The harvest is dying (Pt.2)

(Part 2)

“These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”-Luke 10:2

This passage affirms to us that we do not have a harvest problem. We have a laborer problem and the reason the harvest is dying in the field is there are not enough people committed to bringing it in. 

We learned last week, that part of the problem is that we don’t see harvesting as our job. We convince ourselves (wrongly) into thinking that one person plants, another waters, and another brings in the harvest; when in reality it is all of our responsibility to glean the fields. 

Another reason we don’t see the harvest dying is the field is because we are gauging our success at harvesting by what we are seeing at the grocery store. Let me explain. As long as there is corn in the bin at the grocery store, I don’t see a problem with the harvest. As long as there is bread on the shelf, I don’t see a problem with the harvest. 

For many people, as long as there are people coming to church, people giving their lives to Christ at church, being baptized, there is a nursery for their kids, and the worship is solid; they don’t see a problem with the harvest. We have “wheat” at our church, so I don’t see an issue. As long as everyone at our church is saved and we are growing, things must be fine. 

However, they are also the first to complain, when the cupboards run dry. They didn’t harvest anything, but are the first to complain when the shelves are bare. Crying out because there is no bread, but didn’t lift a finger to bring in any wheat. We can’t wait for the church to be empty before we start to worry about the harvest. 

Sometimes we spend so much time tending to what have been brought in that we leave tons standing in the field. In large part, most churches are just shifting commodities (that which has already been harvested) from one location to another; when there is enough harvest on this planet to fill every church 100 times over. 

The problem is that reaching some fields is hard. So we choose selective harvests. We harvest what is closest to us (family, friends, co-workers). When we are only interested in harvesting what is closest to us, we leave much of the harvest to die in the field. That is why supporting missionaries and evangelist is so important, because they are harvesting in fields we cannot reach. Am I so selfish, that I am only concerned about getting this field harvested and not seeing the rest brought in. We can’t harvest what is easy, while avoiding the hard places.

Jesus warned his disciples, “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” It isn’t going to be easy, but we are not accomplishing God’s mission by having good church or shifting more of what has been harvested into our house. We are accomplishing His will when we win souls for Christ. If we don’t there will be people who will be lost. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see a single stalk left unharvested. 

Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church