Labouring together

And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured; others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.- John 4.36-38

Isn’t it kind of sad that in some circles we can make a contest out of ‘soul winning’ and we give the trophy to the one ‘gets the final catch?’ I have been in churches that kept totals and everyone reported how many souls they had seen saved. Some churches expect missionaries to report how many people they have seen saved in the last year. Sometimes the ‘soul winners’ are the ‘super heroes’ of our churches.

Oh, we always played lip service to the idea that some sowed and some reaped, but the pressure was to be the reaper. I remember one speaker who told the crowd that he had led 26 people to the Lord between the car park and the church. Churches used to report to publications how many professions and how many baptisms they recorded. The best revival speakers were those who had the highest numbers walking the aisle.  

I am now not so sure that was healthy. I think we may have missed the boat in those days. Jesus makes it clear that sowers and reapers are co-labourers. They need each other and neither is more or less important in the reaping.

One sows, another reaps. Let’s be sure that we don’t glorify the reaper so that the sower is forgotten.