1 Cor 3:5-9

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

It's a very simple analogy: our ministry is like the farmer, planting and watering, and waiting on the Lord to deliver the miraculous increase. But I think this analogy helps us avoid a lot of traps, especially in evangelism. I used it in a brief study today.

- If we forget that God gives the increase, then we start to believe that evangelism is wholly our labor. This notion can lead to a few things. We begin to believe that we're directly responsible for the entire outcome of all our actions and conversations. We suddenly feel like we're under enormous pressure to share the gospel, in its entirety, to a person who might not be ready to hear everything. We can fall to spiritual pride, taking the credit for results that were entirely God's doing, and forgetting that we are, as Paul says, only servants. We also fall to doubt. When we see that an approach isn't the most promising, as initiative evangelism sometimes seems unworkable, then we can easily decide to give in to doubt and forgo trying, forgetting the surprising miraculousness of God and forgetting that it is often an act of faith, and that we haven't got God all figured out.

- If we forget that we have a role in the planting, sowing, and harvesting, then we also fall into a few traps. In attributing the growth of a harvest wholly to the mysterious workings of God, we can begin to believe very literally in "no fail evangelism," where any attempt is considered valuable because God can and does bless every attempt made in faith to spread His word. I've seen a lot of pushy evangelists that have really turned their listeners off to the gospel who say in earnest, "Mission accomplished: I did my part, and now it's up to them and God as to what they do with it." The other extreme can also follow if we forget our own role: we have no reason to follow the Great Commission, since God does all the work anyway. A farmer who recognizes that God gives him the crop harvest every year doesn't just not do any work planting or watering -- he recognizes that his labor is the way God has chosen to bring about the harvest.

- Sometimes we think, more sowing means more harvest, and we toss the seeds wildly, instead of carefully plowing and nurturing the plants. Sometimes we think too hard on nurturing one plant, forgetting the breadth of our fields and that we are to be efficient laborers and stewards for God.

There's a lot you can take from that particular analogy. Is it God who does the work in people's hearts? Yes. So do I really have an important role in the growth of God's kingdom? Romans 10 provides some insight:

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent?

God can make a crop grow from nothing. Don't believe He can't. But He chooses to use the hardworking farmer to bring it about by patience, sweat, faith, and diligence. I think that's some simple wisdom.