The churches of America have entered a major leadership crisis. Many churches don’t have pastors and cannot obtain one. The number of churches without qualified spiritual leaders is multiplying by the day. This vacuum of leadership has hit every denomination and group. This situation is a relatively new one for Bible-believing American churches.

How Do We Explain Today’s Leadership Crisis?

I have heard many possible explanations for this leadership crisis. No doubt all of these play a part and are true of many.

  • Moral decline in our churches—there are not very many young men of integrity to draw from for leadership
  • The significant drop in conversions, making the pool of potential leadership much smaller
  • Worldliness and spiritual apathy of churches in general; the unwillingness of men to become bi-vocational pastors
  • The pendulum swing away from the excessive emphasis on the call to vocational ministry, resulting in a de-emphasis on the call to ministry today
  • Entertainment addiction among many of our young men through gaming, popular movies and music, affecting morality and prolonging immaturity
  • Unwillingness to step out on faith to see God provide as many in ministry must struggle financially
  • The failure of pastors to mentor young men for ministry

Two Sins of Omission that Contribute to The Leadership Crisis

I would suggest two omissions that I believe contribute significantly to this leadership crisis. These two omissions probably even create or encourage some of these causes of the leadership vacuum listed above. The first omission is prayer for the harvest. In my understanding, the failure to pray for the harvest is one of two major omissions that lead to so few young men and women responding to God’s call to serve. The second omission will be described in part two of this series.

Omission #1: Prayer for the Harvest

“When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest'” (Mt. 9:36-38 ESV).

Our Lord Jesus Christ was full of compassion for the lost. When He looked upon the multitudes around Him, He saw their spiritual need and their end. He saw them as “harassed and helpless”. Other translations read: “weary and scattered” (NKJV), “fainted” and “scattered” (KJV), “distressed and dejected” (CSB), “distressed and dispirited” (NASB95), and “confused and helpless” (NLT). Jesus saw them with spiritual eyes, eyes that had eternity in view.

The Lord then made a statement meant to move the hearts of His disciples: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” The spiritual harvest of souls that needed attention, that needed reaping before it spoiled, was vast and abundant. Jesus called upon His disciples to see the people all around them, and He saw this harvest, suffering sheep in need of the Good Shepherd. Humanity all around them was in a desperate state of confusion and hopelessness without their Creator. How could His disciples begin to see with His eyes? How could they increase and maintain their compassion for unbelievers?

Prayer for God to send out laborers

Jesus then commanded them to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Jesus knew that prayer for the harvest, prayer for the lost, prayer for laborers to go and speak and witness and rescue, would steer the hearts of His disciples towards God’s heart. More than this, it would move them to action.

But how many Christians actually pray regularly for the harvest all around them? How many earnestly pray for unbelievers by name? How many church prayer meetings are focused primarily on the spiritual harvest instead of physical health needs? How many churches gather for prayer at all anymore? Should we be surprised if, prayerless as we are, men and women are not being moved to action by God’s Spirit to enter the harvest as workers?

But the command of Jesus here is not specifically targeting prayer for the lost, though this could be assumed. Instead, He emphasizes that His disciples must pray that God, the Lord of the harvest, would send out more laborers. It is through this kind of praying that God raises up laborers, spiritual leaders, evangelists, pastors, teachers, cross-cultural laborers, to work in His harvest fields. If God’s people are not earnestly praying for the harvest and for God to raise up laborers for that harvest, the Lord will not send out (lit. “thrust out”) laborers.

Soul-searching questions that demand an answer:

  1. Am I praying for the harvest and for God to send out more laborers to work in His harvest?
  2. Does my local church take prayer for the spiritual harvest of the community around them and the world seriously enough to maintain earnest prayer for God’s grace to work through them?
  3. Does my local church regularly pray together for God to send out more laborers? Do we ever pray this way?

Consequences of this sin of omission

If we are not intentionally praying for the harvest, for the lost, for our unbelieving friends, family, co-workers, and community, we will not have the heart of Jesus required to motivate us to witness for Him.

If we are not unifying our hearts in prayer for God to send out laborers, this passage implies that God will not send out laborers! What a sobering thought. Am I, and is my local church, guilty of disobeying the clear command of Jesus in this passage to pray earnestly for God to send out laborers?

If we are not continually praying like this, why would we be surprised by the lack of evangelism, lack of heart for outreach, and the relative disinterest of God’s people in the harvest? We NEED this prayer! God knows we need it, so He commanded us to pray this way. We need to continually refocus our hearts on His priorities, the eternal.

This prayer is important!

Without prayer for laborers, God does not call men and women to work in His harvest fields. God has chosen to somehow bind the advance of the Gospel to the prayers of His people. God shakes up His people, pulls them out of apathy, and helps them to focus on spiritual realities through this prayer.

Christian brother or sister, are you praying like this? If not, may God help you to begin today by His grace. God will use your prayers to raise up leaders in His Church.

Pastor, elders, deacons–are you praying like this yourselves? Are you leading God’s people in obedient prayer for the harvest and for laborers to enter it?

A Final Question

If you are not praying this way, why not? Ask God to search your heart and then seek His forgiveness according to your need.

May it be that the Lord would raise up many to embrace this harvest prayer so that He would then send many laborers for His harvest!