Who or what is a Kingdom worker? |
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Jesus told his followers, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go!...tell them, ‘The kingdom of
God is near" (Luke 10:2-3a, 9). Anyone, anywhere, who actively
responds to these verses, who is willing to tell people about Jesus and invite them into His wonderful
Kingdom, is a Kingdom worker. |
Since the time of the early church, laypeople
have been doing missionary work. Persecuted Christian laypeople, who were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, "preached
the word wherever they went" (Acts 8:1-4). Clearly, every believer has a place in God's mission and could be called
a missionary. The problem is that most laypeople have difficulty identifying with the term missionary. Call yourself a missionary
and you are liable to get some interesting questions like, "Oh, you are a missionary? Where did you serve?" For
many folks it just doesn't seem plausible to be a missionary serving behind a computer, waiting in a doctor's office, hanging
out at a playground, teaching in the classroom or many of the other places laypeople serve in the course of their everyday
lives.
An examination of personal conversations, public expressions, and written contexts to see how the term missionary
was commonly used led to the discovery that it was overwhelmingly linked with those people whose primary, dedicated, full-time
work was focused on serving in the mission outreach of the church, usually by fully immersing themselves in cultures other
than their own, and most often overseas. It is meaningful to have such a term for these specially called people, and we should
use it in this case. However, this restricted understanding of the term missionary appears to make laypeople extremely
reluctant to use it to describe themselves.
The question then is this: is there a term that laypeople will accept,
one that might encourage them and motivate them in their work for the sake of God’s mission? A close study of Scriptures
reveals something quite surprising. Jesus never actually called anyone a missionary or used the word mission! What He did
speak about frequently though, was the Kingdom of heaven and the need for workers to tell people about this Kingdom. As Jesus
considered the tremendous harvest of lost souls one need stood out above all others—the need for workers. So, Jesus
told his followers, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to
send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2-3a).
The desire of Jesus' heart was clear—Pray
and ask for workers. But He did not stop there. With his next breath, He said, “Go!...tell them, ‘The kingdom
of God is near" (Luke 10:9b). Jesus wanted his disciples to go beyond praying for workers. He also wanted
them to get on the move. He organized some of his devoted followers into teams and mobilized them to go out into the harvest
fields. Therefore, the term Kingdom worker is really Jesus' term. Jesus wants to bring everyone into His
Kingdom and, odd as it seems, His plan is to do so through human teams of willing workers who will tell people about Him and
invite them into His marvelous Kingdom.
As far as we can tell, those early Kingdom workers did not have any special
credentials, titles or degrees; they were simply willing to trust the Lord for strength and guidance as they worked to bring
in the harvest of souls. Today, millions of believers carry on the work of the Lord's Kingdom, regardless of what anyone calls
them, good or bad. In the end, titles, labels or special terms won't affect anyone's salvation; but, the term Kingdom worker
can help us communicate our call and identify a community of people who are willing to tell lost people about Jesus
and invite them into His Kingdom.