I love to fish.  In fact if it were possible I used to spend to much time fishing, I would tell me wife that God made the world 3/4 water so we should spend 3/4 of our time fishing.  It really does not matter what kind of fishing it is either.  I like to bass fish, fish for catfish, trout, bluegill, you name it I love to go.  For me there is nothing better then hooking into a big fish.  Even when I was little I loved to go out and fish and try to catch the “big one”.  There were times when I would go and stay out all night simply fishing.  Well Jesus knew how to fish as well, Luke 5:4-11

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

This scripture has always intrigued me.  I mean Jesus tells the disciples to fish out in the deep in the middle of the day.  He is telling them to fish where everyone would say not to and during a time when everyone would say is bad time.  The disciples knew that you fished at night near the shore.  But Jesus knows where the fish are at.  So the disciples obey and they catch so many fish that their nets are going to break and they end up filling 2 boats and the boats almost sink.  Wow that is a good day of fishing.  I cant help to believe that these verses have some application to the church.

I believe it is time for the church to wake up.  For whatever reason we think the fish are just going to come and jump into our nets and we are going to have this great catch.  Fish are never just going to come and jump into our nets it is time for the church to “launch into the deep and let down there nets”  we have to stop thinking the fish will show up and start obeying where Jesus may be telling us to fish.  Jesus knows where the fish are but are we willing to listen.  We must not be content to sit back and to wait for them to come but to GO and find them.When I go fishing if I am in one spot for awhile and I do not get a bite I move to another spot looking for fish.  I am not saying the church has to pack up and move but I am saying that we have stop thinking the people will come to us and start realising we must go to the people.

We have become so good at building aquariums that we think our aquarium is good enough to make fish come and be happy just sitting in our aquarium.  I dont know about you but I have never seen an aquarium gill itself.  I mean we have grown so accustom to worrying about how our service looks, or how our church looks, or how are music sond, or what Bible we use, or whether we have a Starbucks in our church and honestly it is meaningless.  Sure it may attract a few fish here and there but ultimately our aquariums seem to be for the fish e already have. Dont get me wrong I like good music, I love Starbucks coffee but I am already in the church.  Fish are not just going to swim right into our aquarium but we must go and get them.  When will we learn that the great commission requires us to go and not to stay.  We must go somewhere and find the fish and then go fishing.

We are all to be fisher of men will you go fishing?

Recently I listened to an interview with Rick Warren and whether you like his stuff or not he had some good things to say in the interview.  In this interview he commented on many things.  For instance he spoke on stages they try to take people through at Saddleback.  They were first to “Know Christ”,Then to Love Christ’s family, then to grow in Christ, then to serve Christ, finally to share Christ.  This is a process that they attempt to take people through.  I enjoyed what he had to say about this because it seems in many churches their is not a process, or even a plan for that matter.  It seems more like a somewhat organized Chaos with no real plan.  On top of that when asked to put their plan into words most churches can not primarily because they do not have a plan.  This can be and is counter intuitive to many churches.  If the people do not know where they are going or where they are being lead then “aren’t they following blindly”.

Really what impressed me most was Warren’s comments on discipleship.  Warren spoke that Saddleback was built on a series of five covenants.  The first is their entry point “Come and See” he said there is no commitment to “Come and See” the only thing you have to do is show up.  You can sit wherever you want, you don’t have to sing any songs you are not forced to say anything you just come and see.  Warren was quick to point out that Jesus never left the people there.  

“From “Come and See” Jesus would take them through consistent steps.  During this time Jesus is constantly turning up the heat.   As they begin to follow Him Jesus begins to say things like You’re my disciple if…He redefines commitment.  ”You’re my disciple if you love on another.”  ”You’re my disciple if you bear fruit.”  ”You’re my disciple if you take up your cross, deny yourself,  and follow Me.”  And on and on Jesus is turning up the heat.”

“In those days, nobody took up a cross unless the Romans were going to nail him to it. So He’s saying, “Come and die.” There’s a huge difference in commitment between “Come and see” and “Come and die.” He doesn’t say “Come and die” at the very first. He takes three years into a relationship with them. And He’s moving them.”

“Churches have not understood that commitment is sequential, systematic, and processed. And to move them from “Come and see” to “Come and die” is what Purpose Driven is all about.”

“What happens is churches tend to be one or the other. You’re either a “Come and see” church or a “Come and die” church. And the “Come and see” churches bring them in the front door and win a lot of people to Christ, but they don’t deepen them to deeper levels of maturity. The “Come and die” church doesn’t reach anybody for Christ, and they’ve got their frozen chosen that they keep taking deeper and deeper and deeper. But those people have koinitis. They’re so close no one else can break into it.”

“What a church has to do is see that “Come and see” and “Come and die” is the whole spectrum. And how do you get people from “Come and see” to “Come and die?” There are classes. There are covenants. There are commitments. There are cells. There’s coaching.”

“It’s not just one-on-one. It’s not just one to small group. It’s not just one to big crowd. There is a combination. And you have to take into account that people learn in different ways. Most churches have not built the levels of learning into discipleship.”

 So often we have no plan.  Our plan is watch this movie, read this book, take someone else through this book.  That is not really discipleship.  So often there is no process to grow someone in Christ.  They either “Come and See” and never get moved beyond that or we as them to “come and die” and they are not ready for that.  Why is it we seldom move people through a time of discipleship.  Rarely do we really take time to get to know those we are supposedly discipling so how do we really know where to start?  We really need to revolutionize how we look at discipleship and stop wasting time.  We need to strip discipleship of all of its protective gear and stop worrying about people seeing the real us and stop pretending to be something we are not and start invading peoples lives with who Jesus Christ is.  We need to be willing to stick it out for a long haul and show them whatever way it takes for them to understand who Jesus is and move them into the direction of “come and die” then we will have radical committed disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please not that the quoted text are the words of Rick Warren in the interview.