From Control to Cultivate

In October I had the privilege to share a brief session at the "Multiply" conference in Colorado Springs. It was a conference with pastors, church-planters, missionaries, baristas and all sorts of people living on mission where God has placed them. I thought I would share my transcript with you from my talk during "paradigm sessions" which are 5 minute talks about how God has shifted our thinking in ministry. 

Context of rocky soil – Isolation and idolatry in a land of "nones"

"Good morning! My name is David Bloom and I am guessing about 9 of you know who I am and to be fair I brought half of those 9 with me. So thanks anyway for letting me share a bit of my story and one of the ways God has been shifting my thinking over the last couple of years. My paradigm shift came out my current context as a church planter –

 About 2.5 years ago, my wife and I moved from Indiana to northwest Colorado, just north of Steamboat Springs, in a little rural mountain town that really hasn’t had a viable church in about 100 years. It is a wonderful community that my wife and I love – but there are also some barriers to forming a Gospel community on mission – Winters are long, neighborhoods are spread out, which contributes to a culture of isolation, and self-reliance – and as far as the spiritual landscape - 80% of our little county would be considered “nones” (not those kind of nuns) – but that growing segment in America that doesn’t affiliate with any organized faith community.

Tension of mundane cultivation in a culture of harvest

 So the soil of my context is rocky and it needs some hard tilling - the tilling of this soil takes time, repetition, and trust. It is not what we think of as exciting, or sexy ministry - It is often incredibly simple, basic and mundane, but it is crucial when it comes to planting seeds of Gospel and kingdom transformation. But for me there is tension in the mundane – I wanted to see some harvest, dang it! I wanted to make sure there was some growth, sooner rather than later. Maybe you can relate with that? I think it is because we are a harvest obsessed culture in the church. If I am honest, I much prefer harvest…which the harvest is a wonderful thing – it gets my heart charged up - but I think the issue for me stems from a desire to be in control. I want to be able to control the harvest, I want to be in control of producing and manufacturing what I viewed as success. So, I had to start to look at what success was to me in ministry and more importantly what my role in this whole ministry thing was.

 In Matthew 13 Jesus tells a parable about a farmer sowing seeds and the seeds landing in different soil, some land on a path, some shallow soil or some soil with thorns and weeds. Jesus is teaching on what happens when proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Saying, sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn’t. I think one major thing it teaches is that the farmer only has so much control in what happens in the seeds he sows.

And taking that parable a little a further – I began to ask - what is the role of the farmer?

 Can this farmer actually cause the seeds to take root, to grow deep and produce a plant just bursting with good fruit – can he control that? No, a farmer can’t right? Just like pastors, planters or everyday missionaries can’t control if Jesus takes a hold of a person’s heart. And for the most part we all know that, but it can be really hard to live like that is true. And where this is evident is how we often define our success by things we can’t truly control. Things like attendance, conversions, baptisms, other people’s generosity, life change. Those are all great things and good things that we want to see happen and even things to measure, but not things to measure yourself by - those are between God and that person. When we surrender what we can’t control to God – there is immense freedom – freedom to shift our focus on what He actually calls us to do, things we can actually do, which in the spirit of this parable is what I call cultivation. 

My focus had to shift from trying to control growth and producing a harvest to cultivating soil that is conducive to harvest. 

That may seem like a subtle shift but it has been important to me. I believe as ministers of the Gospel that God invites us to partner with him to cultivate Kingdom environments where people can experience the heart of God - where God’s spirit moves, inspires and shapes people into new types of people. 

 

Shifting from Control to Cultivation

One of the healthiest things for me in ministry is for me to understand my role and I am learning to move from trying control growth to living more like a Kingdom farmer, cultivating space where seeds of the Gospel, and of God’s redemptive kingdom can take root in our community and even in our neighborhoods. Cultivating environments where growth is likely to happen and leave the rest up to God.  That is actually what farmers can do, right? We can cultivate some rocky dead soil and chuck some seed and that’s about it and actually the more I remind myself of that the more pressure is released from my shoulders. To me it is a subtle but profound difference that takes the pressure off but at the same time doesn’t ever let me get apathetic or lazy, because there is always soil to cultivate and seeds to plant, no matter where you are in this world.

 So the question I leave you with this morning is - “are you ministering from a posture of control or cultivation?'"