How big is your harvest field? How far does your missions vision reach?
Is it only as big as “me, myself, and I”?
Is it “me, myself, I, and my family”?
Or “me, myself, I, my family, and my church family”?
Or perhaps it extends as far as your workplace, school, neighborhood, and church neighborhood.
That’s good, and I would never belittle it. But, God wants us to take on a larger harvest field—the same one He sees from the Throne of Grace. That, my friend, is the whole world.
The Harvest is Ripe—But There’s a Problem
In John 4:35, Jesus said: “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (NIV). But we have a problem—““The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Luke 10:2 NIV). So many of us live for our own little corner of the field, worrying about our personal needs. God wants us to work with Him to reach the whole harvest field of the world. As Missionary pastor Oswald J. Smith once said, “You never in your life heard of a farmer working in one little corner of his field. The farmer works the whole field.”
“What a Waste!”
We used to have an orange tree in our yard. Every year, big, juicy oranges fell to the ground and spoiled because I didn’t take time to harvest them. I used to think, “What a waste.” This reminded me of a terrible statistic.
Did you know that over 50,000 people die every day in the 10/40 Window who have never heard the gospel? Some statisticians say it’s as much as 70,000. These unreached souls never became a part of our harvest field. What a waste! Sadly, these people will go to hell for an eternity separated from God. My heart aches just thinking about that!
Why does this happen? Because we spend so much time and resources harvesting our little corner of the mission field. Remember—Only .5% of USA church offerings and 3.3% of missionaries go towards the unreached. Meanwhile, 95% of USA offerings go towards home ministry (including rent and staff pay), and 77.3% of missionaries work in the reached world. And that’s only the beginning of the disturbing statistics.
Did you know?
- Christians make up 33% of the world’s population, but have 53% of the world’s annual income and spend 98% of it on themselves.
- The Church has approximately 3,000 times the financial resources and 9,000 times the workers needed to complete the Great Commission.
- 40% of the Church’s global foreign mission resources are sent to just ten oversaturated countries.
Why this neglect? I believe it’s because we love our comfortable corner of the world. We justify our lack of concern by saying, “We haven’t completed the work here.” Do you feel remorse over this? God never commanded us to finish one task before we begin the next. In Mark 16:15, Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (NIV). The Church must send the gospel everywhere simultaneously.
Harvest the Whole Field
In Florida, we have massive orange orchards. But farmers don’t neglect the grapefruit and strawberries to harvest oranges. They harvest every part of the field! It must be the same way in God’s Kingdom. God has the love, power, resources, and people to send the gospel to every nation. What’s missing? Robert Savage tells us: “The command has been to ‘go,’ but we have stayed – in body, gifts, prayer, and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth…But 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland.”
Some worry that we’ll neglect home missions if we focus on world evangelism. I disagree. If we expanded our vision to reach the whole world, we would bear more fruit at home, not less. As Oswald J. Smith said, “The light that shines the farthest shines the brightest near home.” Imagine a triumphant church focused on reaching the whole world—at home and abroad! A church determined to reach the entire world in this generation! A church like that wouldn’t waste its time or energy on things of little eternal importance.
The Real Missions Question
So, when it comes to missions, we don’t need to ask God if He wants us involved.
Instead, we must ask, “How do you want me to get involved?”
If you’re already involved, I encourage you to keep it up. Don’t drop the ball or lose your focus! If you aren’t involved, I challenge you to start today. “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35 NIV).
Instead, we must ask, “How do you want me to get involved?”
If you’re already involved, I encourage you to keep it up. Don’t drop the ball or lose your focus! If you aren’t involved, I challenge you to start today. “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35 NIV).
In His service, Brian Weller
We encourage you to take some time to reflect on how to respond to this article. We’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. May you be blessed as you SHARE GOD’S HOPE!
Brian Mark Weller is the founder of Message Ministries and a Christian teacher with a passion for world missions. Brian met the Lord in 1974 and entered public ministry soon after in 1976. In 1988, God gave Brian a special gift — a piercing burden for lost souls on the mission field. Since then, Brian has traveled the nations preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. He has recorded 9 albums of challenging Christian music and published one stirring book — Backsliding in Heart: 5 Steps to a Backsliding Heart and Back Again. He currently lives with his wife Anne in St. Petersburg, FL. He has three grown children and three grandchildren. Click here to learn more about Brian, access his Bible teaching, or invite him to minister at an event.
Brian, what a wonderful and anointed teaching…You have such a strong passion for souls…I am so thankful how strongly God is using you and your family…you are in my heart and prayers..May God continue to bless you with souls,the greatest blessing we could desire….Love,Susie