Keeping our Hand to the Plow in the Harvest with Jesus
Written by Alan Rathbun, EPD Director of Development
When people ask me about my marriage with Sandra, I often comment that it is better than I thought it would be. I enjoy the puzzled looks that response usually brings. Some people have even asked why we got married if I didn’t think it would be that good.
The puzzled looks, questions and comments indicate that they didn’t understand my response. There is no doubt I had high expectations for our marriage. I would never have proposed to Sandra under a midnight September sky if I didn’t have high expectations. I loved Sandra when I proposed to her, but there is no way the love I had for her back then compares to the love, joy and friendship we have today, nor is there is any way I could have predicted what our relationship would become.
When our team began having DMC Dashboard conversations in January 2025, we had high expectations. We believed that the questions we had developed would provide a springboard to good conversations. We also believed that good conversations can provide powerful opportunities for personal and congregational transformation.
What we could not have predicted is the depth of the conversations we would have over the last two years. We could not have predicted that at every church, leaders would thank us for initiating such vital conversation. We could not have predicted the level of engagement from such a wide variety of church leaders. We could not have predicted the honesty and vulnerability of church leaders who truly long for their church to be more fruitful with Jesus in His mission.
As our team has been wrapping up our second season of DMC Dashboard conversations, we are celebrating the Lord’s continued work in these gatherings with Eastern PA church leaders.
We have ever-increasing gratitude for the unity we all share around Jesus’ mission.
We have been blessed by getting to know church leaders who love Jesus and their church.
We are grateful for the fruit Jesus produces in our churches even when we are not so intentional in our attempts to make disciples. He graciously works through our distracted efforts.
We rejoice in the God stories that may never have been shared outside of a DMC conversation. There have been times we have marveled when leaders have shared stories of God’s work in their congregation that other leaders at the table had not heard before.
We have been encouraged by churches in conversations in 2026 being better prepared because they heard good things from pastors and leaders who participated in DMC Dashboard conversations in 2025.
We have learned some valuable lessons along the way. We have learned that churches want change. We have learned that no matter where a church is in its lifespan, intentional steps are always needed to move forward and that even the smallest step can be an important first step toward greater fruitfulness. We have learned that these conversations can build freedom and courage for leaders to bring change to their church. These conversations seem to give permission to change and increase passion for change.
Perhaps what we have learned most of all is that if we want to enjoy greater fruitfulness with Jesus in His mission, we must keep our hand to the plow.
There is no magic curriculum or program that will make us instantly more fruitful in making disciples. There are many different tools that can be helpful to us, but we need to persevere and we need to learn from our mistakes along the way. There is a price to pay to help our congregations enjoy greater fruitfulness with Jesus in His mission. That price will be worth paying, but it will require us to let go of ideas and programs we have over-valued and lay aside ministry and church idols to which we are currently clinging.
Please join our team in persevering to pray for us to become a family of disciple-making communities who make disciples who are so changed by Jesus that they can’t keep Jesus to themselves. This is the way to increasing gospel impact in Eastern PA.