ABLAZE has set a goal of starting 2000 new congregations by 2017. That is an ambitious goal on several accounts. Tim Down, in his book Finding Common Ground, reveals why our Synod's goal is an ambitious one. He asks, “In a world that's growing more hostile to the gospel, what can Christians do? How can we communicate with our unbelieving friends and coworkers in a way that won't seem pushy, intolerant, or judgmental? In a world that's heard it all before and no longer seems to care, where do we begin?”

Long before a church body plans to start new congregations (reaping), serious attention needs to be paid to sowing. A biographical item may help explain: after being trained in Dialog Evangelism many years ago, two of my members needed somewhere to visit. I had just received a postcard notifying me of a new neighbor down the street. So I gave them the card for follow-up. The next day they reported with no small excitement that the woman had invited them in and wanted to become a Christian. They couldn't believe how easily the night had gone! Later, when other calls proved to be less encouraging, they wondered, “What happened? Why didn't it work the same as the first time?" As it turned out, events in that first person's life had been working to make her very receptive to hearing the Gospel at that point in her life. In other words, the Holy Spirit had used other people to “loosen the soil,” and plant seed, so to speak. My two callers had simply reaped the harvest of the work of others.

For a while, the Church has been on the “inside” of our culture. People understood that when we said “God,” we meant the Triune God. The Church is no longer on the inside. When someone says “God” today, no such assumption can be made. Now the Church stands on the periphery of culture, as it once did in the days of Paul and his missionary companions. So far outside the culture were they that when Paul preached about anastasis (resurrection), some in his audience thought he was speaking about a god (perhaps they heard something like Anastasia)! When we find ourselves on the outside and our message misunderstood or even irrelevant, the Church needs to continue to sow Gospel seeds, but it needs to do it as insiders to the new culture, not as the outsiders that we are.

Mr Down points to six deficiencies in our current culture that must be taken into account when preparing to sow Gospel seed: 1) the average person is ignorant of all things Biblical; 2) the average non-Christian holds a stereotypic view of Christians; 3) (s)he has personal issues that may interfere with the ability to comprehend what you are saying; 4) the average person holds a non-Biblical worldview; 5) (s)he operates with cultural issues such as a relativistic view of truth, a high level of tolerance, deep skepticism; and 6) (s)he finds personal costs of discipleship daunting. Through patient, on-going conversation, challenging or questioning the person's cultural assumptions, the sower can loosen the soil and plant Gospel seed. What you have sown through your word of witness may be watered by another Christian, as St Paul planted while Apollos watered. You may never even see the results of your planting. But don't let that discourage you. Faith is the assurance of things not seen. While we can't always see what is happening in the heart of another, we can rely upon God's promise that the Gospel is God's power and that His Word always accomplishes what He wills it. St Paul said it well, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."