I have traveled around the nation this summer, one thing is clear. The wheat is ready for harvest. From the Great Plains of Kansas to the rolling hills of the Palouse, in the minds of all farmers there is a singular ocus - bringing in the harvest.I have also noticed that growing, vibrant Seventh-day Adventist Churches, like the farmers of our nation have a single focus - bringing in the harvest.
- One "combine" used effectively by South Tulsa Adventist Fellowship is the public reaping series. Over the past five years, this church plant has spent nearly $1.5 million dollars in conducting its nearly 40 evangelistic campaigns in reaching the 393,000 residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma with the Gospel. They are currently aiming for 100 baptisms this year, with an attendance over 300 each weekend, and a membership of over 500. Their harvest cycle is to conduct four evangelistic series each year, and during the Year of Evangelism, they conducted eight!
- We had the privilege of worshiping with the Eleventh Commandment Church, a Seventh-day Adventist Church plant located in the Orchards neighborhood Lewiston, Idaho. They recount their last reaping evangelistic series where they planned for a small group, and the Lord brought 353 individuals the opening night! This vivid picture of their rented church facility packed with people eager to hear the message God is fresh in their minds.
Are we as a Movement of God showing up to God’s Last Day Wheat Harvest, with dull sickles in our hands?
If we dare show up with obsolete harvesters, what will the Lord of the Harvest say when His precious wheat is shattered by the winds of strife, and falls to the ground?
I don’t believe He will let this happen. The harvest is too valuable to God.
Thus, I believe God is using other harvesters from other churches to spread the Gospel.
Instead, we should be on our knees, prayerfully planning how our own local churches will build combines.
These harvesters may look different based on each locality, since the terrain is diverse.
John 4:35-38
35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
Jesus also had this same focus. So must we.
