[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 24/May/2026]
Most of us have just enjoyed a beautiful cooked meal in the church hall, with our donations going towards the Beacon Project. And, as our leaders have stressed repeatedly, the Project is not primarily about the building – it’s about blessing our neighbours! That could be reworded to ‘outreach’ or ‘evangelism’.
Have you ever been involved in any activity or programme of that kind which was both rewarding for you and effective in what you set out to do? I haven’t, to be honest.
At my age, I have quite a bit of time to chew on Bible passages. My focus for a few days now has been Jesus’s words about the ‘white fields ready for harvesting’, in John 4. I’ve always read that as an urgent invitation (command?!) to get out there and bring in the sheaves (or the fish, as in Matthew 4:19) NOW!
But, in rereading it, the only command I see Jesus giving is to ‘lift up your eyes’ (v35). He calls them to see what He is seeing: a multitude of Samaritans in traditional white robes flooding out of the city to meet the man whom the woman had met at the well (verses 4-26 and 39-42).
First came an amazing, miraculous experience; then an excited woman telling her townsfolk about Jesus; THEN came their equally excited response; and only THEN the invitation to his disciples to get out there and join in the work God was doing RIGHT NOW!
Will we lift up our eyes to see amazing things? Maybe then we will be drawn into a more exciting and fruitful ‘outreach’ than we’ve ever imagined!
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Last Sunday’s reflection: A Slower Kind of Prayer … by Dazz Jones
Contributed by Dennis Ginter; © Dennis Ginter