The Church: A place to BUILD Part 2

The View From Above: Thoughts to Help With Everyday Life

August 23, 2026

Guest Contributor: Pastor Harold Warner — Part 7

Well, Pastor Warner is inspired and powering on… His VFA on The Church will continue into this week.

The Church: A Place to BUILD — Part II

My aim has been to take biblical ecclesiology and see it expressed in our lived reality.

When I refer to the church as a place to build, I’m talking about the church’s ministry to the world in which we live.

This places us smack in the middle of the harvest.

Pentecost and the Harvest

The church’s official inauguration was on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the 120 disciples gathered in the Upper Room.

When Peter preached that day, he connected what was happening with ancient prophecy:

Acts 2:16–18

“This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ’In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.’”

Pentecost was one of the three major Israelite feasts. It celebrated the completion of the spring wheat harvest and came fifty days after Passover, which anticipated Christ’s work on the Cross.

So, along with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost represented the first great ingathering of souls.

It can be understood eschatologically as the “early rain.” The Spirit’s outpouring inaugurated the Gospel’s seedtime, while the “latter rain” will be given at the Gospel’s close to ripen the harvest.

This harvest connection was preceded by what’s called the Divine Mandate:

Acts 1:8

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The spiritual reality behind the agricultural metaphor is that the church’s mission is inextricably linked to the harvest of souls.

Look Around — The Fields Are Ready

This agrees with Jesus’ direction following the conversion of the woman of Samaria:

John 4:35

“You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.”

In other words, Jesus is telling us:

Locate yourselves in a meaningful way in the harvest.

There is a spiritual pattern throughout Scripture. Those who position themselves in God’s work—especially in the harvest—discover both provision and purpose.

Consider this:

Ruth was gleaning in the fields when she came to the field of Boaz. There she was noticed, honored, married, and ultimately named in Christ’s lineage.

Peter obeyed the Lord’s command and experienced a miraculous harvest of fish. That experience became the threshold to his calling as an apostle.

Moses encountered God at the burning bush while tending his father-in-law’s flocks.

Elisha was plowing with oxen when Elijah called him.

Gideon was threshing wheat in hiding when the angel appeared and identified him as a “mighty man of valor.”

David was keeping sheep when Samuel anointed him as Israel’s future king.

Do you see the pattern?

Those who engage faithfully in God’s work—whether in literal harvest fields, their vocations, or evangelism—position themselves where God reveals His larger purposes.

This Is the Church’s Place

The harvest isn’t merely about crops.

It’s about alignment with God’s redemptive work in the world.

This is the church’s place!

Yesterday, we considered that the church isn’t called to spectatorship. Jesus calls us into active partnership with Him.

Today the question becomes more personal:

Where are you in the harvest?

Are you witnessing?

Are you praying?

Are you giving?

Are you serving?

Are you helping reach people with the Gospel?

Are you positioned where God can use your life for His redemptive purposes?

The church isn’t supposed to stand on the sidelines watching the harvest.

We’re supposed to be in the field.

So—

JOIN THE BUILDING CREW!

When the local church is functioning as God intended, its potential is extraordinary.

It comforts those who grieve and brings healing to broken lives through community.

It builds bridges to those searching for answers and brings truth to the confused.

It reaches those in need and embraces people who have been forgotten, rejected, or disillusioned.

It helps break addictions, brings freedom to the oppressed, and gives the marginalized a place to belong.

Human suffering may be great—

but through Jesus Christ, the church has an even greater capacity to bring healing and wholeness.

Today’s View From Above

The church is a place to BELONG.

The church is a place to BECOME.

The church is a place to BUILD.

And when we build, we enter the harvest.

Don’t merely attend church.

Join the building crew.

Put your life where God is working and discover the purpose He has for you in reaching others with the Gospel.

— Pastor Harold Warner