“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 9:37-38).
“We need more pastors, teachers, and staff ministers.”
If you’ve ever heard someone make that comment, or if you’ve said it yourself, I’m willing to bet that Jesus’ words to his disciples (quoted above) also came to mind or were said.
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” It was true in Jesus’ day, and it’s true in ours as well. Churches and schools across the United States are experiencing shortages of pastors, teachers, and staff ministers—some have even had vacancies for years despite numerous attempts to fill those positions.
But Jesus didn’t stop with that blunt assessment and shrug, saying, “That’s the way it goes,” and nor should we. No, Jesus went on to instruct his disciples, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
What does that look like?
There’s a lot of gospel ministry to be done in our neighborhoods, communities, cities, states, nation, and the whole world—the harvest is indeed plentiful! We thank God for the opportunities he gives and boldly pray that he would continue to equip his children to go and share the good news about Jesus with people who don’t know his great love for them.
We thank God for the men and women who have made it their full-time vocation to share God’s Word with us and others. We pray that God would continue to strengthen those workers, our fellow brothers and sisters, to faithfully carry out their God-given tasks.
We thank God for the young men and women whom he has blessed with the gifts for public ministry and who are studying to become the next generation of harvest workers. We pray that God would continue to instill in men and women the desire to serve as full-time harvest workers.
But if we think that Jesus’ instruction to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field only means that we should pray for more pastors, teachers, and staff ministers in our congregations and schools, we’re missing something rather important.
As Christians, we’re workers in God’s harvest field too.
The work of sharing God’s Word with others shouldn’t (and can’t) be left solely to our pastors, teachers, and staff ministers. As the family of believers, we have the privilege of sharing in and actively doing that work together.
It’s true—God blesses us all with different gifts. Some are more suited for full-time public ministry than others are. We thank God for those Christians, and we look for ways to encourage and pray for current and future full-time harvest workers!
But we all have people in our lives, people we rub shoulders with every day—neighbors, family members, coworkers, employees—who need to know what Jesus has done for them. And we can do that. We can share that message with them.
The well-known words of the hymn “Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying” come to my mind:
If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus, you can say he died for all.
If you cannot rouse the wicked with the judgment’s dread alarms,
You can lead the little children to the Savior’s waiting arms.
(CW 745:2)
In whatever role or vocation God has put us in—spouse, parent, employee, employer, friend, neighbor, customer—sharing God’s Word and displaying our faith through our words and actions is harvest work that we can do by God’s grace.
So as you ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest field, boldly and humbly ask that God would send you too. Ask that God would give you strength and courage to speak and share his gospel message with the people in your life.
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” (Isaiah 6:8).
Prepared to Answer: Telling the Greatest Story Ever Told provides you with engaging and familiar Bible accounts as answers to frequently asked religious questions, helping you feel more prepared to share Jesus and his love with the people in your life.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House and a 2023 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation with his family.
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