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The Question: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” Do we live this or are we too impatient in wanting a sinner to get saved in one visit that we rush by the planting and the watering? Why is this true / untrue?
Answer: “I once heard a preacher of another denomination tell one of our UPC brethren that our biggest problem is that the UPC doesn’t have a shallow end of the pool. We throw our newborns in and it is all or nothing—sink or swim. True? I think so.” Answer: “True, we are entirely too impatient when it comes to harvesting souls. However, this mentality is true of most everything in our society. We want everything— well, yesterday. We want to know how to get rich quick, look beautiful overnight, and have the instant American Dream. Consistency and dedication are character traits that are becoming more of a rarity in our society. Yet, this is what the Bible calls for, even in the harvesting of souls. Hence, why (Paul) used gardening as an illustration. Gardening, who has time for that—I would rather pay someone to grow it for me.” Answer: “Personally, I’m finding fewer and fewer Apostolics who are planting, watering, or harvesting. I think they’re too busy keeping up with American Idol and MySpace to notice that people are dying and going to hell all around them. They sing in the choir and that is their ‘ministry.’ Outreach for them is inviting someone to hear the choir sing. So, it’s a good thing we’ve got great music, or our growth rate would be miserable. When you do find someone who has a burden for the lost, there’s always someone there to point out why it won’t work or that we’ve never done it that way around here. Or people are looking just for numbers, so they invite preachers that aren’t truly Apostolic to their churches just to draw a crowd. And then there are those who expect the sinner to come out of the baptismal tank with hair down to her ankles and a complete understanding of the sinfulness of mixed bathing. It amazes me that anyone gets saved in some of our churches. This question might be good if it were only posed to those already involved in some form of outreach. Somebody grab some seed, somebody grab a watering can, fire up that John Deere. The fields are white.” Answer: “Yes, we try to rush by the planting and watering, and then the converts do not have enough root to grow properly and often ‘die off.’ I also think we are given different talents so that some of us are planters and some of us are waterers.”
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