John 4:35b Vast fields are ripening all around us & are ready now for harvest.
We don't have to become missionaries to "deepest, darkest Africa" to encounter "fields ripe for harvest." There's plenty of people all around us right now in the places we live in, work in, & frequent who are ripe & ready for any of us to talk to about Jesus & the incredible life He can bring them.
My wife, Lynn, has told me about people she knew on the mission field (she was a Baptist missionary in western Kenya during the '70's) who were only missionaries on the field, not back at home in the states. That is to say, they were only interested in talking to people about Jesus when they were out of the country.
She has said numerous times that the mark of someone with a true missionary spirit & calling was that they were always telling people about Jesus - whether they were in Africa, or New Jersey, or downtown Macon.
Speaking of downtown Macon (nice segue, huh?), I feel like this scripture is a prompting for me & all of us connected with The Warehouse. We're locating smack dab in the middle of a place that's ripe & ready for people to share with the people who work, live, &/or play in downtown Macon the wonderfully stupendous news about the Jesus, the Savior, & the life He can bring to us.
I don't see us forming teams for street witnessing. I see us using The Warehouse building as a launching pad for lifestyle evangelism. I doubt that "townies" would be receptive to "bible bangers" - people who walk around w/ big Bibles, quoting scriptures, like something out of a B movie from the '50's. What they will receive are people who demonstrate they love for these people as individuals, not "trophies" in a soul-winning contest.
I doubt if any of us reading this were captured for Jesus by such evangelism tactics. We were captured by lifestyle evangelism - through the friends we knew who lived the life of freedom & joy that comes from knowing Jesus & trusting in Him as our connection to the Father.
Anyone interested in being a part of this harvesting?
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