The workers are few…

Have you ever thought about the true size of your church?

Or as in our case the size of our Corps?

“A church isn’t measured by how many people fill the pews each Sunday. It’s measured by how many are still outside! You might be in a church of fifty, a hundred, or even a thousand – But if you’re in a city of one million, then the church is still fledgling.”

 

These words were penned by Wayne Cordeiro in his book “Jesus: Pure & Simple” and as I have been sitting in John’s gospel for the past week or so in my devotions, I have been reminded of a series of posts that I posted, six years ago entitled “Eyes on the Harvest” – which has again left me wondering;

Have we lost sight of why we do what we do, and for whom?

At the beginning of July we were reminded that we are to be the ‘salt and light‘ in the world, spreading the message of ‘hope and life‘ to those that we come in contact with.

Yet all too often we as Christians sit back in our seats waiting for God to move in our midst. All the while just maybe, God is actually waiting for us to stand up and start taking some small steps out into the world, and inviting people on a journey of faith that could potentially change their life for ever.

The thing is, we as Christians for the most part, accept the idea and thought process that “the Church is the Hope of the world” and that it is only through God at work through, and in us, that He can, and will, accomplish what it is, that we have been called to do.

But… Have we become more content to be consumers of church? Rather than having the mindset of a pioneering missionary, who will at all costs do whatever it takes to win ‘some’ (let alone anyone) for Christ! Would we rather let others do the work of the harvest? Rather than get out in the field and get active.

This is where the rubber hits the road – Are we evangelistic in our approach? Or, are we merely waiting for someone else to invite ‘our’ friends and family, ‘our’ neighbours, colleagues and work mates to church, or some other ministry that we are a part of, through whatever means. Are we afraid that they won’t like what they see, because we are not necessarily comfortable, or happy, with what goes on at church. Or do we simply not really care for their spiritual well-being, and their eternity, as much as we say we do.

According to the latest research on ‘faith and belief in New Zealand‘ which was commissioned by the Wilberforce Foundation, and undertaken by Australian research company McCrindle, exploring attitudes towards religion, spirituality and Christianity.

The church is on the decline.

A number of news reports, articles and blogs (including one I posted in October 2019) were posted about this report and the ramifications going forward for us as a nation, let alone a country that affectionately calls itself ‘God’s Zone’ – And their are numerous issues around how we can remedy the decline, let alone do what needs to be done to reestablish ourselves as a people who are all about bringing ‘Life & Hope’ to a hurting world.

However coupled with this is another dilemma – I’ve become increasingly aware that we do a lot of work in the church, for the church – we have programmes, ministries, events and activities that on the one hand we do to be attractional for those outside the church, but then we don’t actually go out into the highways and byways and invite people to them – yes we may advertise, we may invite people to help us run them, we may even go as far as employ people, and we get a little buy-in.

But all too often, we then leave it up to those same people to be the ones whose job it is to get others outside of the church to come to the church. All the while questioning why people aren’t coming like they used to in the ‘glory days of old’, or when the ministry first started.

Is it just because we “all” are not doing our part – we have left it to a select few – while the rest of us sit back and wait! Hurling stones from the side of the waters edge at those that are trying to do something to stop the rut.

The workers are few…

Now don’t get me wrong in the church we have plenty of workers, we have plenty of volunteers and we have a reasonably good amount of ministers, pastors, and officers who are “all” busy doing great work – Maybe that is the problem, we are busy doing work, a job – and again I come back to have we lost sight of why we do what we do, and whom we do it for.

As a Christian organisation this is where things can come a bit unstuck, as many people on the so called frontline (in our case our Family Stores, Community Ministries, and even programmes, activities and ministries run within the church) don’t necessarily know why we do what we do, and for whom.

They are doing what they have been employed to do, what they are paid for and volunteer their time for – and rightly so in today’s world of being a good employer, can we expect anything more? We have administrators, youth workers, counsellors, and so much more besides.

But the workers are few… and in some cases, dare I say it, they are non-existent in the local church, the local corps – no one is intentionally inviting, or evangelising their spheres of influence, the contacts that are readily coming through our doors, pointing those that we come in contact with, towards God.

Maybe the premise of the scripture from John is not so much about the workers are few – but the right kind of workers, are we doing the work of the mission? What is the mission? To invite people on a journey to knowing Christ, but if we do not even recognise and acknowledge God being at work in and through us then we can never advise others of Him.

Have we lost sight of the importance of Innovators, Planters, Evangelists and Harvesters and focussed on the functions of the workers rather than their giftings – maybe that should be the subject of another post.

As always I’d be interested in your thoughts on this 🙂

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