Evangelism is usually a process of sowing the seed of the gospel. That takes the pressure off our having to “seal the deal” and keeps us from being discouraged if a person does not receive Christ immediately. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts people of their need for Christ, but it is our responsibility to share the gospel.
There are multiple exposures and many conversations before a person comes to Christ, which could take years. Be encouraged because you may be one of the stepping stones for a person to come to Christ in God’s perfect timing.
Some Sow, Others Reap
Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows, and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, “One sows, and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. —John 4:36–38
Several years ago, I met with a successful businessman named Steve who was in his 30s and not a believer. His wife, Kelly, was a strong believer, and she was faithfully praying for Steve. They both attended a strong, Bible-believing church. For about two years, Steve and I met on a monthly basis for breakfast and reviewed the gospel several times. Eventually, Steve in God’s perfect timing received Christ as his personal Savior. It took several seed-planting times for Steve to realize his need for Christ. Steve and Kelly are now faithful servants of Christ at a large church in Washington state.
I was the founding pastor of a new church plant on the east side of Seattle. Fred started attending our church and was open to meet and discuss the gospel with me. We met for about 10 weeks, but Fred was still not ready to receive Christ. Jon Sween, who attended our church, decided to meet with Fred on a regular basis. Finally, after a year and a half, Fred announced to Jon that he had received Christ. You may not be the first person to share Christ with a person, a family member, or a loved one, and you may not be the last one either.
Bill was a robust South African rugby player who was a Jewish atheist. One day he came into my brother’s retail store and commented sarcastically, “You guys are Christians, aren’t you?” Then he stormed out and remarked, “I am an atheist, and I’m a Jew!” Bill’s wife was a godly Christian who had been praying for Bill for many years. I met Bill at his home and began to share Christ with him. His wife told me, “Bill has been wanting someone to share Christ with him.” Within a few minutes, Bill broke down sobbing. He was not yet ready to give his life to Christ, but he still had questions and was weighed down by an emotional trauma from his past. I learned that when Bill was a child, his mother used to beat him until his back was bloody. But now, Bill had a loving wife and was surrounded by Christians at work. Not too long after my encounters with Bill, a new Christian shared Christ with Bill and led him to Christ. Immediately after receiving Christ, Bill called to thank me for my involvement in his salvation. Some sow, and some reap—and God gets the glory!
Don’t Give Up
When Cru trained me how to share the gospel, we headed to the local beaches in Southern California, took surveys, and then shared the gospel. Over the course of several weeks, one of the lifeguards heard the gospel from various believers 46 times. The lifeguard then said, “Don’t ever give up. On the 46th time after hearing the gospel, I received Christ.” Evangelist Bill Fay says it takes an average of 7.6 times for a person to hear the gospel before they receive Christ.
A Story of Faithfulness
Salvadore Rivas Gomez was born in 1924, immigrated to the United States, went to Bible school, and became a chaplain. In his later years, Salvadore was unable to drive. Church members often drove him to places like grocery stores where he befriended folks, gave kids candy, and asked questions such as “Do you have a Bible at home?” or “Do you ever pray to God?” He bought boxes of Christian tracts and prayed for the needs of those he spoke to. He distributed food and tracts to people who were looking for work.
He shared the gospel to the poor as they were served meals at the local church, and he provided leftovers and clothing to the homeless camps. He distributed books and tracts at grocery stores, dentists’ officers, and barber shops. In his old age, Salvadore could barely walk and had to use a walker, but that did not deter his desire to introduce Jesus to others. At 98 years of age, the Lord called Salvadore home to heaven and probably said, “Salvadore, you’ve been my servant on earth for a long time. Come and rest for a time. I’ll have something for you later. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Master.”
The Lord wants us to sow the seed of the gospel. Jesus tells the parable of the four soils (Matthew 13:1– 23; Mark 4:1–34; Luke 8:4–18). Only one of the four soils produced fruit. “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matthew 13:23). Witnessing is simply sowing the seed of the gospel and leaving the results to the Lord.
“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6 NIV). The amount of the harvest is directly proportional to the amount of seed that is scattered.
Sowing and reaping require waiting, just like the farmer who needs to be patient to see the fruit of his labors. My friend Randy Clinesmith, who is a farmer, told me it takes about six months for the harvest. The amount of harvested wheat depends on things such as soil, fertilizer, and the weather. The more seeds he plants, the greater the harvest.
Fertile Soil
Recently I saw on LinkedIn a person I thought I knew from several years ago. I messaged him and said, “Chris, are you the guy I shared Christ with several years ago?” He answered, “Yes, Dave. It was May 13, and he gave me the exact year. At the time, Chris was the newly elected president of his fraternity at UCLA. Our Cru team had made a gospel presentation to the whole fraternity during their weekly gathering on Monday nights. When Chris was a young teen, he had experimented with drugs and alcohol, and he was arrested a few times before he was 18 years old. He was clearly headed in the wrong direction, but the Lord was pulling at the heartstrings of his life. His whole family had come to Christ, and he could see the changes Christ had made in their lives. Chris and I had met for lunch, and after sharing the gospel, I encouraged him to receive Christ. Chris went back to his fraternity, and in the privacy of his room, he reviewed the gospel and, on his knees, prayed, “Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.”
When Chris prayed that prayer to receive Christ and got off his knees, he said he felt like he had been hiking all day with a heavy backpack and then it had been taken off his back. He knew that Christ had come into his life. Chris began leading some of his fraternity buddies and others at UCLA to Christ. He got involved with Cru and taught Bible studies. For the last several years, he and his wife have been faithfully involved in serving the Lord in their local church and supporting various ministries. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” God is the supreme evangelist. Ultimately, it’s the Lord who draws people to Himself, but He wants to use us in the process to sow the seed of the gospel. One of my favorite visual illustrations is called the Engel Scale. There are many examples of the Engel Scale on the web.
After sharing the gospel with a person, I often ask myself where that person is after they heard the gospel. They may have “no belief or interest in spirituality,” but after sharing the gospel with them, they may have moved, for example, to #4 on the Engel Scale where they have a positive attitude toward the gospel and Christ. At times, I have shown a person the Engel Scale after sharing the gospel with them and then asked where they are on the scale. Then I say, “What do you think it would take for you to receive Christ?” Rarely does a person suddenly move from “no belief or interest in spirituality” to an immediate decision to ask the Lord to be Lord of their life. Usually, there are many steps before they receive Christ.
In Mark 12:28, a scribe who was an expert in the Mosaic Law asked Jesus, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus masterfully answered the question. As He dialogued with the scribe, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34). Jesus peered into the scribe’s heart and saw that he was moving closer to surrendering his life to Jesus, the Messiah.
Once I had a conversation with a young man who said he was an atheist. I asked him, “If you could know God personally, would you be interested?” He responded by saying yes. I shared the gospel with him, and he was almost ready to receive Christ. He had moved from a stated atheist to grasping an understanding of how to become a Christian. If possible, keep a relationship open with people you talk to.
Christ Fills the Void in People’s Lives
Years ago, my wife and I lived in Southern California after we had moved from the Great Northwest in Portland, Oregon. My new assignment with Cru was to share Christ on the campuses of UCLA and Moorpark College. We purchased our first home in the town of Moorpark and moved in with our two young children. The house was a few blocks from the college. One of the students who received Christ at Moorpark was a young man named John Ruttkay. Over the years, we lost contact with one another, but recently I tried to locate him. I didn’t know whether John was even still alive or if he still lived in California. I did a search for John on the White Pages and finally found him. I called his phone number and left a voicemail that explained the purpose of my call. A person called me back and excitedly said, “Dave, it’s John Ruttkay!” We both rejoiced greatly together. Needless to say, it made my day. John then shared his full, amazing testimony with me.
In 1974, I was setting out on my grand adventure from the Washington, DC, area to hitchhike across the nation to California to play football at a junior college in a little town called Moorpark. There were three of us from the DC area that were going to try to make that team. It was an interesting time in our culture. We were coming into the tail end of the hippie movement but still holding strongly to the zeitgeist of that time, which was sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.
It was a revolutionary time with many things happening geopolitically. It was pushing many people my age—late teens, early twenties—to start asking the bigger questions of why we are here and what is our purpose. I certainly was one asking those very questions and as a result started on my spiritual quest. . . . By the time I reached 17, I was experimenting with drugs. I was having some spiritual experiences through drugs and began to realize there was a whole supernatural realm that left me hungry to pursue alternatives from my past experience.
I started exploring transcendental meditation first but had no appetite for just sitting around and going inward. A friend of mine came to me. He was also on that quest and took me to Buddhist meetings. That was more my style. It was more bent to my moral and philosophical mindset at the time. I believed everyone was looking for Nirvana and thought they could do it by their own means. At 19, I was no different. It wasn’t long before I got my whole family and friends involved in Buddhism. I became a bona fide evangelist for Buddha.
In 1974, I started my trek to California. I was a devout Buddhist with a backpack and a sleeping bag, and I was ready to conquer the world and hopefully make the football team. On my way to California, by the time I hit Nebraska, there was a whole lot of talk about Jesus by people picking me up. I was aware that there were people called Jesus Freaks on the West Coast but never gave it a second thought. By the time I got to Salt Lake City, I was cleaning up in a bus station and ran into a hippie kind of a guy, and I was like he was. He asked me if we could hitchhike to San Francisco together. He was hesitant at first but forthrightly shared, “I am a believer in Jesus Christ and just want you to know I’m going to tell you about Him.” I said, “Awesome! I’m a Buddhist, and I will tell you about him.” Little did I know that I was going to a knife fight and the other guy’s got a gun. We had engaging conversations, and I stayed with his family the entire week. They invited me to a midweek service in their neighborhood. It was the time of the Jesus Movement, so there was literally a great awakening taking place that would soon sweep the entire nation. Everyone at the meeting that night was my age or a little older. The preacher came out, and he was a hippie and started preaching about Jesus and what it takes to know Him. I was intrigued for sure but still had questions.
The next day, I left for Southern California with a lot of questions, enough so I decided to hitchhike to the Buddhist monastery in Santa Monica. I asked them to explain to me about born again Christians because I had never heard the term. Their only admonition was to stay away from them; they were very persuasive. I decided my spiritual pursuits would have to take a back seat because I had a football team to make. I made the team, and one of the guys from the East Coast was my roommate. The coaches got us a house that we shared with a couple of the basketball players. It was a lot of fun. . . . After the football season was over, that haunting spiritual void started to return. Pascal, the French philosopher, said,
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”
That’s what was happening to me—the partying, the girls, all the accoutrements that go along with an athlete playing college football were becoming white noise to the cry in my heart.
We finished spring ball. I was the starting QB, was excited for the next football season, but couldn’t shake that gnawing void in my heart. Finally, one day while walking up to the campus, I let out a cry to God. “Lord, I don’t know You, so You need to tell me who You are.” I went to the center of campus to hang out with my boys, and I noticed a guy, somewhat conservative, looking ready to violate my space. He came over and introduced himself as Dave Chapman. He asked me a few questions that were about me personally, like what I was studying and things that would open up to a broader conversation. Little did I know that broader conversation would lead into the reality of getting born again. Dave didn’t know that 45 minutes prior to that conversation, I was having a conversation with the God of the universe to tell me who He was. After Dave and I prayed a simple prayer, I knew that I knew Jesus saved me. He was pursuing me all along. It all made complete sense with that encounter that day. On a tract, Dave made sure to share the three Fs—Faith (our trust in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word), Fact (God and His Word), Feeling (the result of our faith and obedience).
One of the providential things is that Dave lived just three houses down from my house. For the next month, I couldn’t get enough of the Scriptures. I had so many questions. Thank God for Dave and his sweet wife for just embracing me like they did. I told the coaches I was not going to be there for summer ball because I got saved and was on a mission—the mission to get my family saved and get them out of Buddhism. It was with prayer and fasting that they all came out and got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. All my friends got saved, and when I came back for football, I led many teammates to Jesus. There was already a tremendous momentum because of the Jesus Movement, so it made our community grow substantially. I believe that having someone alongside me early on my journey, discipling me, was my key to spiritual growth. After all, the Lord said to go and make disciples, not converts. After my second year, I transferred schools because football was no longer my priority, and following Christ became my all-consuming passion. Again, I want to reiterate that there was a major move of God happening at the time, and I was at the center of it in Southern California, so the spiritual prevailing winds were in my favor, and there were thousands coming to Jesus. There was a group of us that fall semester who started a Christian club on campus, and within three months, we had outgrown the classroom and filled the quad to share the love of Jesus. We built a strong community from that group and saw many move on into ministry, including myself.
I enrolled in Melodyland Theological School and ended up getting a degree in Religious Studies from Vanguard University. For the last 43 years, I have traveled all over the world to preach the gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 24:14). I have established drug rehab centers that have impacted thousands of people’s lives. I am currently establishing house churches all over Southern California, trying to get back to basic, foundational teachings to get the ekklesia equipped for the coming storm. The kids I am discipling said they thought it was important that my voice get out to the broader Body of Christ. They shared for their generation that it has to come from a digital platform on the Internet. They called it the New Romans Road. The last year and a half, I have explored this venue to communicate to the Body of Christ and the world what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing. There have been hundreds of thousands of views and an overwhelming response from the Body of Christ. I believe we are on the cusp of the greatest outpouring ever seen, and God has called us all to this time. There is a great harvest out there, and the King of Glory is beckoning us to bring in that harvest.
At least four great principles come out of John’s story and testimony:
1. We will greatly rejoice someday.
John and I were filled with joy when we reconnected after several years of being disconnected. Jesus said, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7 NIV). Think of the joy we will have when we get to heaven and see those we shared Christ with on earth who are now in heaven with us. Let’s keep sharing the greatest news ever!
2. More seeds planted equals a greater harvest.
Evangelism takes patience. Most people don’t come to Christ the first time they hear the gospel. There may be many seeds planted in a person’s heart before they receive Christ. We may be the blessed ones who see them come to Christ. In John’s case, several people had planted seeds in his life before he received Christ. Sharing Christ is an act of faith and obedience. Let’s remember Galatians 6:9: “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”
3. People are searching for meaning and purpose in life.
Many people are trying to fill the void in their life with things that end up causing them to feel even more empty and unhappy. Jesus is the only One who can fill that God-shaped vacuum in our hearts.
John was the starting quarterback who experimented with drugs, sex, transcendental meditation, and Buddhism, but none of those things filled the void in his life. Only the resurrected living Christ could and did fill that void. Since coming to Christ, John has never looked back. He has had a massive impact on the world. I was privileged to be in the right place at the right time after John uttered his plea to God.
4. Some bear much fruit.
Jesus said in Matthew 13:8, referring to good soil, “And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” John said in his testimony that there is a great harvest out there, and the King of Glory is beckoning us to bring in that harvest. I’m so glad I reconnected with my friend and brother in Christ, John Ruttkay. What a joy unspeakable and full of glory!
Are you a seed planter? Are you sharing the gospel or your personal testimony? Are you reaching out to others in love? Are you speaking to their needs and interests? Are you a good listener? Are you authentic? Are you showing an interest in people by having coffee or lunch with a coworker or neighbor? Are you doing kind gestures of love such as giving them a book, inviting them to church, praying for them, having fun together, or writing them a thank you note? There are myriads of ways to plant seeds in people’s hearts. When people see the light of the gospel in you, they will notice something different and perhaps open their hearts to the gospel message.
Here are some ways we can sow the seed in people’s hearts, so they are better prepared to receive the gospel.
- Share a scripture verse with them.
- Offer to pray for them about a need.
- Invite them to church or a special event at your church.
- Invite them to join you in a small group in your home.
- Email them an article or video from a website or send them a podcast about knowing Christ.
- Walk through a gospel presentation with them.
- Visit them in the hospital and pray with them.
- Take them a meal when there is a crisis of some sort.
- Give them a book on apologetics such as More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell or The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel.