Pray for Gospel Workers

Billions of dollars are raised each year through crowdfunding.  Perhaps you have partcipated in this as well.  Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people.  Many people doing it really tough in life are helped when someone starts up a go-fund-me page or using some other form of crowdfunding.

You might consider the giving of money at church as one form of crowdfunding.  Many gospel initiatives are supported when a large number of church members give faithfully.  But in addition to crowdfunding, what we need in our churches today is crowdpraying.   Especially in the CRCA.  We need a large number of people praying that many gospel workers will be raised up.   Let me explain.

In previous articles I have pointed out that in the CRCA we need to raise up many gospel workers.  You can read about the urgency of this need here.  You can also read about the six step strategy that we have developed to address this need.  In this series of articles I want to look at each one of these steps in greater detail.

In Matthew 9:36 we are told that Jesus saw the crowds around him.  The crowds never seemed to go unnoticed.  Once when he saw the crowds he sat down his disciples and taught them what it meant to live as salt and light in this world. (Matthew 5:1; see 5:2ff)  At other times when he noticed the crowds, he had compassion on them.  He saw their great needs - be it illness or hunger. (see Matthew 14:13-21)  Matthew tells us in chapter 9 that when Jesus saw the crowds  he also had compassion on them, but this time it was because "they were harrassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36)

When we see the crowds of people in our cities and suburbs are we, like Jesus, moved to really take notice of their needs?  I sometimes reflect on this when I am in a shopping center, at the airport, or in a stadium full of people.  I wonder how many of these people have heard the gospel, know Jesus, or have a hope for this life and the next.  I think of the many churches in our denomination that right now do not have a pastor.  The people in these churches might not be harrassed and helpless, but they are like sheep without a shepherd.  When we see the crowds -- in our cities and suburbs -- in our vacant churches -- what should we do?  Where should we begin?

Jesus told us we need to begin with prayer.   He tells us,"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 9:37)  Seeing the crowds all around us ought to move us to prayer!  Crowdpraying.  Lots and lots of people praying that the crowds, the sheep without a shepherd, will receive a pastor to work among them.

Yes, God is at work in our world.  What happens in our churches and in our communities is "his harvest field."  The harvest is also plentiful.  In other words, there is lots of gospel fruit ripe for picking, but the need is for harvesters.  We have seen in the state where I live, in Queensland, the devastating result of too few workers in the harvest fields.  Thousands of kilos of ripened fruit goes to waste.  And in our churches and communities so many opportunities are wasted simply because we do not have enough gospel workers, pastors, shepherds of the flock.

The importance of prayer is not new.  In the CRCA we deem prayer as our first task.  And so it ought to be.  All our Christian endeavours need to begin on our knees.  So it is when we notice the crowds around us and the lack of gospel workers.  We need to pray.  We need to pray persistently.  We need to pray passionately.   As church members, as church leaders, as people gathered for worship.  In the home , in our small groups, in our worship services -- at all times and in all places we need to keep on praying that gospel workers will be sent into God's harvest field.  

Will you pray?  Will you pray for specific people, for specific needs in the harvest field, for God to lay this as a burden on many hearts?  May we see a surplus of gospel workers raised up through crowdpraying.  If we are ever to raise up future leaders in the CRCA, we need a large number of people praying for gospel workers.