The Parable of the Fishless Fishermen

I have heard of this before. But an excellent story. I post this story as a reminder of myself. It is easy for me to read about evangelism, to listen to sermons about evangelism, to even read my bible about evangelism. But if I am not willing to do then I am suffering the same fate as these people in this story. This story was posted over at the good fellows of Godcasting. Go check them out.

There was a group called The Fisherman's Fellowship. They were surrounded by streams and lakes full of hungry fish. They met regularly to discuss the call to fish, the abundance of fish, and the thrill of catching fish. They got excited about fishing!

Someone suggested that they needed a philosophy of fishing, so they carefully defined and redefined fishing, and the purpose of fishing. They developed fishing strategies and tactics. Then they realized that they had been going at it backwards. They had approached fishing from the point of view of the fisherman, and not from the point of view of the fish. How do fish view the world? How does the fisherman appear to the fish? What do fish eat, and when? These are all good things to know. So they began research studies, and attended conferences on fishing. Some traveled to far away places to study different kinds of fish, with different habits. Some got PhD's in fishology. But no one had yet gone fishing.

So a committee was formed to send out fisherman. As prospective fishing places outnumbered fisherman, the committee needed to determine priorities. A priority list of fishing places was posted on bulletin boards in all of the fellowship halls. But still, no one was fishing. A survey was launched, to find out why. Most did not answer the survey, but from those that did, it was discovered that some felt called to study fish, a few, to furnish fishing equipment, and several to go around encouraging the fishermen. What with meetings, conferences, and seminars, they just simply didn't have time to fish.

Now, Jake was a newcomer to the Fisherman's Fellowship. After one stirring meeting of the Fellowship, he went fishing and caught a large fish. At the next meeting, he told his story, and he was honored for his catch. He was told that he had a special "gift of fishing." He was then scheduled to speak at all the Fellowship chapters and tell how he did it.

With all the speaking invitations and his election to the board of directors of the Fisherman's Fellowship, Jake no longer has time to go fishing. But soon he began to feel restless and empty. He longed to feel the tug on the line once again. So he cut the speaking, he resigned from the board, and he said to a friend, "Let's go fishing." They did, just the two of them, and they caught fish. The members of the Fisherman's Fellowship were many, the fish were plentiful, but the fishers were few!

Anonymous

I want to add this one thing to this story. Recently I purchased an iTalk Pro for my ipod. My wish is to be able to record different interviews with strangers as I witness to them. Be in prayer over this as I still have a great fear of bringing up the eternal with anyone. I think this all stems from me not knowing the "how" for so many years, and hearing people say "you don't want to turn them off" by being to abrasive. Now that I know the truth I need to get out there no matter what! Be in prayer over this and I hope that I can get some good recordings soon of me sharing my faith to some people. If you read this and you would be willing for me to record you then by all means let me know! We will get together and work this out.

Today I had a guy ask me for a short ride. Being in good spirits I said yes and we were off to the local supermarket. I didn't know this guy at all and he, like everyone else, had a long story to tell. I am not sure honestly if all or any was true however there we were. I started to think of ways I can bring up spiritual things. I started getting a huge lump in my throat. It was hard for me to speak. And, when all was said and done I wasn't able to do a thing! This I need lots of prayer and just a "Ray Comfort" attitude. The way he overcomes these things is by diving in head first so that you can't tell how cold the water is until you get there. Listening to this man he seems like the type of guy who would jump out of an airplane just to do it. However he is as timid and meek as I am sometimes.

So hopefully soon you will seem more meaningful posts, and some podcasts. Until then...