Are you going to keep talking or start fishing?
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Hank was excited about his new method of fishing. He would row out into the middle of his lake, take a stick of dynamite out of his backpack, light it, and then throw it into the water. A big explosion would follow, and immediately fish would rise to the top of the water. Hank then took his large fishnet and began scooping them into his boat. The local game warden had heard about the numbers of fish Hank was catching, so he decided to pay him a visit. He observed Hank's new method of fishing from the shore, and when he saw how Hank was catching his fish, he motored out to pay Hank a visit.
"Hank," he said, "you can't fish like that. What you are doing is illegal, and I'm going to have to arrest you."
Hank paid no attention to the warden's words, but instead reached into his backpack for another stick of dynamite, lit it up, and handing it to the warden, he said. "Sir, are you going to keep talking or start fishing"?
The same question might be addressed to the church: "Are you going to keep talking or start fishing?" Asked another way, one might query, "Are you going to be 'fishers of men or just keepers of the aquarium?'"
Sharing our faith is more important than ever in a church culture where people are less likely to come to church as frequently as they once did. As a result, we must become more intentional about taking and sharing the gospel outside the confines of the church. Believers must commit to taking the gospel to the streets.
Statistically, less than 5 percent of all Christians have ever led someone to the Lord. The church has strayed a long way from the days of the early church when the gospel spread like wildfire because everywhere believers went, they told their friends and neighbors the good news about Jesus. They were gossipers of the gospel.
Today we will spend millions of dollars to support missionaries around the world, but few believers will even cross the street to share the good news with their neighbors.
As pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie reminds us, "God has called us to infiltrate and not isolate. God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called," and the called are you and me. There is no impact without contact, and unless we recapture the 'go' of Gospel, and go to our friends, neighbors. work associates, teammates, how will they ever hear the Good News?
The last command of the church was given by Jesus who said, "We are to go into the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have told you, and remembering that I am with you always even to the ends of the age (Matt. 28:18-20). Unfortunately, as someone has sadly said, this last command of the church has often become the 'lost' command of the church.
Don't be one of those 95 percenters who will never lead someone to Christ. Instead, be a part of God's army of witnesses who is looking to win the world for Him, one person at a time.
 | Tom Crenshaw serves as Connections Pastor of the New Monmouth Baptist Church (non denominational) where he previously served as a three year interim.He has been married to Jean for almost 50 years, and they have four children, all of whom are teachers.Tom loves perennial gardening, umpiring high school baseball, coaching baseball and football, fishing for small mouth bass, rooting for his favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, and listening to ‘real’ country music, the classic kind. Learn More » |
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