Saturday, March 14, 2015

Fishing Without Hooks?

We're going to be talking about people as if they're fish to be caught.  It would be easy to be sort of offended at the thought if you are one of the catchees instead of the catchers.  This people=fish metaphor is common language in the Christian church, and it comes from something Jesus said to some fishermen:

Matthew 4:19
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”


Witnesses say they left their nets and boats and followed Jesus, and in so doing became the first people to enroll in a school of church-planting. Not many months later, these former-fishermen were being sent out into the surrounding villages to ruin the plans of the devil.  They were healing people and casting out demons in Jesus' name, telling people the good news of God's love and presence of God's Kingdom come-to-earth.

They had gone from fishermen to fishers-of-men.


Now, that's all that the Bible tells about their fishing strategy.  Says that they were to let their blessing rest on a home, that they weren't to amass money or even be dependent on material comforts.  Says they prayed for people and God answered their prayers.  Does NOT say that they had a particular strategy for convincing people to follow the Jesus they had begun following.  There's a lot left to the imagination in that department.

So now the questions.  Each of these is related to the overarching question: "What does it mean to be a fisher of men?"

  1. If it feels bad to find a hook in the bait (if you're the fish), is it okay to use that technique?
  2. Is it fishing to throw in bait but use no hooks?
  3. When "fishing" for people, is it better to use a baited line, dynamite, a harpoon, or nets?