Thought for the Week: Time to Harvest

2nd October 2026 - Alan

It is amazing to think we are already in October. The nights are drawing in as it gets darker earlier and many of us will soon be going to work in the dark and coming home again in the dark. At the same time the autumnal breeze will start to replace those pleasant summer days. It won’t be long before we pine for the heatwave we complained about throughout the summer months.

With autumn comes the celebration of harvest, with a number of celebrations taking place across our community of churches, in the coming weeks (Copmanthorpe had theirs last week).

While in church, in line with secular thinking, we think about the food harvest and thank God for his goodness and for what he provides, it is also important to think about our mission as Christians, what has become known as the Great Commission. “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Our job, our mission, is the harvesting of souls, to bring increasing numbers to know and love the Lord. I wonder sometimes in our busy lives we forget that is our primary role as Christians.

Now I know many of you will be thinking, surely our first and foremost responsibility is to love the Lord and to follow God’s commandments. I stress however there are very few occasions in the bible when Jesus gives such a direct command. He is telling us as Christians our role is to spread the word of God, spread God’s love and in particular the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

So our challenge, in our seven church communities, is to look outward, to look beyond our buildings and spread the Good News. Do we do this? Do we take all our opportunities? How often do we have the ‘Jesus’ conversation with those around us?

Quite often it is not as easy to do, as it sounds. We should however seek out those opportunities. At the same time remembering that often we may be sowers and at other times reapers. In my own journey I recall those sowers. People who were given the role of prodding me, letting me know the message, until God’s chosen reaper came along.

We need to be ready and to be active in the sowing and reaping department and God will do the rest.

Alan (Licensed Lay Minister)