It would seem to me that a pastor answering the call to preach and teach (in the line of those that takes it tradition all the way back to the original fishers of men – Peter, James, John, and Andrew) would naturally take to fishing. So here’s the rub - not me! I don’t like fishing. I have tried it and I find no enjoyment in it.
One time I even spent a day, ok an afternoon, ok a few hours, deep sea fishing off the Cayman Islands. I’d tell you about it but I don’t remember much other than it was boring. I sat in the chair and prayed- back and forth - catch something - no wait I don’t want to catch something. In the end, I caught nothing and was happy about that – I would really have hated to have landed something worthy of being a trophy and then not want the trophy.
I once listened to stories for hours with fascination about guys going noodling in Oklahoma. Great stories - but no thanks on the invite to try it. I once caught a catfish with my Uncle Jim. He was really excited for me. I was bored.
Perhaps the reason I don’t like fishing is because I’m not much of a fish eater. I once was at a very expensive seafood restaurant that specialized in fresh fish from all over the world. Seeing that steak was not an option, I asked the waiter to bring me a fish entrée that would taste like chicken! Now the thought that you need to like to eat fish to enjoy fishing is nice, but don’t think you need to like hotdogs and peanuts in order to like baseball. And although you can fish for golf balls, I have never eaten one and I still love the game of golf (but that is for next week!).
I don’t like fishing. And before you tell me all about fishing, my dislike of fishing is not related to my lack of understanding of Fishing:
1) Pick a spot. Never forget that the way to catch a fish is first to identify the place where they are. People make great money taking people to the place where the fish are. They are called guides.
2) Pick the right bait. Depending on the type of fish and the conditions you are fishing in there are a myriad of choices both right and wrong in selecting your bait. Bait has gone way beyond earth worms, night crawlers, and crickets.
3) Wait for the fish to bite. This is line fishing and you have to be patient.
4) Reel them in. There is an art to be learned in landing a fish (or so I am told).
5) Decide to Keep or Release. Sometimes there will be stories of the one that got away or as I have learned there will always be the story of the one that got away. I suppose as the adage goes that is why they call it fishing and not catching! And part of the sport is to catch and then release – don’t quite understand that part of it. But in limit fishing you also only keep the best and the biggest to either eat or mount as a trophy.
So even with my limited understanding of fishing, fishing is still bores me. But here is what really bothers me about the fact that I dislike fishing so much:
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
Matthew 4:19 NIV
Now I know when Jesus said this He was not calling me to fish, but rather to do that dreaded word evangelism. I confess that I often have thought of fishing for men much like I think about fishing – Boring! Not fun. Not for me.
I believe that too often we as Christians have approached the idea of evangelism the same way I approach fishing? Perhaps you have thought the same and so here is what I think we can do about it:
1) Picking a spot to fish is much like identifying a person that needs to hear about God’s love. Do you know people that need to know God? Have you begun to pray for them regularly? Pick your spot. But who would you talk to?
If the world was a village of 1000 . . .
175 would be Muslim
127 would be Hindu
54 would be Budhist
300 would be Christian
300 would claim no religion . . .
Of those 300, 75% are looking for some kind of relationship with God
and 82% said they would say yes to invite to church
2)Pick the right bait. I think the church has become misguided in our desire to create the right bait. I believe that too often we have tried to ‘sell’ Jesus as a magic elixir to cure all troubles and when that doesn’t work – people move on to the next product. The right bait in catching people is another person genuinely loving and caring about them.
3) Wait for something to happen. There is nothing passive about sharing your faith. How long would someone need to spend with you to learn about your job, your family, your hobbies? How long before they learned about your faith and love for God? We should be looking for opportunities.
4) Reel them in. The same could be said of evangelism, but it is not as hard as you might think. Too often we think that we need to lecture or teach or we need to have special training. What we really need is to be able to understand what we believe and why we believe it. All you need to be able to do with someone is tell them what you believe and why – Your job in sharing your faith is NOT to tell them what to believe or even to convince them (let the Holy Spirit take care of that) – you just be faithful to share your story. (BTW you need a story to share!)
5) Catch or release. Sometimes there will be stories of the one that got away or did not respond to my invitation – I might add that at least you will have a story about fishing! But church we must be careful that we do not make decisions before we even fish. One of John Wesley’s tenets was that the Gospel was for “all” or everyone – small or big, rich or poor, old or young, black or white, etc. Wesley took the Gospel to those that were outside the area of acceptance for the ‘normal’ church.
So to sum up, Church it does not matter if you like fishing or not. We are called to be fishers of men. Now, as much as I hate fishing, I have learned that the reality is that it is something we are called to do in our lives. We are always fishing and some of us are better at it than others, but it does not let us “off the hook” from the process. And just as Jesus promised to those who would follow Him long ago that “He would be with us – even to the end of the age” – Jesus still fulfills His promise today to make us fishers of men, women, families, friends, children, co-workers, neighbors, etc.
We who have chosen to follow Christ have a story to tell. There are people waiting, wanting, and needing the blessings that come from the story of faith that you have to tell. Will you join me?
Do you have a story of faith to tell? If not talk to me, I would love to share my story of faith with you. I’ll buy the coffee and we can go fishing together.
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