Today I came across an illustration from Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001), pp. 99-100.
“Growing up on a farm in rural Iowa provided me with an object lesson for understanding the church’s being mission by nature. Each county in the state employed an extension agent to work with farmers…. As new farming technologies, seeds, and fertilizers became available, the extension agents introduced these to the farmers. My dad, like many farmers, was often hesitant to acce3pt the innovations. One of the methods extension agents used to gain acceptance of these innovations was demonstration plots.
A strip of land, usually along a major roadway, was selected as demonstration plot, where a new farming method, seed, or fertilizer was used to raise a crop.
It was uncommon for farmers to remain skeptical throughout the summer as the crops grew. But there was always keen interest in the fall when crop was harvested. Invariably, the innovation performed better than the crops in the surrounding fields. By the next year, many of the farmers, including my dad, would be using the innovation as if it had been their idea all along.
The church is God’s demonstration plot in the world. Its very existence demonstrates that his redemptive reign has already begun. Its very presence invites the world to watch, listen, examine, and consider accepting God’s reign as a superior way of living.”
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