Three myths come to mind as I think of hard soil. First, they know they shouldnt live that way. I remember when I called on a young couple, Mike and Debbie. A cheerful pair, they welcomed me into their living room, and I broke the ice with my standard question: how did you two meet?

Beaming with love, they told how they had met in a bar, spent the night with each other and moved in together soon after. For them, this type of meeting and progression into a relationship was so normal that I doubt they even considered watering down the details for this pastor now sitting on their sofa.

Of course, some people we consider hard soil have a lifestyle they know they must escape before it kills them. Addicts are miserable people living on a deadly treadmill they cant control. But many hard-soil people are comfortable in their lifestyle and encounter mostly support for it among their peers.

The second myth is that they are not like us. Most Christians arent so nave as to believe that crabgrass never grows in the yards of Christians. But too many of us sincerely think that hard-soil folks can be cleaned up, even saved, but would be better off worshiping among their own kind. Preach to them in the streets, they say, but dont invite them into our clean, comfortable church. I think a few Christians would even prefer to plant a congregation for people like that rather than include them in their own community of believers.

Truth be told, some of the hardest of soil become the most tender of hearts when confronted with the truth of the gospel. Ive seen hardened prisoners become positively sweet when they know Jesus. Im not saying they become wimps. They become tough in a new, constructive and meaningful way.

The third myth: Christians from hard-soil backgrounds will always be too rough around the edges to minister to others.

See if you can relate to this scenario: its Sunday evening or Wednesday night, and a recovering alcoholic stands and relates his testimony. He served the bottle once, he says, but now he serves the risen Savior. His nose is a bit crooked from too many barroom fights, but his eyes twinkle with the joy of the Lord. You feel moisture on your cheek and know with every fiber in you that this man will spend eternity in heaven. Yet, deep down, you never really expect him to amount to much beyond being the drunk who God made sober.

Truth is, some of the most effective people in ministrypastors and laitycome from just such a background. I have in mind one of the most erudite Bible scholars on radio. His presentation is polished and compelling. But, when he first heard the gospel, he had just answered the door of an apartment where he lived with a woman who was not his wife. Two people using the witnessing principles of Evangelism Explosion knocked, and he answered, bare-chested and swilling a beer. Yet, without condemning his lifestyle, these lay evangelists introduced him to Christ, and over time he became one of the most effective Christian apologists of the last decade.

We can be sure of Christs power over anyone by reading of Sauls transformation to become Paul and his admission of hardness, For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it (Galatians 1:13), and Pauls unwavering belief that his hardness made his message effective, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life (1Timothy 1:15-16).

Bob Reccord is president of the North American Mission Board, SBC. His latest book is Beneath the Surface: Steering Clear of Dangers that Could Leave You Shipwrecked (Broadman and Holman 2002). He is the host of the Baptist Hour which airs on more than 400 radio stations and at www.baptisthour.com.