A long time ago, I decided to live my life with Jesus by jumping into mud puddles instead of over them. A mud puddle, in my own strange vernacular, is anything Jesus said or did that we typically ignore, avoid, struggle to understand, or forget. The story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 is a perfect example—Jesus seems unbelievably brusque with this needy woman, and we have no good answer for that, so we blow past that aspect of the encounter.
When adults come up to a mud puddle they jump over it; when children come to a mud puddle, they might just jump in it instead. And Jesus calls us to re-embrace childlikeness in our relationship with Him. So, He’s asking us to immerse ourselves in the stories and teachings of Jesus we don’t understand or simply ignore. We’re always on the hunt for mud puddles in Scripture. And after many years of living this way, I was surprised to discover a mud puddle I’d overlooked. It’s Jesus’ “Parable of the Growing Seed,” in Mark 4:26-29:
“The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”
In this story, Jesus describes a “farmer” (that’s us) who scatters seed on the ground and expects it to grow into a crop, though he has no idea how that organic process actually works. The seeds embedded in the ground germinate, then sink their roots into the soil, then push through the surface as shoots. Naturally, this process happens over time, encompassing the seasons of planting, nurturing, and harvesting. It’s what happens in those seasons of growth that is a mystery to us. We offer our seeds into the world, but we often don’t recognize how the nurturing happens, and the harvest can take us by surprise.
I was thinking about all of this as our Vibrant Faith team marks a significant seasonal change—the natural outcome of seed-scattering and nurturing over the last two decades. I’m talking about Jim LaDoux, the longest-tenured staffer in Vibrant Faith’s history and our beloved Director of Coaching Services. With the start of the new year, Jim is leaving our team to launch his own coaching service, called Surface to Soul. Yes, we’ll still be working together on our ongoing research projects, because Jim is both a coach and our director of coaching for our Fourth-Soil Parenting project and our Thriving Congregations project. But Jim will be scattering seeds beyond his Vibrant Faith “field,” working with churches, organizations, and individuals to (as he often says) “take their next faithful step.”
Jim has served as a coach and consultant since 1990, and he launched Vibrant Faith’s coaching services in 2004—focusing on helping leaders, teams, and churches be more faith-focused, more strategic, more welcoming and more generous. In 2019, he developed Vibrant Faith’s ICF-certified Coach Training program in partnership with Rev. Dr. Felix Villanueva, who serves as the Director of the Surface to Soul Coaching School. If coaching captures your curiosity, it’s good to know that Jim offers:
Help for Church Leaders…
- Live and lead well.
- Learn to use coaching skills to increase leadership effectiveness.
- Avoid burnout and experience work-life harmony by crafting a rule of life.
- Develop one-page personal development plans to guide their work and life.
- Assess their emotional intelligence and develop strategies to engage with others more effectively.
- Assess their positive intelligence and design plans that build on their strengths and minimize sabotaging behaviors.
- Supervise staff, build better teams, and facilitate more powerful conversations.
- Become agile leaders who, in turn, create more agile teams and boards.
Help for Congregations…
- Develop faith-based strategic plans.
- Grow ministry environments characterized by a vibrant faith, focused on family faith practices.
- Grow vital congregations that are willing to experiment and reinvent.
- Grow giving and engagement, based on people’s passions and callings.
- Streamline their structure, staffing, and communication systems.
Just as 2024 is still retreating in our rearview mirror, 2025 is filling up our windshield. One season gives way to another, and this is cause for celebration. And we’re celebrating this change in Vibrant Faith’s seasons—excited for what lies ahead for us, for Jim, and for you… (To explore your coaching options, just head on over to the Surface to Soul website.)
Just for You!
My new book Editing Jesus is out. Just click on this link and you can download a pdf of a long excerpt from the book.
Help Is Here!
As we lean into a new year, with new ministry possibilities, check out our innovative, practical resources for help infusing your ministry environment with “rich soil” for transformation. Our newest resource is The Sacred Stories Project. This multi-media resource offers your people a simple, safe, and “normal” way to share aspects of their story in natural, genuine ways. And you get a more connected, honest, and “known” congregation. It’s four guided sessions with accompanying video segments from Adam Young, trauma counselor and host of the podcast The Place We Find Ourselves.
And check out our new resource Listening to Jesus Together. It’s a set of six carefully crafted “listening encounters” designed for three people to experience together—online or in-person. The goal is to give people in your congregation a weekly “reminder habit” to help them listen to Jesus in the context of a short-term small-community experience.
Next, Following Jesus is a curriculum resource you can use with both adults and teenagers in your church this fall—help them explore what an ABIDING/REMAINING relationship with Jesus is like. It’s an experiential, highly interactive, co-discovery way to invite people into deeper intimacy with Jesus.
And The Life of Jesus TalkCards is a simple, devotional way to invite small groups into the heart of Jesus.
Rick Lawrence is Executive Director of Vibrant Faith—he created the new curriculum Following Jesus. He’s editor of the Jesus-Centered Bible and author of 40 books, including his new release Editing Jesus: Confronting the Distorted Faith of the American Church, The Suicide Solution, The Jesus-Centered Life and Jesus-Centered Daily. He hosts the podcast Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus.