A new growing season is fast approaching. Last year’s harvest is completed and the winter has come, and is going. While fields and gardens are now dead and desolate, an opportunity is coming to plant another crop—to prepare the soil and plant the seed.
However, the planting is not the goal, nor the purpose. Instead, the planting is in anticipation of the harvest. Without the harvest, what is the purpose of planting? And yet, the farmer can do everything right in preparing the soil and planting the seed and still experience a crop failure. The weather is out of his control. Maybe too cold and wet, or perhaps too hot and dry.
For the past several years, CMC has been focusing on the mission of “Mature and Multiply.” Intentional plans have emerged to encourage and facilitate church planting and growth. There is a vision of a coming harvest, and the vision has been growing. We have been seeing the start of the harvest.
We will likely be forced to face some issues we would really prefer not to address.
Yet a certain resistance, or reluctance, seems to be among us sometimes. Yes, I have experienced some within myself. Growth and change are sometimes uncomfortable. It can be quite costly in money, time, work and comfort. We will likely be forced to face some issues we would really prefer not to address. I recall, perhaps 30 years ago in a Sunday School class, a statement was made by one who was thankful that Maple Glen Mennonite Church had never had to deal with the issue of divorce. A comment was made by another that he hopes the time comes when we have to face it. Not from within, but if the church is effective it will come, since it is all around us. In today’s society, divorce seems quite small compared to some other issues.
In Matthew 13, Jesus gave the Parable of the Sower. Seed was sown in the field, some fell where it grew but did not produce a crop and some grew and produced 30, 60 or even 100 times an increase. In the Great Commission we are commanded to go and teach (spread the seed to) all nations. A number of translations say to “make disciples.” In Acts 1, Jesus said to start at home (Jerusalem) and expand to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Jesus’ intent was for all Christians to be disciple-makers. Too many times we have relegated this task primarily to a few. While it may be an effective practice to have a few “full-time disciple-makers,” Jesus did not intend for this to be carried out fully by mercenaries, but by every one of us who has experienced the new birth and has the Holy Spirit. Max Jones, a chaplain in the Florida prison system, defined witnessing as, “One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” Face it, every one of us was a sinful beggar, starving spiritually. Let each of us start this new season with a determination to help our fellow beggars find the Bread of Life.
A good seed, when planted in the ground will grow and multiply. Let us sow the seed of God’s love and nurture the fruits thereof to maturity. Let us depend on the Holy Spirit to prepare the soil and supply the sun and the rain. There will be no harvest without the planting. Make plans for the harvest, but don’t wait to plant until the combine is greased. In other words, plan for the future, but also work today.
