The Joy of the Harvest

I don’t know of anyone who grows a garden so they can have the joy of pulling weeds.

Weeding, tilling, hoeing, watering—they are all a part of gardening, but the real joy in gardening comes in harvesting. Whether it is picking that first juicy tomato, carefully watching over the blueberries until they are plump and perfect or waiting until the corn is full, tender and sweet, harvesting is what we anticipate. When we taste the sweetness or the abundance of flavor that simply cannot be found at the grocery store, then it is that the endless battles with bugs or weeds fades into insignificance for the joy of the harvest.

There are no unpleasant jobs in soulwinning. Every phase of soulwinning is special and wonderful to see people advancing in their walk with Jesus. Yet, nothing can compare to the joy of seeing someone make a public stand for Jesus through baptism—this is the joy of harvesting! What a privilege we have as a conference, then, to collectively engage in the ministry of harvesting in this conference-wide year of public evangelism. To be clear though, public evangelism is not just about harvesting. In public evangelism, seeds of truth are sown, Bible study interests are cultivated, those who have already accepted Jesus are established and preserved in their faith. This is one of the reasons why I believe that the public proclamation of our message is “the greatest and most efficient mode of witnessing to the truth and making it impressive.”[1]

This fall will be a very exciting time for us across our conference—we can all work together in the harvest field! Around 150 churches and schools throughout Michigan have either held or will be holding events to publicly proclaim Jesus and His last day message. Most of these public evangelistic meetings will be beginning on Friday, October 3^rd. We are excited for what the Lord is going to do across our state as the message is shared. You may have already seen yard signs, banners, billboards or social media advertisements sharing about the Keys to Revelation Bible prophecy seminars. With hundreds of thousands of invitations going out across the state, we want everyone within Michigan to have an opportunity to hear the three angels’ messages.

God has already been working in mighty ways. This spring and summer there have been meetings where hundreds of people have come to study the Bible and learn the truths for this time. In the Upper Peninsula, both Marquette and Munising held meetings this spring. In the Berrien area, there were a couple of churches that both held meetings with solid interests who continue to study and grow in their faith. Over in the thumb, Port Sanilac and Bad Axe held meetings with dozens of non-Adventists coming to these small churches. In central Michigan, the little church of Marion held meetings that filled up their fellowship hall. The church was excited as more people from the community came than anyone could remember before and more than doubled their meeting attendance. In Brighton, on the outskirts of the metro-Detroit area, they held a free AMEN dental clinic and then began their meetings with several that have now committed to the Lord through baptism. In the western Michigan town of Ludington, there are several people that they are working with and seeking to lead to baptism. This summer, the First Flint church held a joint evangelistic series and VBS together with messages presented to both parents and children. Our schools also joined in the efforts with students from our various academies and elementary schools proclaiming the message, as well. This spring, most of our Spanish churches held small groups in their communities that then culminated in weeklong evangelistic efforts. God is on the move throughout Michigan! People are hearing the message of hope in Jesus. People are committing their lives to Jesus through baptism. People are learning deep truths from the Bible that they have never heard before. People are joining God’s remnant church. God is working! But this is just the beginning of what God is doing here in Michigan!

This spring and summer there have been 30 to 40 meetings, but this fall, we are looking at 100 plus meetings taking place in most churches throughout Michigan. God has blessed abundantly this spring, and we look forward to the joys of harvesting even more!

How can you be a part of the joys of harvesting this fall? If your local church is holding meetings (and it probably is), you have a wonderful opportunity to work together in sharing the message. I am sure that people are needed to serve on the prayer team, greeting ministry, registrars or visitation teams. Even just being there for the meetings is a tremendous help. If you are there, you will be blessed by hearing the message, but you will have opportunity to meet and engage with the guests. If every guest had a friend sitting by them and developing a friendship with them, so many more would be baptized!

If your church already held meetings this year or is planning to another time, you can still join with the entire Michigan family in praying that God will bless as we proclaim His message throughout our state. You might be able to find a church that is livestreaming their meetings to join virtually and invite your online friends to study the Bible this way. Whatever way you can, God has a place for your gifts in His harvest field! You can pray for God’s special blessing, you can invite people to participate, you can be actively involved in the meetings, and you can develop friendships that will lead people into eternity. When you pick a ripe, juicy tomato (or whatever your favorite harvest is), you don’t think of all the work and effort that went into that tomato, you think of the joy of the harvest. In soulwinning, we don’t worry about the time, effort or cost that went into seeing souls saved for eternity. We rejoice with heaven in the joy of the harvest!