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The Harvest The fields are ready, but the laborers are few by Serena Butler Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. The leaves begin to change, the weather becomes cooler, and football season starts. It's also the time when farmers start bringing in the crops. Here in Illinois, those crops are corn and soybeans. Recently, I had a speaking engagement at a church for their Sunday evening service. The town in which the church is located is a small town, nowhere near an Interstate. I was looking forward to the afternoon drive on a bright sun-drenched day, following two-lane highways through Illinois farmland. As I drove along, I began to notice all the tractors and combines that were working to bring in the harvest. In one town there were several seed trucks lined up at the grain silos, waiting to unload. They were full to the brim, and as I went farther down the road, I passed more trucks on their way to the silos. I was reminded of the verse that says, "The fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few." I thought of those verses in a different light that afternoon. I can't tell you how many sermons I've heard on the subject, and I've even led a few Bible Studies myself using those verses. But God showed me something different as I drove along. The corn can't get to the silo unless the farmer goes out and gets it. The seed company operators can sit at the grain elevators all day long. They can put up signs pointing the way to the scales. They can even identify themselves with different companies. The farmers can gather and talk about crops and the yield they expect, but unless the farmers go out into the fields and harvest, the corn stays in the field. The corn might be ready for the harvest, but if no one goes to get it, it will rot there. We can build churches and come together to worship. We can put a sign, a really nice sign, in the front so that all can see it. We can gather together and talk about all the people that need to come to church and how we wish they would come, and even pray for them. We can even identify with one particular group of Christians so that people will know what we believe and how we worship. But unless we go into the field, the harvest won't happen. At this point you might say the metaphor breaks down because the corn can't physically leave the field on its own and people can come to church if they so desire. You are probably right, but my experience is that most people will not come to church on their own. They are waiting for someone to invite them, if they have a desire to come at all. Most people who are not in church don't ever think about going. There are those who are ready for the harvest, but they don't know how to get out of the field. They don't know where to begin. Wouldn't it be amazing if we would all decide to take our spiritual tractors into the fields around us and begin to look for the harvest? How exciting if we got there and found that when we began to harvest, our seed trucks were overflowing and then when we drove back to the grain elevator, we had to wait in line because all the other farmers were experiencing a bumper crop as well. Let's not be caught sitting at the silo with our nice sign out front, talking with our fellow farmers and dreaming about the harvest, while the fields are ready and the crop is rotting as it waits for us to come and gather it. Let's gas up the tractor, air up the tires, hook up the wagon, and head out to the fields.