My nephew manages several grain elevators in Kentucky. Touring the facility, my wife and I learned that when a loaded truck pulled up full of wheat, a sample was taken. An analysis was done while the truck opened its vents and poured the grain through grates into a temporary holding bin.
When vehicles pull up in front of your church and their human contents walk into your church, how do you analyze them? What’s going on in their lives? What are their needs? Why are they visiting in the first place? How spiritually healthy are they?
And how would you know if you never listen?
Grain comes from fields that grow along with all kinds of stuff besides what was planted. The analysis of our nephew’s grain ingathering revealed things like mildew, deformities, and an aptly-named disease called vomitoxin that can make cattle sick. The wheat was then shuttled to specific holding bins based upon their quality—and toxicity.
Churches can become sick. There are 800 to 1,000 Southern Baptist churches dying every year. A huge majority (85%) are plateaued and declining. What can church leaders do to counter this epidemic in our midst?
Does your church have a plan for toxic people that are bitter, enraged, or emotionally-unstable? These dysfunctional folks are usually welcomed to any church on any given week, but how would you know until their caustic presence is too late? What about those who carry in spiritual baggage that corrupts godly fellowship? Warped doctrine can infect otherwise healthy belief systems.
Using Jesus’ parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20), here are a few ideas:
Hard Soil – Satan is at work. He snatches biblical truth away before it is even internalized. Some people are hard-hearted. Recognizing those in the group that keep others from even hearing and accepting God’s Word is vital. Nik Ripken, IMB missionary and author, once said, “Jesus had a Judas and it’s likely that there’s a ‘Judas’ in every church.” Satan is alive and well – and at war with us. Pray, stay alert, and suit up with spiritual armor (Eph. 6).
Rocky Soil – Persecution and peer pressure snuff out many who were just getting started. If your church has a high visitor turnover, what is active in the church that pressures new believers to do anything but receive the Word of God with joy? It may not be just the peeling paint in the bathroom. Who has the conform-like-us-or-leave attitudes? In other words, who are the rocks among you that keep the soil shallow?
Thorny Soil – Thorns grew up among the good plants. Some church participants seem healthy, but they never bear fruit for God’s kingdom. What keeps them with one foot in the “world” and one foot in church? Distractions come in many forms. What can your church do to help them stop straddling the fence?
Good Soil – Your church may have lots of good soil. There is a harvest there. The harvest is evident in worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and missions. There is a spiritual hunger for God’s Word and also to share that Good News with others that they meet. Praise God for the individuals who multiply themselves in the lives of others!
Fields can only grow what was planted. Apples bear apples and grapes bear grapes. The “seed” in Jesus’ parable was the Word of God. How is the Word of God planted in your church? Is it being sown generously or just a verse here and there? Does the Bible have authority in the lives of each member? (Psalm 119:11)
My nephew’s grain elevators are open to all trucks bearing wheat. But they treat the contents they carry differently because they value good wheat differently than sickly wheat. Your church will harvest what is being planted. Keep the doors open to all and help each person grow as a healthy believer that will bear a harvest some 30, 60, and even 100 times what was planted.
--Mark Snowden directs the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association
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