REACH MORE PEOPLE BY SOWING BROADLY
If you want to have a ministry that is consistently growing and reaching new people you will need to sow broadly with the good works and good news of Jesus.
The Example of Jesus
Jesus started his ministry by sowing broadly with loving service and preaching the gospel of the kingdom to thousands of people. In Mark 1 the whole city of Capernaum was gathered around Jesus as he healed people and ministered to their needs. He could have a launched the first mega-church that day but he knew there was still a lot of gospel seed to be sown first.
“Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.” Mark 1:36-39
Jesus saturated his target areas with good works and good news. This method of sowing broadly laid the foundation for the first Church. This was also how he trained his disciples as they sowed broadly “with him”. (Mark 3:14) In Luke 10 Jesus sent out 72 of his disciples two by two into “every town and place where he was about to go.” He instructed them to sow broadly by looking for “people of peace” who could open up doors to reach whole communities.
Jesus focused his leadership training on the 12 apostles but modeled to them a method of ministry that reached thousands of people with good works and good news. At times Jesus preached to crowds of 10,000-15,000. The fact that Jesus did ministry like this should have profound implications on our own outreach strategies. Mark 6 shows a powerful example of how Jesus modeled sowing broadly to his disciples.
Then because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” Mark 6:30-34
Jesus trained his disciples in the context of abundant evangelism to the masses. The training Jesus gave his disciples looked a lot more like “let me train you how to love on all these people’ rather than “lets meet once a week, read and memorize the Bible and pray.” As we see this training included working so hard that they didn’t even have time to eat. (Mark 6:31) Even when Jesus was trying to get away from the crowds he taught them a valuable lesson to have compassion for the crowd even when they legitimately needed rest. One of the primary discipleship training tools Jesus used was showing them how to sow broadly to as many people as possible!
The Example of the Early Church
Towards the end of his time on earth Jesus commissioned his disciples to carry on the same ministry he was doing with them. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21 After being filled with the Holy Spirit these disciples broadly and boldly spread the gospel across the know world. The early disciples were not careful with who and how they shared the good news but shared with all who would listen. “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.” Acts 5:42 As a result the gospel when viral as the apostles modeled this radical urgency to get the word out. People couldn’t help share about the man who rose from the dead. “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:20 This broad sowing of the gospel was the start of an unstoppable movement that “turned the world upside down” in one generation. (Acts 17:6)
The Example of History
Every revival and movement in the history of Christianity has been marked by an abundant zeal to spread the good works and good news to all who will listen. The potential of the Church is unleashed when every member is equipped to share God’s love with every person they come into contact with. I have yet to see a growing Church or ministry that doesn’t practice “sowing broadly” with the gospel. During the Welsh revival in 1905 I read of a bus driver who even stopped his bus to proclaim the good news about Christ with all of his passengers.
David Garrison in his excellent book on “Church Planting Movements” listed 10 things that were evident in every CPM. The second thing on the list was “Abundant Evangelism.” In the book Dave tells story after story of how God is using abundant sharing of the gospel to catalyze movements. Steve Smith shares similar findings in the book “T4T” on the largest movement in history. The “T4T” movement recorded 1.7 million baptisms and 150,000 new churches since 2001. This movement started with just one missionary and his wife.
Here is a selection from T4T. “We must use spiritual means to find spiritual people. One successful trainer says it this way. “We must sift for persons of peace using the gospel.” In a training session, it became apparent that a long-time colleague and his team were seeing dramatic results in a very “resistant” people group. For seven years, they had labored with no fruit – no new believers and no churches. How discouraging! At our meeting, he reported that in the eighth year they began to see radically different results. So I asked him “what changed?” In embarrassment he replied, “We started sharing the gospel.” I said, “Excuse me? What did you say?” Looking me in the eyes with sadness he said more loudly “We started sharing the gospel!” Another colleague who was seeing a lot of people come to Christ was asked “Whom do you find to be the most responsive?” He replied “Those that I share the gospel with. 100% of the those I do not share with do not respond.”
It Works in America!
Our relatively small college ministry of what was about 60 students has seen encouraging fruit this fall semester by sowing broadly into the highly unreached campus of Chico State in California. This fall semester we have seen 48 people pray to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord! One goal for the first month of the fall semester was to get 1000 interested contacts through parties, a free raffle at our info table and servant evangelism. We fell way short of our goal but got over 500 interested contacts. We contacted each student through personal text messages and Facebook. Everyone who responded or came to one of our parties or large group meetings we set up what we call a “gospel appointment” with them. We shared the gospel with everyone we could. Gospel appointments are low-pressure relational meetings where we explain the most important thing about our group. Which is obviously the Gospel! You can learn more about them here http://bit.ly/shfugM. Our student leaders have responded well to this strategy and almost everyone of them has personally lead someone to faith in Christ.
Sowing broadly has helped us create a culture of evangelistic urgency that God is using. Even our new believers don’t know any better than to share Jesus with their lost friends and family. We have seen several guys lead their girlfriends to Jesus. One guy led his girlfriend to Christ in the hot tub! They don’t train you to do that in the outreach books! Another new believer invited her father to her baptism. Her Dad accepted Jesus before the baptism and got dunked along with her! One day on campus this fall we saw 6 students pray to receive Jesus at different gospel appointments. At times it really has feels like Acts 2:47 “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” It is my prayer that our students won’t realize that this is not normal.
You Reap in Proportion to What You Sow
I have been a city boy all my life but I still understand some basic principles of farming. One is that you reap in proportion to the amount you sow. Please read these familiar scriptures and be sensitive to what the Spirit is saying to you.
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” 2 Corinthians 9:6
“Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.“ Ecclesiastes 11:6
“Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:35
“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-37
Don’t worry if you don’t see overwhelming results right away. You never know what God wants to do through your obedience. If you do your part God will do his part.
You may have heard about the simple man in Australia named Frank Jenner who witnessed to ten people a day on George Street for 40 years. In 40 years he never saw anyone receive Christ. During this time a pastor in London started “randomly” meeting all these people from his various speaking engagements around the world who received Christ through Frank’s witness. On one trip to Australia the London pastor meet with Frank who was to frail and elderly to witness. The old man wept as the London pastor recounted story after story of lives changes by Jesus through Frank’s simple witness. They did a count and discovered that simple man influenced at least 146,000 people to come to Jesus. Frank died two weeks later. This story reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 Never underestimate the power of sowing broadly with the good works and good news of Jesus.
What holds us back from leading our ministries and ourselves to sowing broadly with good works and good news?
What are some practical ways you could apply this concept to your ministry?
Paul Worcester is the director of Challenge www.ChallengeCSUC.com at Chico State in California. After planting Challenge a little over two years ago their team has seen over 100 students make decisions to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. Paul’s passion is to equip people to effectively share Christ and multiply disciples to the ends of the earth. He has a beautiful wife Christy and 8-month-old son Owen. You can connect with Paul on Twitter @PaulWorcester https://twitter.com/#!/PaulWorcester Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1647889734 and check out his upcoming collaborative blog and resources site http://www.facebook.com/EngageTheMission
Comment
Paul, thank you so much for sharing this! You demonstrate that mass evangelism was used by Jesus, and that it worked!
I just am curious how this is received by someone who has heard that a very relational approach is needed today to reach people for Christ
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