The wise farmer: Why changing may be more faithful than persevering

 

Clarkson's Farm has introduced many of us urban-dwellers to some of the realities of farming. The huge impact of unpredictable weather. The volatility of prices (particularly in a pandemic). The very costly investments required. The complexity of the tasks. The sheer number of different things that can go wrong. 

The New Testament regularly likens pastors and gospel workers to farmers. 

• Jesus likens his disciples to workers in a vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16). There will be a final reward for their labour but human expectations and hierarchies are inverted in the Kingdom economy. 
• Paul and Apollos are agricultural labourers in 'God's field' (the church) with different roles (planting and watering). As such they are nothing in themselves, dependent on God to give the growth, but they will receive a reward for their labours.
• Paul calls Timothy to the pattern of the 'hardworking farmer'. Again reward is in view which here consists in sharing in the crop for which the farmer has been labouring (2 Tim. 2:6).

In addition to these passages there is an interesting window into farming from Luke 13:

 Then [Jesus] told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ (Luke 13:6-9)

In Luke's context and canonical context the fig tree clearly stands for God's ancient people and Jesus is saying that they will be given one more chance to repent. Notice particularly here that a) there is a concern for fruit and b) there is adaptation of farming strategy dependending on fruitfulness.

The owner-farmer and the farm manager do not continue with the same practices regardless of fruit or the responsiveness of their stock. There is instead a proposed shift to an intense burst of soil enhancement work (above and beyond the normal) which will then be reviewed at a set point and then if there is fruit there will presumably be a return to normal practice or if still unresponsive the tree will be removed and implicitly the soil will be used in an alternative way - perhaps planting grape vines or some other crop.

A church consultant recently told me of a relative who is a farmer and how hard this farmer worked to constantly adapt to changing climate, changing economic subsidies, changing prices; experimenting with different crops on different land, different animals, different inputs and mix.

Perhaps economic and climatic conditions are now more volatile than ever but farmers have always had to 'change things up' (to use an ugly phrase). The earliest farmers moved their animals or their cropping from place to place as one vegetation and soil system became exhausted or practiced crop rotation.

Do church leaders need to be similarly willing to change?

The parable of the sower might seem at first to suggest No but then suggests actually Yes. 

The story (Mark 4 and parallels) is primarily explaining the ministry of Jesus-the-Sower but also sets expectations for his disciples. And a big point is the power of the Word. There is nothing wrong with the message. We mustn’t change the seed. 

But another important point of the parable is that God is sovereign over the soils. Some parts of the field will be rock hard to the gospel (at least for now) and even the preaching and personal presence of the Son of God himself will not be effective in bringing them to salvation and fruitfulness. 

One implication of this is that there is a time for ‘moving on’ - as Jesus constantly did  and as he told his disciples to do (Mark 6:11 and parallels). 

So there's an irony here:

• ministry faithfulness might be pictured as persevering year after year doing the same thing in the same way in the same place regardless of lack of fruit - but maybe that's not actually being faithful because either a) there's little concern for fruitfulness (which God is clearly very concerned about) or b) it's disregarding God's sovereignty over the soils and believing that through perseverance and skill the worker will be able to eventually force the seed into the concrete and make it germinate;
• moving on / trying something new / flexing approach / seeking to reach a different demographic might look like a lack of faithfulness - and it could be that (we can be tempted to give up too easily or to tamper with the gospel or use underhand methods) but this flexibility may be driven by a) a right concern to maximise the crop (cf. Matt. 25:21) and b) a respect for God's sovereign hardening of certain people in certain places at certain times. It may be precisely the adaptability that is required of a wise and faithful farmer.  

Yes - we want to do the right thing in the right way for the right motives. We want the gospel of Christ crucified to be reaching people through healthy churches, through healthy ministries, through preaching the Scriptures, through godly servant leaders devoted to pleasing God and loving people. 

But that does not mean we stay static - using the same tools, modes, formats. Maybe in the past those methods and approaches were reaching good soil but now the climate (culture, demographics, spiritual dynamics) has changed and they may now only be reaching a small proportion of our community and that part which God has ordained is currently rock hard (soil 1) or just yielding very superficial (soil 2) or compromised (soil 3) fruitless 'growth'.

The sower won't just keep sowing the same unresponsive, unfruitful soil - he will try his hardest to get the seed somewhere else where it will be received and bear fruit. 

"I’ve been coming to look for fruit..."
“Do not cast your pearls before swine”

"Shake the dust off your feet"

“Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also.”

"I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."