I’m a novice at growing flowers. But I’ve learned to appreciate the difference between annuals and perennials. Every spring I usually buy trays of annual bedding plants. Once in the ground, they immediately take root. Their brief life always ends with the autumn frosts, and the soil lies barren until my next annual spring planting. I prefer to plant perennial flowers. They go on living from year to year, and regularly bloom, flower, and reproduce.

Writer Eugene Harrison describes the evangelistic efforts of New Testament believers as “perennial” in nature. They didn’t pour all their energies into once-a-year evangelistic efforts. Instead, according to Harrison, sharing the good news of Christ was “the supreme concern of every believer, every day in the year, in every place.” In Acts 5:42 and 8:4, the scope of their witness is clear: They shared Christ and the gospel in the temple, in their homes, and in the marketplace, using the Spirit-given methods of preaching, teaching, and personal testimony.

Jesus taught that the season for spiritual harvest is always today (John 4:35). And the apostle Paul said that “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Be assured, there’s never a time when the harvest is out of season. The fields are white today.