The American Concept of Harvesting
With all the news stories about farmers not growing this in order to grow that in order to make the other . . . well it got me to thinking about the farm “industry” in this country vs. the small local farmers. And that made me think of this . . .
The American concept of successful harvesting is for a farmer to climb up into the big air-conditioned cab of their combine, fire it up, crank up some tunes, and proceed to mow down the fields before them. There is little contact with the ground, and the harvest is swift. The crop is shuffled off to the next stage in production (cleaning, sorting, inspecting) and then arranged neatly in attractive packaging for sale at market.
Hmmm . . . do you see any elements of the above paralleling some [mega] churches and formula-based movements out there?
Tags: Belief Systems, Christianity, Discernment, Discipleship, Humor, Integrity, Politics, Religion
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July 3, 2008 at 11:47 am
I think you’ve hit on a solid analogy here. So many pastors now seem to be looking for the air-conditioned tractor with the iPod mounted on the dash instead of being concerned with the state of the harvest. I have seen a steady increase in this sort of pastoral negligence over the past decade. It’s a shame, but it’s happening more and more.
July 9, 2008 at 10:21 am
[tongue in cheek] No, not at all! What could you possibly be referring to? [/tongue in cheek]
I definitely agree. I’ve been at the receiving end twice of pastors more concerned with the air conditioning that with the reality of the harvest. They were so disconnected from what was actually happening in the church that I was beyond shocked. I remember thinking, all you had to do was talk to these people for a minute or less, and you would have known! One was regarding regular attenders/volunteers who suddenly stopped coming. (Their child had fallen dreadfully ill and was in the hospital. A couple of liasons had called the church from the hospital to tell the leadership, but somehow, mixed messages or something. But How? I’ll never know.) The pastor went on and on about people who “failed to remember the admonishment to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together” and all but named the couple by name. Needless to say, a couple of members set him straight, and he claimed that he had been “so” busy lately. How in the world the whole church knew about it but he did not still blows my mind. He then went on to basically say that the kids was sick because of sin in the parents’ lives. We left there soon after.
Sorry to write a book. But I’ve been touched by the fruit of this more than once, to the point that I am a bit dubious of many pastors (especially younger ones) in my area.
July 9, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Joy – I had actually gotten to the place where I wondered if it was my fault that I was seeing so much neglect of and abuse of the flock by pastors. But recently I have found many others who have seen the same sad trend. It is very unfortunate.
July 15, 2008 at 10:51 am
Joy-
Very good analogy.
However it is 104 degrees fahrenheit today where I live so I would take the air conditioned combine if I was a farmer! Grin.
July 16, 2008 at 2:35 am
Richard and Joy – Thankfully my observation has been one made from afar . . . no really bad personal experiences with leadership.
Hutch – Yeah, yeah . . . what did we do before AC? (Stated by one who hibernates in AC in the hot hot summer here!)