PLANT A SEED

[plant ey seed]

verb
-to lay the groundwork that will hopefully lead someone to accept Christ at a later point

Let's use it in a sentence!
None of the children at Bible camp this week accepted Christ, but I think we were really able to plant a seed.

Secular Synonyms:
none

Find it in the Bible
Although this phrase doesn't appear in the Bible in this exact sense, it is most likely derived from the Parable of the Sower which is found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15 in which Jesus uses seed and types of soil as a metaphor for the word of God and the hearts of those who hear it.

Fun Fact
This is a commonly used phrase to comfort American teenagers that go on short term missions trips and do not see any immediate response to their human videos and evangelism efforts.