Two Farmers

There were two farmers who made a crop every year but they approached farming in two drastically different ways.

The first farmer was an old school farmer. He owned a farm that his father and grandfather had farmed before him. He liked the old ways of farming. He liked hooking the harnesses up to the mules and following them as they plowed. Sometimes his young sons would ride on his shoulders as he plowed. He saved seed back every year from the harvest.

As the young plants would come up he and his family would hoe the rows to keep the weeds down and at harvest the whole family would be in the fields picking cotton. They worked from sun-up to sun-down and took pride in their work. He knew there were newer ways to farm but was satisfied to farm the way he was the most comfortable with.

The second farmer was also raised on a family farm but when tractors became available he made the switch. Eventually he was using tractors that were guided by GPS systems. He invested in hybrid seeds that produced plants that were both drought and herbicide resistant. When it came time to control weeds he was able to over spray his fields with herbicide that didn’t harm the cotton plants. When harvest time came the big combines would come in collect all that cotton in a jiffy. Because his operations were so profitable he was able to expand his operations and farm more land and became even more productive.

The farmers are Elders and Preachers. The farms represent both the lost in the world and local congregations. Some of the Elders and Preachers like the old ways… tried and true and do some good. Some of them look at the changes that are occurring in society and are reaching out to society where society “gathers”… like social media and instead of going “door to door” are using the internet to teach classes on Skype.

There are many tools to build congregations and find the lost. Let’s seek them out and use them.