I’ve been thinking this week about a different way to think about the church.What would happen if the church saw itself as a community of farmers instead of a posse for the local sheriff? Well, Sheriffs are hardworking, dedicated people who are waiting for people who are breaking the law and their entire goal is to keep people in line.Why would this even matter to a local church? Well, Farmers are hardworking people who tend what is, in the shape it is in, with a mind for what will be, when the time is right.
The implications of this change in perspective in my own life have been astronomical. Before becoming a farmer, I was a professional behavior modifier. I was constantly on the lookout for wrong behavior and trying to discover the best ways to change the people around me. I viewed everything, including myself, in terms of right and wrong behavior, good things and bad things, successes and failure. I grew increasingly frustrated because I thought that I was doing the work that God required of us.
But something began to change in my view of God Himself. I began to be aware of His incredible patience with me, that he was not tired of my failures. I saw Jesus statement in John 15 that his Father is the husbandman, the gardener, the farmer, who owns and tends the vine. I suddenly saw that God was not a sheriff, but a farmer himself, always having the end game in mind.
Well, if God is not a sheriff, why would He want me to be a sheriff? And if God is a farmer, wouldn’t He want me to be a farmer like Him? God showed Himself multiple times in the bible as Slow to anger, compassionate, merciful, pardoning. And he declares that Love is patient, not taking into account a wrong suffered. And he calls us to forgive, to extend mercy, to turn the other cheek, to pardon and cover one another’s weaknesses.
That’s when it hit me…a church full of farmers would be a different type of community than a group of sheriffs. They don’t look for crops to be ready to harvest in the spring, they expect rain in the spring, heat in the summer , and harvest at the end of the summer and into the fall. They live closely tuned into the weather and the needs of their fields and equipment.
Farmers are used to living in situations that are perfect. Machinery breaks down, weather won’t cooperate, what worked last year doesn’t always work the same this year. They have to be patient, they work and wait, and then when the time is right, they harvest the crop.
Gardeners are also farmers. They know when to start things in the greenhouse, when to prepare the soil, when to plant, when to water, when to transplant, when to trim.
Sheriffs hide behind billboard and look for lawbreakers that they run down and penalize. They are not wrong, the people are speeding and the law does allow for them to punish the wrong doers. But that is not the churches job. The purpose of the church is to nurture the people of God until they have grown up enough to produce fruit.
Site Title 