When Seed-Sowing Meets Prayer: Reflections on a Year of Gospel Proclamation

How do you measure a year’s worth of evangelism? By conversions? By opportunities? By seeds planted?

This past Sunday, our evangelist stood before our congregation and delivered something we don’t often see in churches today—a comprehensive evangelism report. Not a vague commitment to “sharing Jesus more.” Not a theoretical sermon about the importance of evangelism. But an actual account of what one church family accomplished when they took the Great Commission seriously for twelve months.

As I listened to Eric recount the tens of thousands of gospel tracts distributed, the $100,000+ invested in benevolence ministry, the countless conversations on street corners and college campuses, I found myself wrestling with a tension that runs through all faithful evangelistic work: the gap between extensive sowing and visible harvest. Eric preached from Ephesians 4:11-16, and in those verses, we see both the blueprint for how evangelism should function in the church and the reminder that fruit comes from God’s power, not merely our programs.

The Evangelist’s Job Description

Eric opened by explaining his role at Howell Bible Church, drawing directly from Ephesians 4:11-16. Paul lists various officers—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers—and then gives their purpose: “for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”

This is crucial. The evangelist doesn’t do all the evangelism. The evangelist equips the saints to do evangelism. It’s the difference between hiring a missionary and becoming a missionary church. Eric emphasized this repeatedly: “We’ve done this together. This is not anything that I do by myself. It’s us doing it, not me.”

Eric referenced my book The Forgotten Officer, which explores why this office exists and how churches can recover it. That book, published in 2016, described much of the theological foundation for why we planted Howell Bible Church in 2014. From our founding, we’ve been committed to the conviction that Ephesians 4 presents a specific office within the church whose purpose is to equip the entire body for evangelistic work. This isn’t just semantics—it’s been part of our DNA from day one. Eric is our third evangelist, and he joined a church culture that already recognized and valued this office. The fruit we’re seeing this year isn’t the result of a new innovation—it’s what happens when this biblical model is lived out faithfully over time. It is Christ’s design for His church.

When Paul uses the body metaphor in Ephesians 4, he’s showing us that every part must work for the body to grow. The evangelist is one part in that body, but his effectiveness multiplies when he activates all the other parts. Eric’s year-and-four-months (so far) at HBC has continued to demonstrate this model in action. The office of evangelist isn’t about one person’s heroic efforts. It’s about systematic equipping that mobilizes an entire congregation. Together, we can do more.

The Arsenal: Gospel Tracts, Apologetics, and Creative Outreach

Eric detailed the sheer variety of methods deployed this year. Our local church has developed over 30 different gospel tracts—specialized materials for Muslims, Hindus, Spanish speakers, college students questioning life’s meaning, skeptics wanting evidence for the resurrection. There are tracts about abortion for ministry at clinics. There are QR code cards that link to a 12-minute gospel video that’s now been viewed over 9,000 times.

Eric’s philosophy is clear: “If it’s getting the gospel message out, I think it’s fair game.” He’s not married to one method. Gospel tracts. Open-air preaching. Service evangelism. Apologetics talks. Facebook posts. Handing out Bibles. Even meals at local apartment complexes that open doors for spiritual conversations.

Some might dismiss gospel tracts as outdated or ineffective. But Eric made a compelling case: they allow you to scatter seed at scale. “Thousands and thousands of people throughout history have been saved by reading gospel tracts,” he reminded us. And in an age where we believe Christ could return at any moment, there’s an urgency to the work that demands we use every available tool to reach as many people as possible.

The church has been everywhere: Howell, Brighton, Fowlerville, Fenton, Frankenmuth, Lansing, Detroit, Ann Arbor. University campuses. Parades. Art festivals. Even pride festivals. The Out of the Fire training I taught earlier this year (still available at https://howellbible.org/2025/09/22/out-of-the-fire/) gave our people a comprehensive toolkit for evangelism in diverse contexts.

The Most Powerful Method: Meeting Needs While Sharing Truth

If Eric has a favorite evangelistic method, it’s clear: the benevolence ministry.

Our benevolence team fields calls every week from people throughout Livingston County—requests for rental assistance, gas cards, groceries, furniture. Eric noted that one team member recently received ten requests in a single day. The church has spent over $100,000 this year meeting tangible needs in our community.

But here’s what makes this evangelism: every benevolence interaction includes gospel proclamation. As Eric put it, “It’s hard to be mad at somebody as they’re paying for your rent.” Meeting physical needs creates receptivity to spiritual truth. It demonstrates Christ’s love in concrete terms before presenting Christ’s gospel in verbal terms. It allows us to love people in both word (evangelism) and deed (service).

This isn’t the prosperity gospel. This is the incarnational gospel—the Word becoming flesh, love taking practical form. We lift burdens because we care about alleviating human suffering. But we primarily lift burdens so we can share the message that transforms suffering into hope.

Eric was honest: the gospel is why we do it. “It gives us an opportunity to share the gospel and to transform people’s lives—that really is why we do it.”

Counting the Fruit (or Not)

Here’s where Eric’s honesty was most refreshing. When asked if all this effort has borne fruit, he admitted: “Not as much as I would like. I hope that all Livingston County would have been saved by now, but that’s not what we’ve seen.”

But then he got to the heart of the matter. How do you measure impact when you hand out thousands of tracts and most people just walk away? When you post a gospel video that gets 9,000 views but you never learn who watched? When you have a five-minute conversation with a stranger and never see them again?

“We don’t know how many people have believed the gospel through our tract ministry,” Eric said. “What we do know is that thousands and thousands and thousands of seeds have been planted.”

He quoted 1 Corinthians 3:6: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” Our job isn’t to manufacture conversions. Our job is to faithfully scatter seed and trust God for the harvest.

That said, there has been visible fruit. A man from Ann Arbor recommitted his life to Christ and returned to church. A woman recommitted her life to Christ and began reading her Bible and praying again. A young man accepted the gospel at the Silver Bells parade in Lansing.

And beyond individual conversions, there’s been fruit in the believers themselves. People who were terrified of evangelism are now “fearless tract distribution machines,” in Eric’s words. Some who used to be nervous about street evangelism, now regularly take people with them to distribute tracts. A young man went from anxious to bold in a single outing. Kids are leading the way, often better at handing out tracts than adults.

Twenty-plus people from our church came to a single evangelism event. Multiple people participated in open-air preaching for the first time. The body is growing in confidence, courage, and Christlikeness.

The One Thing We Need Most

Eric’s conclusion was the most convicting part of the entire message. After cataloging a year of impressive activity, he identified the single most important thing the church needs to do going forward: pray.

“We do our part, and we leave the rest to God,” he said. But now he wants more. More power. More fruit. More transformation. And the key to that isn’t better strategy or increased activity (though both can help). The key is united, persistent, expectant prayer.

Eric gave three specific prayer requests, and he didn’t ask casually. He asked—no, he begged—every member to commit to praying these three things every single day:

1. Pray for a Stronger Desire to Share the Gospel

“I want that for me too,” Eric admitted. Even the evangelist needs to grow in evangelistic passion. How much more do the rest of us?

Desire precedes action. If we lack hunger to see the lost saved, we won’t make sacrifices to reach them. We won’t have conversations. We won’t invite people to events. We won’t hand out tracts. Before God changes our behavior, He must change our hearts.

2. Pray for the Holy Spirit to Speak Through Us

Eric wants more than eloquence or persuasive arguments. He wants “it to not be our words that are being heard, but the very words of God.”

This is what happened in Acts 2 when Peter preached and people were “pierced to the heart.” It wasn’t rhetorical brilliance. It was Holy Spirit power. We need that same anointing in our street conversations, our dinner table discussions, our Facebook posts, our benevolence meetings.

Paul himself—the greatest missionary in church history—begged the Ephesians: “Pray for me that utterance may be given to me… to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel… that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:19-20). If Paul needed prayer for boldness and power, how much more do we?

3. Pray for the Salvation of the Lost

This is the ultimate goal. Not activities. Not statistics. Souls entering the kingdom.

Eric painted a picture of the early church in Acts. The apostles were threatened. They were afraid. So they gathered the church and prayed for boldness. “And the place where they prayed shook, and it says they were all filled with the Spirit, and they went out and they preached the gospel with boldness.”

Eric’s voice rose with passion: “That’s not just a first century thing. There’s no reason at all why that can’t happen right now. That can happen anytime. God’s willing to do that anytime, because that’s His will.”

Questions for Personal Reflection

Am I praying daily for these three things—or am I too busy doing ministry to seek God’s power for ministry?

It’s possible to be so active in Christian service that we neglect the prayer that makes service effective. Eric isn’t calling for less evangelism and more prayer. He’s calling for more evangelism empowered by much more prayer.

What’s my evangelism “method”—and am I limiting myself unnecessarily?

Maybe I’m uncomfortable with street evangelism but comfortable with relational evangelism. Fine. But am I doing relational evangelism, or am I just comfortable with the idea of it? Eric’s point stands: use every method available. If we’re not using one method, we’d better be using another.

If I stood before Christ today, could I say I’ve been faithful to the Great Commission?

This isn’t about guilt. It’s about longing to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Eric confessed, “I so badly want to hear these words… and I want every one of you to hear those words, too.”

Do I really believe God can shake our community with revival? Or have I settled for maintenance-mode Christianity?

Eric’s vision is bigger than sustaining a healthy church. He wants multitudes drawn into the kingdom. He wants families changed. He wants society transformed. He wants moral decay reversed by gospel power. Is that vision too big? Or is our vision too small?

A Church Built for This

As Eric closed, he said something that stirred deep gratitude in my heart: “What a blessing it is to be a part of a group that actually cares about the Great Commission. Because I’ll tell you, I’m not trying to be critical—a lot of other churches, it’s just not on their radar. But it is here.”

He’s right. And I thank God for it. Not every church has an evangelist on staff. Not every church sends members into the streets regularly. Not every church invests six figures in benevolence that creates gospel opportunities. Not every church writes 30+ gospel tracts or produces YouTube videos or hosts apologetics talks for skeptics.

But this isn’t about comparison. It’s about calling. And our calling is clear: Go into all the world and make disciples.

Eric has given us the training. He’s modeled the methods. He’s created countless opportunities. He’s led our small group to scatter tens of thousands of seeds across Michigan.

Now he’s asking for one thing: prayer.

Will we give it? Will every member of this church commit to daily, fervent, expectant prayer that God would grant increase? That He would save multitudes? That He would pour out His Spirit in Acts 2 power?

I believe if we do—if we combine faithful seed-sowing with united prayer—we’ll see something we’ve only imagined: a harvest that matches the sowing.

The ground is prepared. The seeds are planted. Now we wait on God—not passively, but prayerfully. Not with resignation, but with expectation.

As Eric prayed at the end, “We’ve laid so much ground for that. We’ve prepared so much ground. We’ve sown so many seeds, Lord, so many thousands and thousands… We just want these seeds to take root and grow.”

Amen. Let it be so. For the seed we’ve already sown, and for the seeds we will continue to sow until the whole world hears.

Listen to the full sermon here: Evangelism Report 2025

Preached December 28, 2025, at Howell Bible Church

For more on evangelism training, visit HBC’s Out of the Fire course: https://howellbible.org/2025/09/22/out-of-the-fire/