The election is over.
Some Christians are pleased with the result. Others are disappointed. Social media is still buzzing with post-mortems, political analysis and predictions about where New Zealand goes next.
But perhaps the Church is asking the wrong question.
Instead of asking what Parliament is going to do, maybe we should be asking what we’re going to do.
Because if we’re honest, New Zealand’s problems didn’t begin on election day, and they won’t be solved by election day either.
The decline in church attendance wasn’t caused by a government policy.
The growing biblical illiteracy among young people wasn’t created by a political party.
The loneliness, confusion, broken families and spiritual emptiness we see across the country did not arrive because of a particular election result.
Those challenges have been building for years.
The election is over. The excuses need to be over as well.
And while Christians have often been looking toward Wellington for answers, Scripture repeatedly points us somewhere else.
Jesus looked across the crowds and said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37-38).
That wasn’t a suggestion for more discussion. It was a call to action.
Across New Zealand, the harvest is standing ready. There are young people searching for purpose, families under pressure, communities looking for hope, and thousands who have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. The field is not the problem. The shortage is still the workers.
Any farmer knows that when the clouds start building and rain is threatening, you don’t stand around the woolshed arguing about last week’s weather. You get moving. You bring the harvest in while there is still time.
The Church faces the same moment today.
The election is over. The harvest isn’t. It’s time the Church rattled its dags and got back to work.