The Problem isn't the Harvest. The Problem is the Church Leadership

I work with 36,500 dunked Buds, MBBs, Hindu BBs and a few MY Jews. We have no problem finding homes to share Jesus story. I rarely have to talk about finding Persons of Peace with them because they are swimming in an enormous harvest in the homes of people who are interested in the origin of freedom. One prob is that they are so far out of the traditional box that when we share what God is doing to the traditional pastors they assume that we are fibbing. We are hoping and praying for a breakthrough among Christians this year. The prostitutes, Imans, Gurus, Monks, Majors are streaming into His kingdom but the paid clergy are the hardest hearts. They complain that the harvest is hard and that they must have more money to bring it in.

My friend and teacher George Patterson points out that most Church leaders have unidentified anxiety and fear.
4 Fears/ Barriers of Church Leaders
1. The Fear of losing control.  "How can I allow new believers to baptize and making disciples? They may rebel and I would loose control and therefore influence."  In a house church movement that now started 800 house churches and new discipleship groups across North Carolina, Tennessee, SC, TX, IN, and Mississippi.  I was shocked to see my pastor friend Andy Evans traditional church explode in growth.  The very opposite of this common fear occurred.  When First Baptist Spindale released their members to start multiplying house churches they began to attract workers from other churches and new believers.  These new members exclaimed, "We want want to be apart of a multiplying and growing church who is reaching the lost and discipling their community.  We are tired of warming the pews."  I was astounded that the first responders were members who were 40-70 years old.  The younger believers in rural Bible Belt churches gravitate towards newer churches who have cool music, flashy lights.  They tort, "Why should we go and identify Persons of Peace? Everyone is flocking to our growing churches."  The catalyst of this move of God, Jeff Sundell, pointed out that they were in fact merely attracting church hoppers and that they growth of these new Southern small town churches was primarily transfer growth. 


When you release your people to obey Jesus you will gain tremendous influence.  When his friends pointed out that he was losing influence, the second greatest man in history replied, "I must decrease but He (Jesus) must increase." John 3:30.


2. The Fear of insufficient funds. "How can we afford starting more churches when we do not have enough resources and staff for our own churches? Jay you are nuts!"   

I have witnessed that wherever churches allowed their members to start daughter churches and baptize new believers who baptize and disciple new believers outside the four walls of the church, the funny and ironic thing is that that mother church gains more resources.  I am not saying that there will never be a problem of not having enough money to disciple a vast region or enormous people but there is enough money to multiply and reproduce.