“The Harvest is Plentiful, but the Laborers are Few…” (Luke 10:2a)
By Rev. Laura Kirkpatrick
Rev. Laura J. Kirkpatrick is the Associate Minister for Discipleship at First United Methodist Church, Valparaiso, IN.

As an Indiana farm girl, I am anxiously awaiting my few days of fall vacation. The few days once a year when I go “down on the farm”, ride the combine, weigh grain trucks, and drive John Deere tractors. I’m not talking about lawn mowers either! It’s amazing how the combine shucks the corn from its cob and plucks the soybeans from their pods, then spits out the leftovers. It’s amazing how you can have a small computer disk in the combine, take it home, and print out maps of the fields harvested that day. It’s amazing how the combine moves through the field with a tractor and auger wagon alongside “dumping on the run” (the combine unloads into the auger wagon while both machines continue to move forward). It’s amazing how the auger wagon dumps into trucks that haul the grain to be dried and later delivered to train cars. It’s amazing to realize while all pieces of harvest are in motion, somewhere, cattle are happily eating and corn chips are in lunch boxes waiting to be enjoyed. It is a wonder to see; when everything is working, harvest moves like clockwork! However, you can have all the equipment in the world, but if you don’t have laborers the equipment is useless.

Harvest on the farm reminds me of the workings of the church. There are preachers, teachers, musicians, and a multitude of behind the scenes volunteers. While one person is running to the hospital or preparing for a wedding, others are recruiting small group leaders, preparing for Sunday worship, organizing various events, and recruiting participants for all age levels. In the meantime, some are working the food pantry, others are working in the community, and God bless the bulletin stuffers! It is truly amazing to realize the many facets of church life and the many avenues we have to encounter people in various stages of life. But the clockwork can stop if the equipment is not maintained, and more importantly, if the laborers are few.

As we juggle a multitude of ministries and seek for all to reap God’s grace, it is easy to become so fixed on getting it done that we lose sight of maintaining the volunteers and investing in those yet to come. It is easy to keep calling the same people to do the same things. But as the harvest continues to grow, the few laborers cannot do it all. As much as we desire to charge forward and conquer our goals, we must take time to invest in new laborers, and this takes intentional effort.

One way to begin this intentional effort is to consider a spiritual gift based class to help people discover their God-given gifts and possibilities, i.e. Serving from the Heart. But the recruitment does not end with a class; the class is only the beginning! Leaders must follow-up with participants, help place them in ministries, and follow-up with ministry leaders to insure they are mentoring their new team members. Even better, have a team of parishioners who focus their energy on the placement and follow-up process. As the “harvest is plentiful”, the recruitment of laborers is not just about filling positions around the church, it is about God’s children serving as disciples and reaping the benefits of harvesting together, experiencing Emmanuel, living grace, giving and receiving God’s love.

The next time you bite into a corn chip remember there is a process to get that chip to you. Let this serve as a reminder of the process of ministry. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with the whole body of Christ working together!

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