Finding Fourth-Soil People: Pursuing Movements as Jesus Did

Mathematician Steven Pither describes the difference between addition and multiplication through the use of personification. Addition’s attempt to solve problems can be described as passive, lacking a drive to a goal, ill-prepared to overcome obstacles, and lacking enthusiasm to attain a highly valued purpose. Pither describes multiplication as having a desire to overcome obstacles, solve dilemmas, and achieve goals.

Missionaries searching for ministry approaches in new mission fields have an assortment of strategies from which to choose. Some fit within the growth pattern of addition. Others position the missionary to experience multiplicative results. Some strategies have a basis from within Scripture; others appear to be structured more as a business model.

Finding Fourth-Soil People: Fourth-Soil Person or Person of Peace

The designation Person of Peace originates from Luke 10:5–7:
Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this household.” If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they offer, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Don’t be moving from house to house.

Learning about the Person of Peace concept greatly enhanced my ministry by giving me a specific target to aim for in the vast sea of lostness within the country I served.

The problem occurs when we inflate the biblical text; admittedly I am guilty on the topic of the Person of Peace. While the text limits the actions of the Person of Peace to generously receiving the disciples and extending hospitality by providing food and shelter, many missionaries expand the actions of said person to include the winning of his household, connecting the disciples to the community, and even starting a movement in the community.

Finding Fourth-Soil People: A Movement Case Study from Galilee

Analyzing case studies typically represents one of the key learning activities at a missionary training program. Often overlooked as a case study is Jesus’ work in pre-Pentecost Galilee, partly because He did not plant churches, but mainly because a handful of biblical scholars view Jesus’ pre-Pentecost work in Galilee as a failed mission. William Kurz, for example, argues that Jesus’ mission work failed to produce results. Kurz states, “Jesus never saw the results of His preaching in His lifetime on earth.”

The intent of demonstrating that a movement ensued in pre-Pentecost Galilee within the ministry of Jesus aims at catching the attention of missionary-movement practitioners. Unless missionaries are convinced Jesus established a movement in pre-Pentecost Galilee, they may underestimate the value of Jesus’ case study.

Finding Fourth-Soil People: Modern-Day Application of Using the Parable of the Sower as a Field Guide

Applying the Parable of the Sower as a mission-field guide may represent a new concept for many missionaries,but I propose that the first generation of disciples likely knew this approach well. The word approach may be interchanged with strategy, modus operandi, or plan. Missionaries with varying backgrounds prefer different ways of saying this.

You may think I am reading and applying the Parable of the Sower on a literal level beyond Jesus’ intent. I know of no better way to understand this parable than to approach it in this manner. Before entering into the project of applying the Parable of the Sower among the Ro (a pseudonym) people group, I spent two years in a seminary environment engaged in research on the Parable of the Sower.

A couple of years ago on a college campus, I watched a group of college students help their fellow student find his lost dorm key in a grassy field. The student could not retrace his exact steps, so his fellow students searched and roamed aimlessly.

To expedite the search, I stepped in and asked the students to form one line and walk together in unison, covering one section at a time. In a matter of moments, the students swept the field and the student was reunited with his key. Inside a missionary’s target working area awaits a movement catalyst. Jesus not only provided us His plan for finding fourth-soil individuals; He modeled it in pre-Pentecost Galilee.

Finding Fourth-Soil People: Jesus’ Modus Operandi for Establishing a Movement

Bible scholars and missionaries often speak different languages. While missionaries might refer to Jesus’ Parable of the Sower as representing His approach to fieldwork, His strategy for discovering a movement catalyst, or His modus operandi, biblical scholars use different words to describe Jesus’ Parable of the Sower. Consider the following comments by scholars:

A. T. Cadoux suggests the parable represents Jesus’ “apologia (defense) for His practice of preaching to all and sundry.” Malcolm Tolbert claims that Luke “connects the parable to the itinerant preaching mission conducted by Jesus in cities and villages.” N. T. Wright notes, “The paradoxical prophetic ‘sowings’ of the ‘Word’ were being recapitulated in Jesus’ own ministry.” Morna Hooker (easiest to understand) views Jesus’ use of the parable as an “explanation of His whole ministry.”Additional scholars state the same, but in vaguer terms. Robert Stein says the Parable of the Sower “serves as an example of the preaching mentioned in Luke 8:1.”5 Within Klyne Snodgrass’s eight traditional options for interpreting the parable, he says, “The parable reflects the experience of Jesus in His own proclamation.”