My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow.
1 Corinthians 3:6

When I began to plant the church I now lead in Cincinnati, I expended tremendous amounts of energy to get it off the ground. I spoke with some fifteen hundred people over a two-year period, sharing my vision for this new church and mustering up as much enthusiasm as I could. Yet in spite of all of this effort, our first Sunday service saw only thirty-seven in attendance. A little bit of math shows that's a rejection rate of over 97 percent! It was then that I rediscovered the verse above: It is our job to do the planting and watering but God's to make growth happen.

I have come to realize that I spent the first part of my Christian life exerting a tremendous amount of human effort trying to accomplish what only God can do: to bring about a harvest of fruit. Yes, I am called to be diligent about planting and watering, but I am not responsible for the final result. ...