Page 38 - Robeson Living Fall 2020

It’s Harvest Time!

By Pastor Charles Locklear

Luke 10:2, “Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few:
pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.”

I heard many times, earlier in the pandemic, that the church had es our lives, day after day. We enter a building to worship. But
closed its doors and that the church was being forced to shut We also depart that same building to labor. We usually spend
down because of covid-19. I understood what was being said, less than 3-4 hours inside our place of worship each week. That
was about meeting in buildings as local congregations. While means that the great majority of our life is spent outside that
it is true that most local churches are not meeting inside build- place of worship. Our impact and influence as Christian people
ings, the idea that the church has shut down it entirely wrong. cannot be limited to the time spent in a building, we call our
In fact, the work of the church was never put inside a building, church.
by Him who is the chief cornerstone and founder of the Chris-
tian Church. Jesus gave instructions to His disciples, to take the The words of Jesus were true the moment He spoke them, but
message and the work of the church into the highways and the they seem to ring with a more thunderous charge and compel-
hedges. He expected that His disciples, then and now, would ling call upon the Christian community in the Fall of 2020. Be-
share the Christian faith wherever they had opportunity to do cause of the challenging days in which the whole world finds
so. This would include in the home, on the job, in the neighbor- itself, there is a sense of helplessness and fear that has gripped
hood and to whomever would cross our path in the daily walk the heart of humanity, like nothing most people living today
of life. It is important and necessary that Christian people do has ever seen. The threat of physical sickness and death, the
meet as local congregations, to grow in our understanding of threat of a job loss and all the complications that will come
the Christian faith, for collective prayer, for the fellowship and with it, the emotional and mental impact and the many other
the use of gifts and talents that God has placed in the lives of challenges that come with a global pandemic, has created a
His children, for the edification of the local church. Yes indeed, fantastic opportunity for the Church, to truly be the Church.
it is important that Christians be connected to a local church, It has been proven that the Church can exist without buildings
that we might participate in and promote the valuable experi- and normal gatherings. The words of Jesus ring loud and clear.
ence of worship and discipleship. We meet to worship God for If you declare yourself to be a Christian, there is a helpless and
who He is and to offer Him praise for the many ways He bless- hopeless world around you, that needs to hear the only mes-

Page 38 Robeson Living ~ Fall 2020