I was making a routine call home to talk to my wife. I expected her to answer the phone, but was surprised to hear the voice of my seven-year-old.
“Hello, this is Jonathan.” That greeting was music to my ears! We had been working on Jonathan’s phone etiquette. He usually answered something like: “Who is this and what do you want?” Progress at last!
“Hey Jonathan. This is Dad. You are home from school early. What are you doin’?”
“Catchin’ birds.”
“Catching birds?” I was curious. “And just how are you doing that?”
“It’s easy, Dad. I got this box and turned it upside down and put a stick to hold it up and put breadcrumbs under the box and tied dental floss to the stick. Then I hide under the table and when birds go under the box to eat the bread, I pull the dental floss and the box falls on the birds and I catch ‘em and make ‘em pet birds.”
Sounds simple enough.
“How many have you caught so far?”
“None yet.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell Jonathan that it probably wouldn’t work. He’d find that out soon enough, then get busy figuring out a way to make our car fly or something like that. He’s our creative one.
Eventually, I got my wife on the phone, forgot why I called, and ended up telling her the bird story. We shared a laugh and went back to whatever we were doing, only I couldn’t stop thinking about my son’s futile attempt at catching birds.
It reminded me too much of church. My mind flooded with vivid memories of my brother and I making our own bird trap, about thirty years ago. I remembered the excitement when we came up with the idea. I remembered the frustration when all the birds suddenly migrated to Canada as soon as we finished our trap. No, not a single bird was left in the whole state of Mississippi. At least that’s the way it seemed, because if the birds were still in the state, we would have caught them.
While every pre-teen boy on the planet has made a bird trap, I have never met one who actually caught a bird in a box. It’s a great idea with just one problem: it doesn’t work.
The fact that no one has caught a bird with a box, a stick, breadcrumbs, and a string since the first millennium has not stopped each new generation from trying.
Again, it reminds me of church.
“Hello, this is Pastor.”
“Hey Pastor. What are you doin’?”
“Fishing for men.”
“How many you caught so far?”
“None yet. In fact, our church hasn’t caught any this decade, but we are still using the same methods that every generation has used for the past thousand years. We’ve got another film showing scheduled next week for our youth . . .”
Rumor has it, the Cross and the Switchblade movie was an effective evangelistic tool in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Young people used to watch it and weep. Now they watch and laugh.
If we are serious about reaching the ripe harvest today, then it is about time we throw away our box, stick, and string methods that may have worked in primitive times, but are no longer effective. Legalistic dress codes and ancient music styles are no longer effective. Obsession with externals like dress codes and music styles are the church’s version of the box, stick, and string.
Enough talk. Let’s get practical. Here are three ways we can come up with new harvest-reaping methods that will work today:
1. Get to know God better and He will tell us how to reap today’s harvest. Warning: Sometimes God tells people to do things that are non-traditional.
2. Get to know lost people better and they will tell us what to do to reach them. Warning: This may require us to break out of our religious bubbles and actually spend time with lost people. When was the last time anyone accused you of being a “friend of sinners”?
3. Get to know other Christians better and they will tell us new ways to reach this generation. Warning: There are some great Christians out there who may not do church exactly like you do.
The fields are white for harvest, right now. We dare not say, “Four more months, then the harvest.” It is time for us to get serious about reaping the harvest now. If we don’t do it, God will find a people who will.