Calling Forth A Harvest For Six Weeks

After eighteen months of rapid growth in our church in Southern California there was a sense that our staff needed an executive pastor to manage the staff and lighten the load our senior pastor was carrying.  The senior pastor and I had conversations about the potential of me assuming the role as the new executive pastor.  I began praying for each of the pastoral staff by name in the afternoons.  I would walk in a park above our church and pray.  This park was on a hill.  The Santa Ana winds were blowing and I could see the entire Pomona and San Bernardino valleys from this vantage point.  As I was praying for the staff, I was led by the Spirit to call forth a harvest.  Methodically, one by one, I named every city in the valley I could see and asked the Father to bring lost people to our church.  The next day I began praying for the staff again, and then the Spirit led me to call forth a harvest a second time.  It was the last week of November when I began this prayer effort.  Four afternoons a week I would walk in that linear park and pray for the staff and then call forth a harvest.  I continued this prayer effort for six weeks.  

Every Christmas our church offered multiple Christmas Eve services.  Four thousand people entered our doors in the Christmas Eve of 1990.  In the previous two years we watched the church leap one hundred people in attendance in the first week of January.  The same thing happened this year.  However, another one hundred plus people began attending our church the second week, then the third Sunday and again on the fourth Sunday as well.  Our Church leaped five hundred people that January. 

Now something was happening in America January of 1991.  People were flocking to churches because the Persian Gulf war was beginning.  Coalition Forces of 956,600 from 34 nations with 73% being American were on the ground of the Kuwait/Saudi Arabia.  Operation Dessert Shield had turned into Operation Dessert Storm.  The allied troops protecting Saudi Arabia began an air assault on Iraq on January 17.  The American population was full of fear as scud missiles were launched into Israel.  Saddam Hussein threatened chemical warfare against coalition forces.  There was the prospect of much American blood being shed in the impending fierce ground war.  

Most churches in America swelled at least 10% in attendance that month.  We grew over 25% in our regular attendance.  After 42 days of aerial bombardment and 100 hours of ground war Desert Storm was completed and Kuwait was liberated.  The growth most churches experienced during the war shrunk back to normal.  However, our church kept 350 newcomers.  What was the difference?  Again our church was poised for growth.  Our staff and lay leadership were gifted and committed to making disciples.  The Lord new He could entrust 350 newcomers to us so He led one intercessor to called forth a harvest for six weeks and he brought in the harvest.