How Does Your Garden Grow? -- Tim Phillips

I have been enjoying reading through Terry Johnson's book The Parables of Jesus. The subtitle of his book illustrates his overall theme when it comes to Jesus' parables: Entering, Growing, Loving, and Finishing in God's Kingdom. In chapter 11 of the book, Dr. Johnson explains one of the lesser-known of Jesus' parables, the Parable of the Growing Seed, which only appears in Mark 4:26-29:

And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

In this parable, Jesus explains how growth takes place in the Kingdom of God. It is decidedly different than what we typically see in what has become known as the Church Growth Movement. This movement began in Eugene, Oregon, in 1959 with the founding of the Institute of Church Growth (later becoming Fuller Seminary's School of Church Growth in 1968), and it dominated much of evangelicalism in the last half of the 20th century. While the desire to see the church grow is not a bad thing, Johnson notes:

One of the unintended consequences of this movement has been the gradual secularization of church-building. Increasingly, the business of growing the church has been understood in increasingly secular ways. The same methods by which businesses and institutions grow have been applied to the church. ... The motives have been noble, but many of these changes have been ill-considered. ... The supernatural and spiritual character of the church has been diminished in the process. (p. 148)

The growth of the church is a work of God, not of man, and Jesus' parable highlights this. The seed of the kingdom is sown, times passes, and then the harvest comes. For a time it may appear that nothing is actually happening, but eventually growth takes place. The man in parable has nothing to do with the actual growth. He does plant the seed and he does participate in the harvest, but the growth itself is not his doing. As Johnson puts it, 

We are to sow the word. Those to whom the word takes root (cf. [Mark] 4:20) and bears fruit ([Mark] 4:28) are then to be gathered into the church. We are responsible to build biblical churches with biblical polity, biblical worship, and biblical doctrine into which believers may be baptized (Matt. 28:18ff). ... The church is responsible for more than just increasing church attendance. We have not fulfilled the Great Commission until believers have been baptized into the church and been taught all that Christ commands (Matt. 28:19, 20). (p. 151)

This tends to sound boring and passé' in our modern world, but this is how the church has grown for the past 2000 years. Faithful men preach the word, faithful churches are built, established, and grown, and it is all because the Lord is faithful to His promises. Jesus has promised that His church will not die (Matthew 16:18), and we cannot improve upon that. There is no Acts Chapter 29, there is no Church 2.0, no Genetically Modified Word, and there is no New-and-Improved Even Greater Commission. As a previous Moderator of General Synod charged ministers and elders with just a few years ago, we need to walk on the ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16) instead of trying to invent new modes of transportation. We need to learn to be content with the methods and means the Lord has given to us.

So what should we be doing if we want to seeing churches grow in our day? Let me quote from Johnson once more:

A church that believes the gospel will be content to preach and pray, and 'let the chips fall where they will,' as the saying goes. We have our responsibility -- to faithfully proclaim God's word -- and through the word to gather and perfect the saints. God's part is to cause the growth. When we sow, we can be sure that God's efficacious word will grow God's kingdom, and the harvest will be rich. (p. 157)

The Lord has been growing His kingdom for quite a while; He knows what He is doing, and He knows what is best. Let us trust Him and His word, and be faithful to that.