Tending our Fields and Celebrating Harvests
Superintendent Greg Yee shares encouraging updates from across the conference as we experience the harvest of faithful ministry in many places. He also invites us to encourage those whom God may be calling into ministry and those who are doing the patient work of ministry.
Do you know someone God has gifted for ministry and may need a nudge toward finding out more? Our Exploring Call for All Retreat is coming up on November 20-22. You can find out more here: Exploring Call Retreat There will also be an Exploring Call for Youth February 26-28.
Transcript:
Hello, Pacific Northwest Conference family. I pray that your fall has started out well and that you're launching into this new school year and season of ministry with much hope and deep joy in the Lord. I want to share a few things with you that I am particularly excited about. At our last annual meeting this past April, I introduced something we are calling wells and pipelines. It's about turning greater attention and resources toward our children, youth, and young adults, digging deeper wells of discipleship and spiritual formation while building new pipelines that haven't existed in the past, and strengthening existing ones so that people can discover their gifts and discern God's call and develop as leaders so that they can be sent into the church and into the world.
Because we can't just simply hope that the next generation of disciples and leaders appear. We have to invest in them and notice them and call things out in them and create places for them to grow and to spread their wings. There are already some exciting things that we're familiar with. Thunder is coming up this month and MUD is coming up next month and of course Unite next summer. Many of you are already making plans and raising money for Unite and we as a conference are absolutely committed to make sure every student is able to attend.
We're also expanding our Exploring Call Retreat. In the past, we've created this space for women to explore God's call to ministry. This year, for the first time, we're creating an opportunity for both men and women to come together and ask, "God, what might you be calling me into?" We're exploring how to create internship opportunities in our local churches. And we're also in conversations with the Alaska Conference and the denomination about creating a brand new six-week long discipleship experience in Alaska for the summer of 2028 for young adults. You'll be hearing much more about these ideas around wells and pipelines.
But there's another reason I'm particularly excited about this season. I am wondering if God might be bringing us into a season of harvest. Here's something interesting about farming. A field doesn't all ripen at once. Kernels on the same head of wheat can mature at different times and different parts of a field can be in different stages. That sounds a little bit like our conference right now. Not every church is in the same season. Some are planting, some are rebuilding, some are waiting, some are still recovering from difficult storms, but in other places, something is ripening.
And I just want to share a few good news stories that we're hearing from around the conference towards that. Crossroads Covenant Church in Yelm paid off their mortgage and they're now looking towards expanding their facility. We're also seeing facility expansions at Encounter on Mercer Island and up at Bellingham Covenant Church and also at Eastridge in Clackamas. They just completed their lower level. These are encouraging signs of churches investing in their future and creating new space for more ministry. And we're also celebrating changed lives. Seattle Chinese Covenant recently celebrated eight baptisms and two baptisms up at Lettered Streets up in Bellingham. Ten people publicly declaring their faith in Jesus. Absolutely something to celebrate together.
Several of you have come alongside our churches in Spokane, including Immanuel Covenant, who worked with a local school after the horrific fires to help get families back on their feet and into new homes. Many of you helped back to school service projects, blessing teachers and students in your communities. We're also celebrating Iglesia Latinoamericana's 40th anniversary and 40-year partnership with Highland Covenant Church. Four decades of shared ministry and friendship and witness. Beautiful picture of our Covenant family. And across the conference, a year ago, we're looking at at least 12 new lead pastors. And as I look back over this last year, it's amazing that most of those positions are filled. We're also seeing potential new church plants coming in and more conversations about potential adoptions. Conversations that did not exist three months ago.
Friends, there is a lot to celebrate. And here's another thing about harvest. What looks sudden at harvest actually represents months of largely unseen work. preparing the soil, planting, watering, faithfully tending the field while it didn't look like much was happening at all. I think about the faithful work so many of you have been doing particularly through some really difficult times. The prayers, the conversations, the investments in children and teenagers, the pastoral search teams, the mentoring, the decision to keep showing up faithfully and serving your community week after week. And now in some places, we're beginning to see fruit, which brings me back to something Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."
I've often heard this verse primarily as a statement about evangelism. It’s certainly that, but I wonder if there is also a leadership challenge here. When God brings a harvest, will there be enough people prepared to step into it? And that's why wells and pipelines matter so much right now. If God is preparing a harvest, we need to be preparing people. We need children and teenagers learning to recognize the voice of God. We need young adults discovering that God has given them gifts for his kingdom work. We need women and men asking seriously, "God, are you calling me into ministry?" We need pastors and church planters and missionaries and lay leaders who understand that their neighborhoods and workplaces and schools and communities are places where God has sent them.
So, here's what I'd like to ask you to do this month. Look at your field. Where might something be ripening that you haven't noticed? Who is the young person you need to encourage? Who has leadership gifts that nobody has called out yet? Who might need somebody to simply say, "Hey, have you ever wondered if God might be calling you to ministry? I'm seeing this in you. Because here's what I'm increasingly convinced of, we do not create the harvest. Only God does. But we can prepare for it. We can dig the wells. We can build the pipelines. We can prepare the workers. And when God brings the harvest, we can be ready.
Pacific Northwest Conference. I have a lot of hope for this season. Let's keep planting. Let's keep watering. And let's keep our eyes open for what God is bringing to life among us. Friends, have a fantastic October. God bless.