Fishing or Catching?

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Last night Shaunna (my wife) and I were invited to a dinner with other church planters where the President of the SBC would be hangin out and speakin a lil bit. One of the things he said was pretty interesting. He talked about the difference between the love of fishing verses the love of catching . What's the difference? the former involves a passion simply for the adventure and enjoyment of the sport, the latter denotes the love of the sport from a performance and results based motivation.

A great thinker and truly a theologian here in the Nashville area posed the question over coffee a few weeks ago, "If we (friends of Jesus) woke up tomorrow and realized we've been wrong all this time, and everyone in the world is and has been going to Heaven when they die, would our mission stop? Are we simply in the business of getting people's butts out of Hell, or are we about sharing our lives with and meeting the needs of people?" I couldn't help but think about this question last night as we listened to the differences of fishing and catching.

So what are we about? Fishing or catching? If we're about catching, over time we'll believe we've failed at mastering the sport--but as I recall isn't it God who brings the exact fish to the exact pole at the exact time He intends? (see Matthew 17:27) So what's our job? To fish--to throw out the line and know it has nothing to do with our eloquence, presentation, or methodology, but about a love of fishing, not catching.