There was once a group of farmers who got together regularly to compare methods for producing better crops. Once a week, they’d gather in one of the farmers’ barns to brainstorm new ideas about how to reap a bigger and better harvest. They’d compare notes, sharpen all their tools, and put together lists of fancy new equipment to buy that would help get the job done. Before they left each week, they’d make a plan for the week of farming ahead.
There was just one problem. They never actually went out into the fields to work their crops, so they never produced a harvest.
Chances are, you’re thinking, “That would never happen. Farmers would never do all the work of planning just so they could wind up not producing any crops!” And you’d probably be right. But what if I told you I wasn’t talking about farmers and their harvest at all? What if I told you I was actually talking about Christians and the spiritual harvest?
The sad reality is, a lot of believers today function a lot like those farmers. We get together once a week for a Sunday service, or maybe twice a week if we’re feeling ambitious and decide to join a Bible study or a small group. We worship, we pray, we hear a message that teaches us about some element of spiritual growth, we take studious notes, and maybe somewhere along the way we hear about the importance of sharing our faith with others. And then we walk out the doors, get in our cars, drive back to our houses – and completely bypass the “fields” we’re supposed to be working.
Discipleship is more than just being a disciple. Discipleship is about making disciples, too. No matter how much maturing we do in our own walk with Christ, if we miss the mark on what it means to sow into other people and reap the subsequent harvest of new believers, then we’ve missed an entire missional component of the Christian life.
Even as Jesus traveled from village to village, He recognized the seriousness of this problem and warned His followers against it. Matthew 9:36-38 tells us, “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”
What the farmers in our story didwasn’t bad or wrong. The steps they did take to better their crops were all smart and good. The problem was that they missed the most important step of all. Let’s not neglect the importance of the preparation that goes into sowing the fields that God has put before us. But let’s also not neglect the work of actually sowing and gathering them, either. That might look like bringing someone to church, inviting them to a Bible study, visiting them in the hospital, asking how we can pray for them, starting a conversation about faith, or any number of other scenarios. But what all those examples have in common is action on our part. We can’t afford to just talk about discipleship and not do anything about it. The cost is too high and the harvest is too great!
