Casting The Net Wide

I am not a fisherman! My shining moment in my fishing history came about 4 months ago when I caught a stingray off of Bald-Head Island with the help of a good friend. before this exhilarating 30 minute experience, however, we had to catch some bait fish. (Ken, please forgive me if any of these terms are wrong. I would hate to disparage your good fishing name and misrepresent your vast knowledge of the sport with my ignorance...)

Catching bait fish is easy enough, that is if the fish are there. All you do is put one end of the slimy detritus littered, fish smelling, plastic mesh of the casting net between your teeth at one end and then do a middle-schoolers slow dancing sway until you get the rhythm of the net in sync with your casting arm. At just the right time you release the net with a spin so that it covers the largest area possible. and then you pull the line back in and hopefully draw in some fish. Or, if you're me, you watch while Ken pulls in the fish.

At Elevation Church we are fishing in bountiful waters. Our vision centers itself on investing in our relationships and inviting people to attending a wonderful, moving and relevant worship experience. As a result of this investment of time and energy - and of God's incredible blessing on our time and energy - we are standing over pools of water that are boiling with fish - that is with people far from God ready to receive the gospel. So now what? Well, there's at least two options: 1) cast in a line and catch one fish at a time or, 2) throw out a net and catch as many as possible.

If we were to chose the line methodology we would begin to narrow our focus. Bottom feeders aren't going after the fly, and a spinner isn't going to catch the same species of fish as a grub (How am I doing Ken?). In other words, we would be forced by the nature of our method to select a particular fish before we cast in our line. On the other hand, the net catches them all. Learn to cast the net well and you can dramatically increase the number and kind of fish you catch.

We have seen over 1,000 people make decisions for Christ since February! Hopefully God will give us the grace to sort through the catch well and mend our nets with care and efficiency. And if we're doing our jobs right, the waters will be swarming again soon...