Carlisle urges churches to reach communities, pray for workers for the harvest

Craig Carlisle said the Alabama Baptist State Convention is “strong, healthy and unified.”

“There are positive things happening all across our convention,” he said.

But as Carlisle, who serves as ABSC president, delivered his presidential address to the convention’s annual meeting Nov. 12, he said that there is one “situation that is of great concern and must be addressed.”

That situation is the pastor shortage.

“Here in Alabama, we have 3,162 churches, and presently 501 of our churches do not have pastors. That represents 16% of our churches,” said Carlisle, who also serves as director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association.

Nearly 90 percent of pastorless churches are smaller congregations that need bivocational or part-time ministers, he said.

Preaching from Matthew 9:35–38, Carlisle offered some suggestions to turn the tide, starting with reaching the people who could be the next generation of pastors.

1. We must reconnect to our communities.

Jesus went, Carlisle said. He went to small towns and urban centers. He didn’t wait for people to come to Him.

“We must get out and learn who is living around our community. We must get out and find out what the people in our community need,” he said. “Don’t presume to know what they need and offer them what you think they need. Ask them.”

Carlisle said it’s time for churches to “surrender our allegiance to the way things used to be and prioritize the way things are now and go and tell our communities that Jesus saves.”

2. We must know the condition of those who live in our communities.

Jesus described the people He met as “distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd,” Carlisle said.

“Perhaps it has been because they have been pursuing the lure of the world and they have come up empty in their search for fulfillment and truth,” he said. “Perhaps it is because they have been living life in their own strength and there is no amount of self-sufficiency that will get them where they want to be. The ultimate reason they are weary and worn out is because they are lost and they need Jesus.”

As Christians work, they must witness, Carlisle said. “If we want to make a difference and diminish the weariness and take away the fatigue of futility in the lives of our community, we are going to have to speak of Jesus.”

3. We must become burdened about the eternal destiny of those who live in our communities.

Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, so Carlisle said the problem is not with the harvest.

“Jesus was longing for action to be taken,” he said. “If we are going to make a difference, we must realize the urgency of the time. We must be a going church for a coming Christ.”

4. We must pray for workers to be called out to serve the churches and people in our communities.

Jesus told His disciples to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest, and Carlisle said that’s what Christians today should be doing also.

“Why is there a shortage? Perhaps it is because we would rather be leaders, not laborers. Perhaps we would rather be served, not serve,” he said. “Perhaps some are looking for a ministry path that is easier than pastoring an established church.”

If laborers aren’t called out and sent out, “people will die and go to hell because no one introduced them to the truth and love of Jesus,” Carlisle said. “If more pastors, and particularly bivocational ministers, are not called out, churches are going to die and close their doors. We can’t reap the harvest without the workers. Churches, small and large, will struggle to be the church without leadership.”

Carlisle suggested Christians should pray fervently and specifically for God to call out workers, and he challenged pastors to preach a sermon on calling out the called.

“When was the last time you gave an invitation which included an opportunity for people to respond to God’s call to ministry?”

Carlisle also urged pastors to be ready to respond to God’s call themselves.

“In Matthew 10:1, in response to the plea to pray, Jesus gathered His disciples and gave them authority to do what He had been doing and sent them out,” he said. “Jesus sent out the very disciples he commanded to pray. Don’t be afraid to be an answer to the prayer.”