One plants, another waters…

In 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, Paul addresses a problem in the Corinthian church where they were becoming little denominations within their church, following one or another leader. Paul famously describes the development of the Corinthian church when he says that he planted, and another leader came later who “watered,” but it was God all along won made the church grow.

I don’t know for sure that what I’m about to say is really how it works, but I’ve always had this loose theory about planting and watering: For years, I’ve gone out to do street evangelism, and all along, this one scenario would often play out. One day, I would share the gospel with a person, but they'ed be closed to it. I’d always feel a bit dissatisfied, wishing I could see a person go from not believing to believing in a snap. 

Then some other time, a different person would come along who was ready to give their life to Jesus, so I’d lead them in prayer. Ironically. I’d still feel dissatisfied because it seemed like someone else had done the planting work, and I was just there at the right time to pray with them. It used to bother me until I realized that maybe that is how the planting and watering thing actually works. 

Sometimes I am planting, and hopefully God will bring growth in those people’s lives, but if he does, someone else will be baptizing them and discipling them. Likewise, someone else may have shared the Gospel with a person before they ended up in front of me, but I often get to be there for their first moment of confession of faith. 

A few weeks ago, we launched the Evangelism team, and we’ve already gone out three times (the team is actually out right now, for the fourth outing, if you’re reading this email when it goes out at noon on Saturday). Since we launched, we’ve gotten to pray with 5 or 6 people to give their lives to Jesus, but those people did not come to church to get baptized. However, interestingly enough, since we launched the team, 4 OTHER people have been baptized in our church services, and this coming Sunday, we plan to baptize two more. 

I can’t help but think that if we are faithful to go out and do the planting part, God will keep sending people in who need watering. They may have been planted by someone else, but God is sending people to us who need watering, and after all, it is God making the growth happen anyway. 
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Just so you know, as I’ve grown in evangelism, I actually have seen strangers go from not believing at all to being baptized. That’s always a blast. If you’re reading this at noon, then we also have Wellspringers ministering to single parents and their kids right now at Haven Ranch for Ranch Day, and another of our ministry partners is finishing up a massive conference for pastors in Kenya right now that will have wide impact for many years. It’s amazing to get to be a part of such good planting and watering efforts.