“And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” – Luke 10:2
This verse seems to suggest that the Lord is eager to produce spiritual fruit but somehow limits or slows its growth to match the availability of workers and the authenticity of our prayers. This is not a precise formula that activates a genie from the lamp, but there is some type of mysterious participation that God is waiting for before He acts. John 15: 5 goes even further by saying, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
Several years ago, a friend told me that I needed to be as intentional and aggressive in raising prayer support as I was in raising financial support. That has stuck with me (more accurately, haunted me) – given the absolute necessity of raising money for our family and church – that if there was to be any hope of spiritual fruit – prayer must be our primary tool, not a secondary accessory to talent, resources and connections.
If our church succeeds it will be because a small group of people prayed for God to move. I can guarantee that the lead pastor does not have the talent, resources and connections to pull this off. To his credit, however, he’s smart enough to realize this and is trying to get people to join him in prayer.
To that end, Cara Jane and I have begun setting the alarms on our phones for 10:02, in reference to Luke 10:2. So twice a day we are reminded to pray that God would raise up a team to join us in planting Union Church. Specifically, we’re asking the Lord to provide 12 people from Huntsville to be sent out with us as well as 12 people already on the ground in Auburn who would begin laying the ground work before we arrive.
If God would be gracious enough to put this team of missionaries together, the first thing we’ll do as an official Union Church team, will be to launch a prayer meeting. Missional communities, preaching, finding a building, all that is important, but it comes later.
Please join us in praying that God would burden 24 people for the Auburn/Opelika area, that we would be united in the vision and mission of Union Church and that God would bring healing and reconciliation to a stagnate culture. Who knows what 24 people abiding in Jesus, praying for a harvest could accomplish?