Making Disciples – Farming Our Fields
The supply chain is not the answer. Cultivating our own fields is. What do I mean? Of what am I speaking?
I was recently given the notice that an important layperson from an important church hoped to speak with me. The messenger conveyed a concern for the next pastoral appointment. The present pastor has given notice of taking senior status. When that occurs, the layperson is concerned to receive an excellent pastor.
This church is not alone. Numbers of congregations are presently in need of pastors. Numbers more understand that they too will need a pastor in the near future.
To these churches, and to every church, I raise a question. What are you doing to supply the next generation of pastors?
For years, we have depended upon a supply chain that reached into colleges and seminaries all over the country to acquire an import the next crop of pastors. At the same time, our churches have not cultivated our own fields.
Every church can make disciples, even those of five or six worshipers on a Sunday. Disciples invite others to Christ. Disciples make disciples. Disciples become leaders who guide persons in the ministry of the Gospel. Disciples engaging in the ministry of the Gospel are more likely to hear the call to vocational ministry. Disciples recognize and nurture the call to ministry in others. Those nurtured in discipleship, called into ministry, recognized by the church, and equipped by the church become pastors of our churches.
Yes, we believe in training and education. We desire to strengthen the prospect of effectiveness of teaching theology and Bible, preaching and evangelism, worship, and evangelism. But the seminaries and course of study rely on the discipling work of every local church. If the church does not produce the crop from its field, the seminary cannot package it for a better appointment.
There are other reasons to emphasize our obedience to making disciples. There are also other costs to our weakness in addition to the scarcity of pastors.
John Wesley asked this question, “If the medicine is good, why are the people sick?” His concern was the ineffective life of so many churches. The Gospel is not the problem; it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. The atonement is not the problem. The cross is the power and wisdom of God. The ministry is of the Holy Spirit is not the problem for we may all walk by the Spirit. So why, he asks, are the people sick?
Why are there so few conversions and subsequent baptisms? Why are churches frustrated in ministry for lack of resources? Why are pastors in short supply? We have forgotten how, or we never intended in the first place, to make disciples and spread scriptural holiness across the globe.