Still Bearing Fruit

A few years ago an old friend of Ingrid’s who lives in BC had a word from the Lord for us. The word was Psalm 92:13-15 and in the Jerusalem Bible it reads like this:

Planted in the house of Yahweh, they will flourish in the courts of our God, still bearing fruit in old age, still remaining fresh and green, to proclaim that Yahweh is righteous, my rock in whom no fault is to be found!

The important part — the part that struck us with prophetic forcefulness — was this:

still bearing fruit in old age

This encouraged us tremendously because at the time we were feeling our age. And even though the desire to serve the Lord was still there, the energy just wasn’t there anymore. We were growing old.

For over four decades Ingrid and I have been building and planting God’s kingdom. We’ve started home fellowships and house churches, helped establish church plants, trained and led ministry teams, led Bible Studies, delivered food hampers to the poor and and done all kinds of other kingdom stuff. But we’ve reached a point in our lives — I’m in my 70s now — where there are some things that we just can’t do anymore.

Like starting another home fellowship. We see the need for one, a place where we can invite those we’ve been trying to draw into the kingdom. But the reality is we can’t do it anymore. We’re just too old. In earlier times our midweek homegroup meetings often ran until midnight as we counselled and ministered to people. Now however we head to bed around 9 pm so we can get enough sleep to function the following day.

But if we’re too old now to start something — and if you start something then you’re also going to have to lead it, right? Because otherwise it’ll fall apart. So then, if you’re too old to start and lead something, what can you still do?

My friend Martin, who is in a similar season of life, says what we can do is to resource those leading the front end of the battle. And that’s exactly what Ingrid and I have been trying to do with our BuildPlant.org website: to provided resources, based on our decades of experience, for those who are young and bold (and maybe crazy) enough to want to build and plant fellowships, equip and lead ministry teams, train worship leaders and songwriters, and so on.

But there’s also something else you can do for God’s kingdom when you’re old like we are. And that’s to pray. And guess what? Jesus even tells us what we should be praying for. Because the problem is that there are few who are willing to commit the time, energy and money— and deal with all the attendant difficulties and problems and frustrations and disappointments and pushback and flak — involved in building and planting fellowships, equipping and leading ministry teams, training worship leaders and songwriters, and such kinds of stuff.

So then, considering this situation what should we as old leaders who can no longer lead be praying for? The answer lies in what Jesus said as recorded in Luke 10:2:

“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.”

In chapter 2 of our book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship I explain what Jesus is actually saying in this verse. Here's an excerpt:

There's a double note of urgency in what Jesus said here. First, he says pray earnestly—earnestly! The underlying Greek word used here expresses the idea of begging for something that is very much needed, as in "Please, sir!" And the Greek verb translated above as "send out" isn't the same as the word used earlier in Luke 9:2 where Jesus "sent out" the Twelve. Luke 10:2 instead uses a word found elsewhere in the Gospels when referring to driving out demons. So what Jesus is actually saying here is something like this:

“There aren't enough of my followers who know what it really means to be a disciple. So I beg you, please pray earnestly that God will push more Christians out of their comfort zones, out of the pews and into the streets, so they can gather more people into my Father's kingdom.”

Because the meat is in the street, as Wimber used to say. And the time is short, too. But we'll talk about that later.

So to conclude then, I may be too old to start and lead another home fellowship or organize evening equipping workshops. But I can still try to create resources like the ones you find on this website to help others do the heavy lifting in building and planting.

And I can also pray what Jesus says we should all be praying.

And I’m going to pray this. Earnestly.

Cheers,
Mitch

(Image: L'homme à la houe (Man With a Hoe) by Jean-François Millet, ca. 1860, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)