Martha Olawale

“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.” Matthew 9:37-38

When I became a Christian at age fifteen, my first desire was to start attending Church, fully. Although I was in Church with my family on some Sundays because my parents were Christians, it was impossible for me to attend as much as I would love to after I accepted Christ. We were only able to attend a few times a month because we moved farther away from Church and we had to depend on the Church’s bus to pick us up for services. Being too attached, mum wouldn’t change to a closer Church because I and my siblings were born in that Church. But weighing the benefit of my spiritual growth, she gave her blessing for me to attend a Church I could walk to, safely.

I chose the closest Church because it was just five minutes’ walk away from home. I loved being there and would go almost every day, even when there was no service. There is something about Church that draws me closer to my Savior and if I could live there, I would. I became a Sunday school teacher, youth choir leader, and the adult choir’s secretary, just a few months after my first service there. As part of the youth teaching team, I taught my first message when I was seventeen. I remember it was on, Daniel’s vision. At that young age, I wanted to serve Jesus in every capacity possible and I dug into the Bible as if my life depended on it.

In my desire to continue to grow as a Christian, while still fully devoted to my roles at my local church, I started attending monthly seminars at a nearby Church. I had a global view of Christianity, and it was always encouraging to be surrounded by other Christians who were hungry for God’s word. However, one evening, standing at my Church’s gate with the youth group, the Church’s overseer drove in. When he called me, I thought he just wanted to say hi or something. But, instead, he said he heard I’d been visiting another Church and because of that he didn’t want me to step into his church again. He mistook my allegiance to the Church of Christ for loyalty to him and felt betrayed that I attended seminars in another Church.

Imagine the blow to my young, hungry heart. I couldn’t believe my seventy-something-year-old pastor just sent an eighteen-year-old girl packing from Church because she attends Bible seminars in a different church. That encounter broke my heart because it took me away from people I’ve come to love so dearly. It took my personal walk with Christ for me to keep moving toward my goal to make it into the presence of Christ, despite my disappointment. I immediately joined another church and started the church immersion process again. I was required to attend the beginners’ class for weeks before I could join the choir.

That was over twenty years ago but I can’t help but wonder if there are bureaucracies in the Church of Christ today, that are debarring people from serving their Savior in the capacity of His grace over their lives. I’ve had to cross many hurdles to continue the mission God started in my life years ago. I’m now at a point where God had to give me a ministry that extends beyond the confines of a local Church. After a few Church membership classes, I’m now tired of going through them each time we move.

I mean, these classes are perfect for new believers but people who are already Christians, need different immersion training. You don’t keep retraining a soldier to swim in a lake when he or she is ready to deep-dive in an ocean. Secular organizations are doing a better job building off people’s resumes and verifying their past in order to maximize their present.

There is one Christ, one cross, and one Heaven. And all our effort as a Church should be coordinated to establish God’s will on earth. As Christians, our salvation is final, it doesn’t renew each time we change Church or move geographically. We’re blood-washed, spirit-filled, and Heaven-bound, and we should join the local church ready to man our posts to grow the Kingdom.

While I believe in structure and order, I also believe that every believer is called to serve in the Church in some capacity and the number caps and defined service areas we put in place are limiting. You can be a teacher, scientist, accountant, lawyer, or engineer for the kingdom. Each of God’s callings is unique to each individual but with the same end goal. For instance, you can’t get the best from me as an usher because I don’t have the grace for it but my husband is perfect for that. While some are great at welcoming people to Church, I serve better in the background.

We need a “continue button,” not a “reset button” when an active Christian moves to our local Church. The weeks spent in believer’s class for a Christian will serve the Church better as a mission training class. While we can’t make room for all talents, we shouldn’t bury them either. We can establish a process to help nurture and grow all God-given, kingdom-growing talents even if they are used outside our local church. We should be ready to encourage and aid and if we need to build ramps to help crippled members sing in the worship team, we should build the ramps. Even if everything doesn’t fall within our structure all the time, we can get all hands, on deck for Heaven’s sake.

There are only two types of people in Christ-centered churches, saved and unsaved. Our mission should be to lead the unsaved to Christ and the saved to live for Christ. All the saved people sitting on the rows of chairs are soldiers and should not just be fed to live the “American dream” behind white picket fences. There are souls to save, lives to touch, hearts to heal, and homes to restore. Plowing our Father’s garden is not restricted to a selected few, it’s a privilege we all get to share. I look around during each Church service praying that every unsaved person finds Christ and every believer takes up their armor to fight the good fight of faith. The bottom line, the Church is more vibrant and alive when every Christian operates in the fulness of God’s calling over their lives.

The Kingdom demands more than our limited church walls and structures can offer. We are the Church of Christ, we represent one Kingdom, and we work together for the same purpose of lifting Jesus up. We are not in competition or at odds because we have one Father and we’ll get to share the same final destination. There is a sense of urgency for Christians to come together and fight as one. An urgency that calls us all to live mission-minded.

We are playing hide and seek and retreat games when we are supposed to occupy until He comes. Speaking to the disciples in Act 1:8, Jesus said: “You shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The great commission starts from Jerusalem, in this case, America, before we can reach the utmost parts of the world with the gospel. The world needs Jesus, and the Church needs all hands, on deck to get the job done. Not just by sending aid to the third-world nations but by raising giants here in the West who are ready to raise the banner of Heaven until Jesus comes. Our faith should reach beyond the walls of our churches to impact the lost world.

Imagine if every believer that walks through the doors of the Church is put to work in the capacity of God’s grace for their lives and their journey and training maximized. Think of the spiral effect of all Christians living a kingdom-minded life and the transformations possible when we each affect one person and that person affects another person and so on. There is a place on the battlefield for all Christians, but we are leaving many soldiers unused, forgetting it’s all about Heaven and when the Kingdom wins, we win.