Do You Know What This Church Needs?

Ask the Lord of the harvest to thrust out workers into His harvest. (Matthew 9:38)

Pastor Andy said a number of profound things during his sermons this past weekend. Let's consider a quote from his message shared during The Key (Bronx Bethany's Saturday night service):

"Pray to the Lord of the harvest. Why pray? Because the world is complex and lives are intertwined."

We pray to the Lord because He knows what to do.
We pray to the Lord because He knows the nuances of each harvest field.
We pray to the Lord because He can untangle every complication.

Our pastor shared an example of his own challenges in a previous church. As he and members of his congregation prayed to the Lord of the harvest, the Lord instructed them to initiate events that were ultra-radical for the time and setting. Services were cancelled. Off-site events were developed. Their efforts reaped a harvest... and their efforts revealed the "tares among the wheat" (see Matthew 13:24-30), opening opportunities for the spiritual landscape to be cleared so that authentic healing could occur.

Not everyone is interested in launching God's church development plan, particularly when the plan requires stepping out of the box and doing things that have never been done before. There is a stronghold named "Tradition", and it dies hard. Are you praying, as the Lord instructed, "God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven"?  He just might tell you that His will requires a sacrifice of the familiar.

My dear husband Leon, from time to time, prays a short and necessary prayer: "Lord, deliver us from routine. Surprise us."

Amen. That is what we need, and that is what God does. Bronx Bethany, keep praying.