I was working in my remote office on the tractor for the last couple of weeks and didn’t have much time to write. Lots of back and forth putting seeds in the ground. Time to think. Time to pray. Phone calls and emails. That’s one advantage of auto-steer. Now we wait for the crops to grow.

One of the books I’m currently reading is Charles Bridges’ classic, The Christian Ministry. In one of the early chapters, Bridges helpfully reminds us that “ours is the care of service – His is the care of success” (76). This reflects an accurate understanding of what Paul articulates to the Corinthian believers, “I planted, and Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6).

With that in mind, I thought I would share a couple of “tweetables” from this chapter of Bridges book. My intention is for these quotes to help stiffen our resolve to keep our hands to the plow, knowing that God gives the growth and will reap his harvest in due time.

“Success is not limited to the work of conversion” (73).

Bridges’ point is that God may use some people primarily to plant, bringing about initial conversion to faith in Christ, and others primarily to water, helping others produce greater maturity and rooted depth in Christ, “yet all have their testimony and acceptance in the Lord’s own time and way” (73). The initial choice to believe is not the only indicator of success. God’s purposes always include the ripening process and harvest as well. This is why evangelism and discipleship are both essential components of ministry.

I extrapolate Bridges statement to emphasize this feature of growth: success means coming to Christ in faith initially and continuing to ripen and mature in godly character until we are gathered like wheat into his barn at the harvest. The initial response of faith in Christ for our justification followed by persevering faith and obedience for our sanctification are both necessary features of growth, and both have their roots in God’s free grace.

I emphasize this point because Christians, just like other people, have a tendency to reduce and oversimplify matters. This typically leads to a theological lopsidedness. One example of this reduction is the revivalist inclinations that have been and still are a part of many church ministry landscapes.

In his book, Revival and Revivalism, historian Iain Murray traces some of the key changes from the First to the Second Great Awakening. True revival is the sovereign work of God whereby the Holy Spirit arrests human attentiveness to the Bible and converts extraordinary numbers of people to trust in Christ and continue to grow in maturity in Christ. Revival cannot be manufactured by human will or technique, and it proves true by the responses of faith that perseveres and ripens in holy conduct. Revivalism, on the other hand, focuses on techniques to manipulate the will to get people to make a “decision for Jesus” (ie. “the anxious bench”, altar calls, singling people out in prayer, scare tactics, etc.). Part of the problem with revivalism is that it limits the definition of “success” to a one-time decision for Jesus, assuring people of heaven apart from any kind of growth in Christian maturity. According to this model, “asking Jesus into your heart” is the ultimate measure of success, but persevering faith and growth in Christian maturity are more like optional luxury add-ons – ideal, but not necessary. The problem is that this does not square with the Scriptures, and the parable of the soils is one example that makes this quite clear.

Jesus’ parable of the soils reminds us that success is not limited to a decisionistic understanding of conversion. Some people were sifted by Satan (Mark 4:15). Others fell away when tribulation and persecution came (Mark 4:16-17). Many were choked out by the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of temporary security in material things (Mark 4:19). What they all have in common is a failure to endure and mature. This is in contrast to the fourth soil which produces deep rooted Christian believers in Christ who ripen and yield a harvest of holiness, albeit in differing quantities and at variable rates (Mark 4:20).

Coming full circle back to Bridge’s quote, churches must not limit their definition of success to initial conversion and evangelism only, and especially to a brand of revivalist conversion that uses techniques to get people to make a momentary decisions for Jesus as Savior without calling and helping them to Christian endurance and obedience to Christ as Lord. When these truths are separated, we risk assuring people that they are healthy wheat and destined for God’s “barn” when, in fact, they still have no roots of true faith in Christ at all. The rubric for ministerial success is not decisions for Jesus, but persevering disciples of Christ. Humans can produce momentary deciders; only God can successfully grow enduring disciples who mature and yield a harvest of righteousness.

“The seed may lie under the clods till we lie there, and then spring up” (75)

Even though growth in Christian maturity is necessary for ultimate salvation, we must also recognize that growth is most often a slow process. How many godly parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, pastors, and missionaries have gone to their grave with many of their efforts coming up short or empty? We all know the frustration of putting in effort only to see little to no positive results to show for it. Rather than being frustrated that progress is not as quick as we would like, we must remember that God does not grow us or others according to our schedule. Crops don’t spring up overnight, and neither do mature Christians.

Bridges asks some helpful questions: “And is it no ground of comfort, that our work may be the seed-time of a future harvest? Or should we neglect to sow, because we may not reap the harvest? Shall we not share the joy of the harvest, even though we be not the immediate reapers of the field?” (75). These questions echo Jesus’ own words, “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor” (John 4:37-38).

We need to extend the schedule of our ministry timeline to include the days and people beyond our few grass-like years here on earth. We die, but the Word of God endures forever (Isaiah 40:8). As such, God can use our faithful labours in the present to bring about growth in other people long after we are gone. This is because success does not rely on us but on the eternal God and his enduring Word. It is only when we put our confidence in God and his Word to produce the results that we will relieve ourselves of carrying a burden that we were not meant to haul and learn to walk alongside people with patience, trusting the Lord to give the growth – even if we don’t see the full results from our efforts.

This does not mean that we are passive spectators. We are labourers in God’s field, which is anything but a dormant lifestyle. But we must keep in our lane.

Jesus reminds us of our role and his in his field, and he assures us that he will supply the growth: “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).

Our business is to keep our hand to the plow during the day and our head on the pillow at night because “His is the work of success”. In his own time, the Lord will cause his people to sprout up in faith, develop deep roots in dependence on Christ, ripen in holy conduct, and finally be gathered like wheat into his barn to receive their reward (Matt 3:12). If you are a Christian believer, this is your trajectory: fallow soil to top-grade wheat. And only God can produce such a change in our status and quality.

Keep your hand to the plow!