Illustration by Bruno Paciulli

Last year, we received a desperate and compelling letter from a reader. He eloquently voiced the frustrations that so many of us experience when we share our faith without seeing results.

We asked author Tim Downs to respond to Ron's questions. His insights apply to anyone who's been discouraged by seemingly fruitless evangelism.

—The Editors

Dear Discipleship Journal,

I cut my teeth in ministry while I was in college through the training of Campus Crusade. They stressed the imperative of evangelism, and I fervently agreed. In the 20 years since graduate school, however, I have witnessed to numerous unbelievers on numerous occasions, and, as far as I know, only one came to Christ.

I was at one job for almost 10 years and would speak on spiritual topics at various gatherings such as departures, weddings, and Christmas luncheons. I shared Christ personally with many coworkers. Several visited our home, and my wife and I appealed to them to come to Christ. But as far as I know, there was no movement spiritually at all.

After that, I rarely witnessed to anyone. "Why bother," I reasoned, "when there is such a natural, high, and profound wall of unbelief?" I don't know how to get over that wall. I have prayed and fasted. I have appealed. I have humbled myself. I have asked God to search my heart to reveal any wicked way in me. I have considered whether my heart is wholly devoted to Christ. I have loved people sacrificially.

What more is necessary?

Sincerely,
Ron Deere
Brooklyn, New York

Dear Ron,

You are not alone.

In fact, your letter could serve as a kind of manifesto for believers in all times and places who have sought to overcome that "natural, high, and profound wall of unbelief" in their places of ministry.

Consider another letter—not an actual letter, but one that could have been written 26 centuries ago by the prophet Jeremiah.

Dear Friends (if I have any),

It was more than 40 years ago that I first responded to the Lord's call to ministry. "I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms," He said to me.

Will someone tell me what went wrong?

I pursued my ministry with passion and commitment, working night and day to warn Israel of her apostasy. Through six administrations I labored, warning that God would not close His eyes to her sin, that Babylon would certainly conquer Judah, and that resistance was futile. I told Josiah not to war with Egypt; he ignored me. I gave Jehoiakim the scroll that God Himself dictated; he burned it. I warned Zedekiah that the Babylonians were on their way; he had me arrested. Not one of them responded to my message. As far as I know, there was no movement spiritually at all.

I have been slandered, threatened, and beaten. I have been imprisoned in a dungeon and left to die in the bottom of a well. I have been regarded as a meddler and a traitor. Kings, nobles, and commoners alike have all sought my life. Now I write to you from the land of Egypt, where I was taken against my will—and where I will surely spend the rest of my days.

O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.

I have prayed and fasted. I have appealed. I have humbled myself. I have asked the Lord to search my heart to reveal any wicked way in me. I have considered whether my heart is wholly devoted to God. I have loved people sacrificially.

What more is necessary?

Jeremiah, 585 b.c.

I think Jeremiah would have used three words to describe himself after 40 years of ministry: useless, hopeless, and discouraged. But Jeremiah, like all of us, was unable to see the impact of his life and work from the perspective of history. He never knew that his "futile" warnings and predictions would one day become the longest book of the Bible. He was unaware that his prophecy of the new covenant would set the stage for the entire life and work of Jesus, the Messiah.

In short, Jeremiah had no way to know what his service was intended to accomplish—and neither do we. We all assume, of course, that our service is intended to produce results: visible, tangible effects that we can measure and enjoy. It must have been difficult for Jeremiah to read of his predecessor Jonah bringing an entire nation to repentance—an entire pagan nation—while Jeremiah was unable to convince the "religious" inhabitants of Jerusalem itself! Jeremiah's labor, it turns out, was not intended to produce what we would call "results." His faithful life and service were intended to prepare his people for a distant harvest. In other words, he was not called to reap but to sow.

In John 4, Jesus contrasted the roles of the sower and the reaper. John 4 is a chapter of results. After His brief encounter with the woman at the well, an entire town turned out to investigate this man who would be king. The fields were ripe and ready, Jesus said, and the disciples were about to take part in an unprecedented harvest—but for some reason, Jesus felt it necessary to put their results in perspective.

Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying "One sows and another reaps" is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.

—John 4:36–38

In these verses Jesus introduced His disciples to the four principles of the sower.

1. The labor of ministry includes both sowing and reaping. In the middle of a discussion about reaping, Jesus emphasizes sowing—recognizing not only the one who sees results but also the one who does the behind-the-scenes work to help make those results possible.

2. The reaper's success depends on the work of the sower. Jesus said, "I sent you to reap what you have not worked for." He implied that the disciples' role, the esteemed role, was to gather what others had prepared for them.

3. The sower has the harder job. "Others have done the hard work," Jesus reminded them. "Others have labored," the NASB puts it. The Greek word means "toil resulting in weariness, laborious toil, or trouble." Jesus admitted the difficulty of the sower's role, and He reminded the disciples of the debt they owed: "You have reaped the benefits of their labor."

4. The sower and the reaper work as a team. The reaper harvests the crop "so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together." If the reaper fails to bring in the harvest, all of the sower's "laborious toil" was for nothing. But without the sower's preparations, the reaper may have nothing to harvest at all. In heaven, no reaper will ever celebrate alone—she will be glad together with all the unsung heroes who made her success possible.

When a person comes to Christ, he becomes a laborer in God's fields. Sometimes we're called to reap, and sometimes we're called to sow. Our role may change from day to day and from person to person. Like Jeremiah, some are called to exercise one role exclusively for a lifetime. The critical point is that we don't get to choose the role we prefer. When a farmer walks into his field, he can never say, "Today, I insist on reaping." He can intend to reap, he can prepare to reap, but the fields themselves will tell him what task is required of him that day. If he insists on reaping before the crop is ready, his efforts will be wasted—and possibly destructive.

You witnessed to your friends and coworkers expecting to see results, expecting to see some kind of "movement spiritually." But the "wall of unbelief" was too high, and like Jeremiah you found your message falling on deaf ears. What can you do? Exactly what the farmer does—you can sow. When the field is unready or unwilling to yield fruit, you can cultivate, plant, and nurture.

Cultivating is the process of preparing soil to sustain life. The sower recognizes that certain soil elements are necessary for a person to understand and believe the gospel. As Jesus said in Matthew 13, there are good soils and bad soils, and an unresponsive listener may have an underlying soil deficiency that renders belief impossible. Why were your listeners so unresponsive? They may have been so ignorant of the Bible that what you said sounded bizarre or meaningless. They may have been strongly prejudiced against you due to their upbringing or a past experience with a rude or pushy proselytizer. They may have been so distracted by pressing personal issues that the topic of life after death seemed esoteric or irrelevant. Or perhaps they were simply influenced by our modern culture, where all claims to authority or truth are viewed with contempt. The sower's job is to learn to recognize these soil deficiencies through daily conversations and to do what he can to improve the soil for the sake of future growth.

Planting is the art of introducing spiritual topics into conversation in a way that doesn't seem annoying, abrupt, or insensitive. The farmer plants a tiny seed in hopes that it will take root, grow larger, and produce a return. The sower does the same; when the soil is ready, he seeks to implant biblical truth in the life of his unbelieving friend. This is much more than simply delivering a lecture on the gospel. The sower must learn to introduce spiritual thoughts in unobtrusive ways—by learning to ask good questions and by seeking to build dialogue rather than debate. He can also plant the seeds of a biblical worldview by learning to discuss the spiritual themes that are already present in the listener's world of books, music, and movies. That takes work—"laborious toil or trouble"—but the end result might be a harvest instead of a barren field.

Nurturing is simply being a good gardener. A gardener has no power to make things grow; rather, she is an environmentalist who maintains the optimum conditions for growth. This means that after the cultivating and the planting there is still work to be done. Jesus told us in the parable of the soils (Matthew 13) that seeds can be destroyed well after the planting process, as in the case of the seeds that are choked by thorns. The sower, then, can learn to pull weeds. He can address the doubts and questions that may continue to plague his unbelieving friend, and he can continue to build the kind of genuine relationship that can cut through the fog of prejudice and stereotype. "Love," C. S. Lewis reminded us, "is the great apologetic."

Sowing is often viewed as a minor-league activity, something you do when you lack the skills of the reaper. We go out to reap, but it doesn't work; we're rejected. So we tell ourselves, "I guess I was just sowing." But sowing is infinitely more than failed reaping. Sowing and reaping are different in kind: complementary activities requiring different skills, yet both seeking the same ultimate goal. Sowing is a ministry skill recognized by Jesus Himself, and it is a skill Christians greatly need to rediscover today. Remember: The fields tell the farmer what task is required of him that day. Every culture is a field, and every field goes through cycles of harvest. The nation that was ripe and ready for harvest in one generation may require cultivation and replanting in the next. In that season, it's time for the sowers to go to work.

Like a good farmer, you went into your field intending to reap—as did Jeremiah. Like Jeremiah, you saw no results. What's important—what's absolutely critical—is that you don't give up and go home in despair. I believe that the United States as a nation is entering a sowing cycle, and we must all rediscover the skills of the sower if we want to continue to engage our culture in the next millennium.

Your fields are telling you that they're not yet ripe for harvest. You haven't failed, Ron. It isn't time to reap. It's time to sow.

Sincerely,
Tim

Tim Downs is a speaker, writer, and staff member of Campus Crusade for Christ. He is author of Finding Common Ground: How to Communicate with Those Outside the Christian Community (Moody). Tom studied fine arts at Indiana University and worked for six years as a nationally syndicated comic strip artist.