Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
(Matthew 9:37-38)
We must never lose focus on the importance and the urgency of training and preparing our children and youth to be sent out into the harvest field for Christ. It does not take long to see that people around us are afraid. They are afraid of COVID, afraid of the economy, afraid of the election results, afraid of racism, violence, war, hate, riots…the list could go on and on. Yet their greatest fear is that they have no one to turn to in this troubled time. Some turn to the government, some to the streets in protest, some to the courthouse, many to the ballot box, some turn to the doctors for help, others to the therapists, some to the astrologers, and many even turn to Facebook for the answers. As they begin to see all these answers fail who will they turn to? While many harts are still hardened by sin and pride, I believe that many more are beginning to open as they see the need for a Great Physician, who is The all-knowing, all powerful, King of kings and Lord of lords to be their Saviour.
Yet who will tell them of this Saviour? The harvest truly is great, even today in the midst of COVID-19, but the labourers are still few. While COVID has slowed the rate of church planting and the training of new pastors in America, it has in no way slowed the rate of pastors retiring, going onto Glory, or leaving the ministry. At a pastor’s conference last week we prayed for laborer’s as we looked at the number of Baptist churches in Wisconsin that do not have a pastor, and how many more will not have a pastor by the end of the year. We prayed for laborer’s as we realized that though the WIBF has seen 80 Baptist churches planted in Wisconsin in the last 70 years there currently none being planted! O, how we need laborers in the harvest.
The youth group here at Tomah Baptist Church is not just about having fun and playing games. We are about the training of the next generation of church leaders. When we look at the teens of our church and see them each as another church planted, another family living for God, another Sunday school class being taught, another mission field reached, or anoth-er laborer in the harvest field, then we see the importance and urgency of our work here.
When we look at what God is doing in the lives of our young people things do not look as bad as they do on the news. Our average at-tendance on Wednesday night youth group and teen Sunday school has been higher since we reopened than they were before the COVID shutdown. On September 5th, for the first time since I came here, we needed two vans to carry our teens to attend the area wide youth activity! Please pray with me that God will raise up some of them to be laborers in His harvest.
Pastor Robert Meyer