Mark 4:2-5 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places …
As I walked away from center stage yesterday after delivering what I thought was a good message on intentional influence, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. The thought hit me, “I’ll bet at least 30 or 40 people out there are going, yeah right, let me tell you about people I poured my life into that crashed and burned, no longer go to church or worse have turned on me” All afternoon I pondered, “what can say to those in my church who have given up on influencing?”
Perhaps I am thinking this way because I have felt like that imaginary quitter I just described dozens of times in forty years of public ministry. But what can I say to you and what have I told myself to stay in the game. I want you to know, I feel your pain. I could regale you with stories of failure that might comfort you or they might cause you to double down on never inserting yourself in another persons life again. Instead let me tell you why I am telling you to NEVER quit trying to be an intentional influencer.
- Intentionally Influencing others is good for YOU, it’s not all about them.
Bearing “one another’s burdens” is weightlifting and aerobics for the soul; stop doing it and you’ll get spiritually flabby.
- Intentionally Influencing others is the only way to help those who want to get better, get better.
Jesus nailed it in the parable of the soils in Mark 4. Failure is a soil problem not a seed or planter problem. Many people and I emphasis “many” are going to fail regardless of your efforts but a few will only fail if you don’t try to sow into their lives.
- Intentionally influencing others is the only way to get better at intentionally influencing others.
My success rate at seeing lasting change in people is still low considering how many people I touch with a message of positive change but it’s much better than it was a few years ago. Why? I’m better at intentional influence than I was when I started. I’m better at spotting people who are wasting my time, better at executing influence and better at moving on from failure. I don’t think I’m great at being an influencer, but I am better and I would have never gotten better if I had given up.
- Intentionally influencing others is so encouraging to others who are are trying to influence others that your actual success is immeasurable.
World changers attract other world changers and repel the apathetic, so soon you have a room full of world changers. The power of a team of intentional influencers can start a chain reaction of positive transformation similar to nuclear fission. Ever drive through the midwest and see those thousands of acres of corn or wheat; that happens because the farmer kept sowing and sowing until the whole landscape became a sign of the seeds he planted and the soil he had worked.
When we become an army of influencers the culture of our church, our civic organization and possibly even our region changes to the point that the very environment we create helps people change for the better.
Hey, frustrated influencer, please try one more time with one more person. They just might be the good soil you’ve been looking for.
