The Soil of our Community

We live in one of the most beautiful areas of the country, even of the world as we live here in New England. We have mountains and ocean all within a few minutes' drive. It seems like New England's number one agricultural crop is rocks. Some places they seem to grow right through the lawn.

The ground is hard and the ministry for the spread of the gospel seems hard as well. Our institutes of higher learning that started to prepare young people for the ministry of the gospel have turned into places where the gospel is most ridiculed or worse, ignored. How do we reach people around us with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ? 

The Apostle Paul preached to a totally pagan audience in Athens as recorded in Acts 17. His approach was to state what all of us have in common. One God made the world and everything in it. That God is "Lord of heaven and earth." He is so great that he cannot live in anything made by human hands, nor does he need anything. "And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the race of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him." (V26-27)

Scripture says God created us and that he created us knowing when we would be born, into what family and where we would live. God's purpose for our lives includes all of these. The same is true of Valley Bible as a church. We are when we are and where we are, right here in New England, by God's plan, planting and purpose in order to reach this community at this time.

The Bible says that the Gospel is like seed. It is God's power to work in our lives and in our world. If that is true, then our neighborhoods and communities are the soil into which the seed is planted.

To pursue this picture a little further, if we are going to plant the seed of the gospel in this soil of our community, it would be helpful to know what kind of soil it is. Is it hard like a path so the seed cannot take root? Is it rocky with shallow soil so the seed grows quickly but with no root fades and dies? Is it overwhelmed by thorns and weeds so it gets choked out before bearing fruit? Or is it good soil that will produce much fruit? How do we find out?

What are the weeds that are here in the soil of this community? A good farmer knows what kinds of weeds he is dealing with so he can apply the correct herbicide (weed killer). What are the moral sins of our community that will need to be pulled up before we can plant the seed of the gospel? What are the errors of thinking about God or his ways that need to be dealt with for the gospel to take root and grow? In what do the people around us trust for their hope and worship instead of Jesus? Lord, open our eyes to the people and to the hindrances that they see that need to be overcome by the gospel to bear fruit in the lives of those in Haddam and the communities surrounding it!