Pray for Volunteers
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Matthew 9:36-38 NIV
The harvest is plentiful
This verse provides a simple formula for preparing future leaders of the church. It starts with two simple facts. First, the harvest is plentiful. Second, the workers are few.
When you think about it, as painful as it is, these two facts have always been true. There is so much to do!
There are millions of people throughout the world who have not had an authentic opportunity to learn about the goodness of Jesus. The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few.
These two facts are at the heart of what it means to plant churches. There is a great opportunity, and there is a great need for workers!
There are a lot of different ways to recruit new leaders. But if we read just a little bit further, Jesus gives us the ultimate action step for getting more leaders to serve. It’s a simple command: Pray. That’s it. That’s what God gives us. He just says we should pray that the Father would send workers into the field. In fact, this is the only other prayer Jesus instructs his disciples to prayer besides the Lord’s prayer. One might say this is the “neglected prayer.”
It’s humbling to realize that we can’t be the ones to send workers into the field.
There is no such thing as human-recruitment for a God-sized mission. We don’t own the field, so we can’t hire the laborers. Ministry only happens when God does the sending. So our responsibility is simply to pray. Our responsibility is to ask. We have to plead with God, that the Lord would send workers into the field.
Please consider praying that God would lay on the hearts of people at our church, and in our new community, an urge to step up and to help lead this new church start. Pray that God would send workers to help make new disciples.