The church

has met her fiercest enemy and he is we. Because we are

huddled in the barn. Safe and cozy. If a new face strays

into our barn, that's okay. But to ask us in the barn to

go into the field for the harvest, no way.

Jesus once

made a striking observation: "The harvest is

plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore pray to the

Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his

harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). Notice Jesus said

"the harvest is plentiful." If Jesus were Bill

Gates, we would immediately know he was talking about the

demand for personal computers. But Jesus Christ is no

Bill Gates.

Jesus was

talking about his business: the eternal souls of

humankind. Millions of people are prime for a download of

Jesus Christ into their lives But, there's a problem:

workers to communicate "the way, the truth, and the

life" are few in number. If you please, Jesus Christ

programmers are very few. Great demand, but few to

provide. Jesus gives us his solution. We who are comfy in

the barn must pray that God himself would thrust us out

of the barn into the ripe and ready harvest.

Back up:

most Christians read this text as if Jesus were saying

that the church needs to pray for additional workers. Not

so! Jesus knows the workers are in the barn; we barnacles

must pray that God would blow us out of the barn into the

field.

The average

American Christian church harbors 75 potential workers

inside the barn. What do they do Sunday after Sunday

after Sunday? Sit and eat and wait for some super pastor

to come along and do their heavenly work for them. Some

barns will wait decades for such. Sit and eat and wait.

If he never shows up, the barn closes down. You see,

since the mortality rate is 100 percent when last

checked, the lazy-boyed Christians will eventually die.

Many folks

believe the Christian church was born in the upper room

(Acts 1:12). Not so! The Christian church was born when

the huddled 120 people came out of the upper room barn

into the streets of Jerusalem. A church that does not

come out of the barn can't call itself a Christian

church. Jesus said, "I will build my church and the

gates of hell shall not overpower it" (Matthew

16:18). A real church is the church militant, a church on

the move unwilling to permit the gates of hell to stand

in place. Therefore, our prayer should be that God would

kick us out of the barn into the streets to pick the

harvest.

It's a sad

scene to see Georgia peach trees go wanting for someone

to harvest the fruit. But that's the scene in America.

Millions of ripe souls ready for the winning, but the

church is all too comfortable in the barn. If you want to

do something about it, start praying the prayer of

Matthew 9:37-38. Amen!

The Rev. Dr. John

Hatcher is pastor of River's Edge Community Church in

Fayetteville.

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