The Harvest: Akin Bailey

This year, people have been almost ridiculously eager to come to the church. I don’t know how familiar any of you are with the way most campus ministries reach out to students, so I’ll tell you. It usually involves walking up to strangers, with nothing but the grace of God to offer, and inviting them to come worship. This can be a wonderful thing to happen to you. Maybe you’ve just moved to a new town and don’t know anyone, but you have a desire to be involved with a good church community. And here comes someone offering exactly that. However, for most people this is a very rude interruption to their day. Two years ago now, part of my weekly duties as a member of the then Leadership Team, along with my friend Makenzie, was to “Blitz” (this is what we call going out to students and handing out flyers inviting people to worship) for our worship service or find someone who was willing and able to do so in our stead. At Wesley, it is almost universally known how taxing, demoralizing, awkward, and just plain not fun it is to go blitz. So, understandably, we were not very successful at finding proxy blitzers. This meant that almost every week for an entire school year Makenzie and I would buckle down and go out to the battlefield ourselves. We were laughed at, scoffed at, belittled, ignored, patronized, lied to, dismissed, shunned, avoided, and ridiculed when thought to be out of earshot. But this was the work that we were called to, this is the work that we are all called to as Christians, and so we resigned ourselves to it. Every week, we stood outside the doors of our ministry and prayed. We sharpened the weapons we had and devised newer and more unexpected tactics to use, hoping against hope for some kind of harvest in the midst of what seemed an early and persistent winter for our crop. It even got to the point where it was nigh unconscionable for me to ask anyone else to go. “How,” I would ask myself, “could I ask anyone to put themselves through this?”

Fast forward two years, and school is starting once again. Amid the COVID-19 panic, and some students already in quarantine, I unconsciously began to guard myself against what promised to be another year of empty pews during The Well and one-attendee small groups. With all this in mind, you may be able to imagine my surprise when I hear that people are asking to join small groups heard of through word of mouth. When people respond to “cold texts” and join our small groups from a single invite. When people are walking up to our ministry and joining in worship of their own accord. Now, I want you to imagine my surprise when I see that half of the attendees at our very first service of the year are new faces, and when I learn that most of them were gathered in by one day’s blitz.

On that Tuesday, all of the interns at the Wesley gathered together and invited anyone and everyone to come along and help them blitz. I confess that I was relieved when I found out I had to work and had an excuse to not go with them, but in all honesty I felt conflicted about not going. Blitzing had become a source of anxiety for me - something that I would dread. It was a losing battle, and one that I did not look forward to taking part in. Yet, I knew it to be one of the most straightforwardly Christian things that I had ever done with my time. By virtue of its inherent nature as Christian work, I knew it as something good for my soul, and I had avoided it. 

When I found out that blitzing was responsible for the jump in attendance, it brought tears to my eyes. Tears both of joy and disbelief, but also regret. I was kicking myself for not going with them to the work, and in a way I was jealous of their success. This jealousy manifested into a resolve to once again go out and do battle. The next week, I waited in anticipation for the call to go back out into the field to win what glory we may, but I was thwarted once again. I had to go to work. What was before a convenient excuse became a hindrance to my newfound desire. This, however, did not serve to diminish my resolve. Instead, I felt braced, and I decided that I would prepare myself for the battle wherever I went. 

What I found on the battlefield, though, was not giants against whom I stood no chance of victory, but a massacre in the name of the Lord. I marched forth armed with the simplest sword I had. I would say to people that I met, “Hey, do you wanna come to my church?” Then, I waited for the counter blow - for the return strike. I was prepared for every type of subversion, every method of verbal escape, but instead what they said was, “Sure, what time?” I don’t know if I can properly explain why, maybe I’m jaded, maybe my heart had been hardened against hope, but when I heard these words, I was in disbelief. “Could it really be this easy?” I thought to myself. Turns out, it can be. Time and time again in these few short weeks that we’ve been in school, I have invited friends, neighbors, and strangers to come worship and have been met with an eager desire to come and see - a willingness to taste and see that He is good. 

So, I want to invite you to join me, to rejoice with me, and to do battle wherever you are. Look around you, and ask yourself, “Have I invited everyone I know?” Your friends, your coworkers, your acquaintances, old and new, all the people that you have discounted as not being interested before even asking. Have you truly pursued these people in the name of the Lord? This work is not easy, often this work is not at all fun, but are we really being the church if we don’t take up our cross, fight the good fight of faith, and run with endurance the race that is set before us? I leave you now with two reminders: one to “Go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19) and the other that “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2).  Amen.

Akin Bailey is a devoted and treasured member of the Wesley Community who is currently pursuing his graduate degree in Psychology at Louisiana Tech. Akin aka “Spider” lives as a faithful witness to Jesus Christ and is a joy to work alongside and know. He is always looking for an adventure to embark on and never passes up an opportunity to dance. Akin loves climbing trees, reading, going on runs, and can often be found at the Lambright Center on Tech campus either in the lifeguard chair or teaching a yoga class. The love of Jesus is evident in Akin, and his life radiates the light of Christ in the world.