A dry harvest

I must admit I dream of moments like these:

Jesus is putting his master plan together when he does this in the Gospel of Luke: "the Master selected seventy and sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he intended to go. He gave them this charge:
"What a huge harvest! And how few the harvest hands. So on your knees; ask the God of the Harvest to send harvest hands."On your way! But be careful—this is hazardous work. You're like lambs in a wolf pack. "Travel light. Comb and toothbrush and no extra luggage. "Don't loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way. "When you enter a home, greet the family, 'Peace.' If your greeting is received, then it's a good place to stay. But if it's not received, take it back and get out. Don't impose yourself. Stay at one home, taking your meals there, for a worker deserves three square meals. Don't move from house to house, looking for the best cook in town. When you enter a town and are received, eat what they set before you, heal anyone who is sick, and tell them, 'God's kingdom is right on your doorstep!' "When you enter a town and are not received, go out in the street and say, 'The only thing we got from you is the dirt on our feet, and we're giving it back. Did you have any idea that God's kingdom was right on your doorstep?' Sodom will have it better on Judgment Day than the town that rejects you. ... "The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me." The seventy came back triumphant. "Master, even the demons danced to your tune!"

When examining this moment, one notices a few things. There are no committee meetings about strategy planning, no powerpoint displays of what we will do next, no books to be read, no prayer circles even. But the thing I notice the most is that 70 went out and 70 were successful. Seventy?

This thing of church growth is a puzzler ot me. You come up with idea after idea, you research and come up with demographics that say so and so works and then you try so and so and it either works or it doesn't.

And then...somehow...70 becomes 12 becomes 11 becomes one at the foot of the cross.

This notion that we should be satisfied, even gratified, if one new person comes to our churches is a difficult one for me. If one comes, I think two could have. If two comes, I wonder where the other five was. If five come, what didn't we do that would have attracted 10.

And I wonder how Jesus felt when he looked down and saw his momma and one disciple? I'm fairly certain there were much bigger pains to be concerned about at that moment, nails and dying and all, but still, where did the 70 go?

I'm constantly worrying that not only am I not bringing in the many, I'm running away the few. That puts tremendous pressure on me, I understand. But the stakes are great, are they not? Could they possibly be any greater?

"The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me."

Somehow I impose myself into that mixture, feeling the rejection way out of proportion. It is God himself they are rejecting, and that is so dang sad. Then I wonder if it's me that they're rejecting and they're fine with god. Bottom line is, THEY are rejecting, and it hurts my very soul to consider that.

God give us words, the workers of your fields, to say the right thing, do the right thing, be the right thing that helps us with the harvest. The harvest isn't going that well, as I'm sure you know.