Panhandle of Texas.
Reason for being ‘sick’, we were not growing at a rapid pace, growth sometimes even decline, were signals of failure.
It appears the business model of, ‘if it is not producing fruit (measurable success) cut it seems to have overtaken a church built by faithful men. Men who served for decades without seeing any one come to the Lord.
Remember, all soils deserve the seed, successful or not.
What if we had discontinued the Free Camp and the Bus Ministry because it was not ‘fruitful’? The children that came who have become great members of our society and are involved in churches around Amarillo, would not have had the seed planted in them.
Jesus stated in John 4:38, “I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.” Someone went before them to ‘plant the seed’, with no harvest. What about the Jeremiah’s of our history? How do we work that into our definition of success, cutting out the non-fruitful activity?
Will our future generations will have nothing to harvest from, because we spent our time harvesting where others had planted. Using our resources for harvest without spending the resources of time, talent and treasure to plant seed.
Planting seed in hard soils demand focus, you will get very discouraged. Having labored in hard soil for the past 20 years of our life, Carolyn and I have learned to rejoice over a small move toward salvation of a man or woman as much or more than some rejoice of a true conversions in the church.
We learned we must resist the urge to ‘compare’ what we do to the big success of those elevated in the media and in the church world. You cannot ‘compete’ with the big numbers of ‘salvations’ or ‘funds’ coming in. You must remain focused on your ‘lot in life’ as the book of Ecclesiasticus states.
One of the forces required is the determination to be a ‘wilderness prophet’. These are the men in the Old Testament and John the Baptist, that live on the edge. They will not see the abundance of earthly success or wealth (Elijah found food delivered by a creek by ravens). Contentment is demanded. John the Baptist was asked by the soldiers, ‘what must we do to have this Kingdom?” His words could be boiled down to be generous, honest and humble (stop intimidating people and be content with what you are paid). Emotionally you must be ‘okay’ with the fact you are on the edge.
For continued ‘planting in all soils’ you must realize the soils that are hard, short lived or squeezed out, rarely ‘pay well’. Therefore, you not only have to find new measures to find contentment in the emotional side of well-being. There is a requirement to find contentment in the financial side of well-being. When we decided to move from our house out on the edge of town, a place of safety and comfort, to a house behind the church, a man who has been used to speak into my life often said, ‘you know you are flying in the face of the church world today’. Many times, planting seed in all soil requires a departure from the ‘American Dream’. Moving from our house on the acreage, to a nice size house in the barrios, to a small one bedroom apartment in Arlington, Tx and now living in a small RV requires a strong hold on ‘all soils deserve the seed’.
You must constantly be looking for the ‘signs’ of His leadership in your life. We were blessed to take a small team to Israel to honor the IDF Soldiers and tour where our Lord walked. As we stepped on the boat in Galilee, we discovered it was Danny’s boat, the boat we were on in 2011 when we brought 30 motorcycles and 74 people to honor the IDF. Then, Danny said, ‘Pastor Gary, where are the motorcycles?’ It was confirmation! Of the thousands of people Danny had taken on his boat to the middle of the Sea of Galilee he remembered our trip. Then I had requested the song, “Oceans” to be played and built the devotion around it. This was the boat Hillsong used to record the video of “Oceans”. Carolyn looked at me and stated, ‘the Lord is confirming our being here’. It takes a heart open to see and hear the ‘small’ confirmations but the confirmations are absolutely necessary to survive the planting role in the Kingdom.
One of the driving forces in my life is stated this way, ‘what kind of man is it that does not leave the world in a better place?’. We have failed to leave the world better for future generations. Oh, they have much nicer clothes, houses, cars and overall lifestyles than we did. We are surely living the judgement of Revelations 3:17 For you claim, “I’m rich and getting richer—I don’t need a thing.” Yet you are clueless that you’re miserable, poor, blind, barren, and naked! (The Passion Translation)
May the Lord cause His church to see the future, past the present and understand our role in preparing a church for future generations. Let us be willing to ‘pay the price’ for planting seed that there may be future harvest times.
As one young man stated, ‘may we learn to celebrate the planting as much as we celebrate the harvesting’.
