Plentiful Harvest, Few Laborers

Dear Friends in Christ,

This Sunday is our annual Commitment Sunday, when we dedicate our commitments of time, talents, gifts, service, and witness to God. My sermon will focus on the ministry of Jesus as shared in Matthew 9:35-38. In this sermon, I will be communicating a vision for the future of Stonebridge United Methodist Church.

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

As I have been working on this scripture this week, verse 37 has jumped out to me… Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…” I read it over and over. Where are the laborers? What work is Jesus asking us to do in his Kingdom? Are we ready? 

I believe that the Spirit of God is breaking out all around. The life-changing loving power of God is within our reach. It is ours to share with a world that is crying out for help. 

Will you join Amy and me in saying yes to the Lord Jesus Christ this Sunday as we worship? 

Will you join us as we make ourselves available for the Spirit to work through us? 

Will you join us in offering our brokenness and humanity to God so that God may transform us into something more beautiful than we can ever imagine? 

Take this opportunity to make your service and financial commitment and estimate for 2025 by clicking on this link. 

The Unstoppable stewardship drive has started out strong. We have had 39 estimates of giving for $343,663.60. This is an average of $8,816 per estimate of giving. We also have 38 servant commitments for a multitude of services to the church. And remember, even if you are part of a group, we still want everyone to fill out the forms.

Finally, as an update on the Malvern Angel Tree, of the 150 angel tree adoptions, we have 24 left to be claimed. This is outstanding and shows what a giving spirit we have in our SUMC family.

We have been working toward making Stonebridge UMC unstoppable for Christ’s work in this community. As there are some of our church members that are financially challenged during these days, it is up to the rest of us to pick up the slack. 

I look forward to seeing everyone this Sunday.

Pastor John Allen

P. S. This week, I got several calls from church members who received a scam email requesting that members send me gift cards for our staff. Please make sure that any communication from me is from john@mysumc.org. And… it is NOT my practice to ask that you send me anything by email. Please ignore anything like this.