I know little to nothing about farm animals. Usually, my only contact with the critters stem from petting zoos at the local fair. I admire them from afar due to allergies. I may think they are cute, but I do not take time to ponder their importance in the agricultural world.
A verse of wisdom caused me to think more in depth about a particular animal on the farm.
Proverbs 14:4
Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests.
I am embarrassed to say that I thought oxen were their own type of animal. I did not realize that the term is used for well-trained cattle. I only found this out by using the handy information at Wikipedia:
In the New England tradition, young…cattle selected for draft are known as working steers and are painstakingly trained from a young age. Their teamster makes or buys as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes for each animal as it grows. The steers are normally considered fully trained at the age of four and only then become known as oxen.” (Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Ox. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ox)
Based on the verse from Proverbs, if oxen are not taken through an intense training process, then eventually a time will come when the manger, or feeding trough, is empty. In other words, taking the time to plan and train the next generation of cattle, ensures that there is future harvest for the people and their children.
Spiritually, the church is responsible for creating “oxen”. The church is to invest in the next generation and train them on how to labor for the gospel. In other words, we are called to make disciples.
Matthew 28:19-20a
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Just like the oxen are trained on farms through a series of steps, we must make a deliberate plan of action to disciple others. The church must grow others up in the faith, so they in return can repeat the process to go and make disciples. This is what answers the prayer request of Jesus.
Luke 10:2
He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Why are the workers few? We are not training them how to work in the fields. Discipleship is not taking place. If this continues, the manger will be empty at a future time. In other words, at the time when the cattle are supposed to be oxen bringing in the harvest, there will not will not be disciples to go. Eventually, it leads a culture that is spiritually starved. I believe the evidence of this is all around us.
Generations of churches have not raised up spiritual disciples. Too often, there was erroneous thinking that left the responsibility of discipleship-making to only church leaders. Sadly, church leaders encouraged this false ideology due in part to believing a bible degree or a church title somehow made them more spiritually mature. However, the great commission did not put a qualification on those who are to make disciples. It is given to all believers, which means there are no age requirements, degree requirements, intelligence requirements, skill requirements, personality requirements, or any other excuses that are used to disqualify those from disciple making.
By the way, discipleship is not about programs. Discipleship is a partnership. A young calf was yoked to a mature ox to learn how to plow the fields, how to work on the farm, how to respond to the plowman. Eventually, the calf is labeled an ox and will be used to train other cattle. Discipleship is about showing others how to walk with Christ, live for Christ, make decisions that honor Christ, tell others about Christ. Discipleship is showing what a Christ-life looks like on earth today. This cannot happen in a one-hour Bible study once a week. Discipleship requires an investment of time, energy, resources in order to see true oxen, true disciples made.
Discipleship is what Jesus modeled. The disciples followed Jesus for three and a half years. Interestingly, it takes about four years for a calf to become an ox. The disciples lived with Jesus, in a sense, yoked to Jesus each day during this time. This gave them a first-hand look at how Jesus lived on a daily basis. The disciples saw how Jesus understood the Word of God, interacted with others, made decisions, prayed, told stories, ate, slept, handled difficult people, taught, and everything else that took place. This is discipleship. His disciples understood what He was calling them to do when He told them to go and make disciples. They were to walk side by side by others and teach them everything, show them how to live, let them be a part of their daily lives.
In this context, please note that the true disciple makers of the family are the parents. The children are yoked together with their parents. Discipleship is taking place no matter what? Are they being discipled in the ways of Christ or the ways of the world? Once again, it is not the “church leaders” responsibility to disciple your children. Instead, God has gifted the parents with little disciples in their home. Parents have the privilege of training them up in the ways of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 11:18-19
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Discipleship happens as life happens. We have distorted discipleship to a sermon or a class. Our churches reflect the lack of true discipleship. Discipleship is not obtained in masse. True discipleship comes in small groups, like Jesus with the twelve. Yet, those twelve changed the world. Now, we see a world that is changing the church! We cannot blame an unplowed, unfruitful field on the world. The community reflects the church. Is your church discipled and discipling others, or is it just going through a few programs which does not train people or transform people into true followers of Christ?
It is time to evaluate the fields. We can no longer just go through the same old motions that have not worked and will not work. If we continue in our bad set of programs, the manger will be empty. The only ones to blame would be the church that did not disciple others. In fact, we are already seeing this in culture. In recent statistics, the younger generation is more likely to classify as “nones” (meaning no religious affiliation) than as a Christian. The manger’s supply is dwindling. The church must take notice and make changes!
We cannot change the entire church; we may not even be able to influence our local church. However, we can evaluate ourselves. It comes down to this: Who is yoked to us? Who are we discipling? If there is no one there, then we are not obeying the command of Jesus to make disciples. If there is no one there, then we are not answering the prayer request of Jesus for laborers in the field. If there is no one there, then we should not be surprised that the manger will soon be empty.