WHY...WELCOME PEOPLE INTO A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS? STILL SEEDS...STILL SHEAVES.

·29 min·2 clips

When planting a church, you have to plant yourself—just like planting black-eyed peas to grow more.

The episode is a sermon delivered at Munger Place Church in Dallas, Texas, as part of a series leading up to Commitment Sunday on November 24th. The speaker begins by reminding the congregation about commitment cards for prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. He reads scriptures from Matthew 28:16-20 and Romans 1:16, setting the theme of making disciples and not being ashamed of the gospel. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about planting a community garden in East Dallas 20 years ago, where he learned that to grow black-eyed peas, you plant the peas themselves, paralleling this to planting disciples in the church. He recalls childhood memories of remixing hymns, explaining that a sheave is the produce from a seed, tying it to church growth. The sermon addresses the discomfort around evangelism, comparing it to casual conversations about phones or movies. The speaker tells a story from his Boy Scout days about rowing a canoe with and against the current, using it as a metaphor for the church's need to align with cultural currents rather than resist them. He references H. Richard Niebuhr's book 'Christ and Culture,' highlighting the typology of 'Christ the transformer of culture' and questioning whether the church transforms culture or is transformed by it. The speaker praises Munger Place Church's welcoming statement as an example of transforming culture. He shares a story from his mentor Zan Holmes about a symphony conductor to illustrate God's role as the conductor of our lives. The sermon concludes with a call to surrender to God, like instruments in an orchestra, to produce beautiful music and continue the work of planting seeds and harvesting sheaves.

As heard by us

A commitment sermon that turns stewardship into a plainspoken call to share faith.

The episode sits where commitment and witness meet, using a coming Commitment Sunday to widen the focus from covenant cards and gifts toward the harder question of sharing faith at all.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When a commitment card becomes a reminder to live prayer, witness, and everyday faith out loud.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Munger Place Church - Dallas, Texas