Not everybody is ready to become a follower of Christ the first time they hear the good news. Some are.
Let’s talk about the people who aren’t ready that first time. In general terms it seems a good idea to leave them in such a way they are more likely to be open to further discussion than not. That’s never possible to guarantee for many reasons, but where it is our power to leave people more likely to re-engage, the better.
In Europe where they are considered by some as religiously post-Christian and in America, which seems to be following in its footsteps and headed in that same direction, the whole idea of sowing gospel “seeds” make a great deal of sense. That is, not are we to be “reaping” when it comes to enlisting followers of Christ, but we would be wise to constantly be sowing gospel seeds for the future. And that sowing can take on a myriad of forms.
If the future resembles the past, then there is cause to think that by God’s grace there will be re-awakenings and works of God, and wise sowing in the past will reap great dividends for His Kingdom in that future.
One of the most important books written on this topic of reaping was a book written by Tim Downs and it is to it we refer you:
Downs, Timothy. Finding Common Ground: How to Communicate Outside the Christian Community....While We Still Can. Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 1999. pps. 192.
Downs makes the case that if the Lord isn’t coming back soon, we should consider, given our cultural situation, the importance of not only doing evangelism, but of not neglecting the importance of investing in its future--by sowing. This is a very useful and insightful book that can transform the way you think of and treat people, which is of greatest importance to living out your faith with integrity and to becoming increasingly useful to Him. Again, this is not a book about finding specific answers to specific questions, but it is an important contribution to apologetic and conversational skills--things that are sorely needed by every generation of apologists.