A WORD FROM THE PASTOR

Deep-Sea Fishing

How many of you/us have ever been deep-sea fishing? You may be asking what deep-sea fishing has to do with the Church. You are going to see over the next four weeks (in the Sunday liturgy) that deep-sea fishing is a picture of the deep-soul fishing we are to be about as Church.

As Jesus was going along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and, I will make you fishers of men” (Mk 1:16-17). That one statement tells us what our primary business is as Church, both corporately and as followers of Jesus individually. As a follower of Jesus I want you to understand that every day Jesus Christ wants fishermen-disciples to launch out into the sea of humanity and go deep-soul fishing, because the Church's primary business, the Christian's primary business, is the fishing business, and no matter what else we do nor how well we do it, if we ever get out of the fishing business, we are out of business.

Your neighborhood is a lake full of fish. Your office is a lake full of fish. Your school is a lake full of fish. When Jesus said, "I will make you fishers of men,” he was saying, “I will take you, with your personality, your background, your testimony, your influence and I will use you to catch men and women and boys and girls and bring them into my family.”

There are basically four reasons why people do not catch fish: (1) Some people are using the wrong bait. (2) Some people are fishing in the wrong lake, that is, they don't know where the fish are. (3) Some people have got the right bait and they're in the right lake, but they don't know how to fish. (4) Then there are some people who have the right bait, and they're in the right lake, and they know how to fish but they're just not going fishing.

The Lord Jesus came not only that we might put our faith in him, but that we might go fishing with him. You see, our problem is not that we have the wrong lake. The water is full of fish. The problem is not that we have the wrong bait. We have the Gospel which can hook any fish. Our problem, I believe, is one of ignorance, indifference, lethargy and apathy. There are many Christians who believe they do not know how to share the Lord Jesus, and then there are many who just don't want to go.