Sowing and reaping
John Chapter 4 – 5:15
A recent study* from the Pew Research Center indicates that about 62 percent of the people in the United States now identify as Christian. About 7 percent relate to non-Christian religions and about 29 percent are religiously unaffiliated.
The closest the study gets to local information is the Houston metro area, which has a bit more people who identify as Christian: 67 percent Christian to 25 percent unaffiliated, with still about 7 percent identifying with non-Christian religions.
The bad news in the numbers is that Christian religious affiliation is down significantly in the decades since the 1980s.
There are two bits of good news, though: The decline appears to have stopped or at least paused, and about a quarter of our neighbors have no religious affiliation, meaning that many have not settled the matter of religion in their own minds and may be open to the gospel.
(Around 5 percent in the Houston area consider themselves atheist and 6 percent agnostic. 19 percent—about one in five people—report their affiliation as “nothing in particular.”)
These results give support to the words of Jesus we read today in 4:35, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”
This verse comes shortly after one of the most clearly evangelistic encounters Jesus has: his meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
In his encounter with her, Jesus shows her unexpected and sincere interest, establishes common ground, and is both respectful and honest. All of those are appropriate elements for our encounters with non-believers (or anyone else, for that matter).

*https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/