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Jesus talked about fishing. In fact, He offered to take some of His fishermen friends and convert them into "fishers of men". He modelled for them how to work at being a Christian, how to develop a lifestyle that would allow them to talk about their faith and how to use leisure time to create life-transforming relationships with people.
Most of us intend to "fish" for Jesus sometime. Too many evangelical Christians, however, intend to witness like I intend to get out on the lake. We have good intentions, but limited results.
Some of us say, "I'm grateful for what I know of Jesus, but I'm not up to introducing Him to anyone." Beginning with first things first might help. We need to get to know people and become friends with them before we can talk seriously about spiritual matters.
There are countless others who feel, "Not enough has happened for me to try to minister to anyone else." If this is how you feel, stop and look back at your life. Has God done anything for you? Are you any different than you were a year ago? Ten years ago? If you answer, "Yes," you have something valuable to share--personal experience. You may not know all of life's answers; you need only know from your own experience that God's power can change a life. You don't have to be perfect to help someone else; you need only be available.
A teenager took note of the fact that he had an elderly neighbour who never went to church. The neighbour began to weigh heavily upon the boy's conscience. Finally, he made an appointment to visit his neighbour. Trembling with fear, he sat in the neighbour's living room and shared as simply and tactfully as he could what Christ had meant in his life.
"I think you ought to do something about this one way or another," the boy concluded. The man said nothing in response. Twice more the boy repeated his story. The third time, he began to look for a door through which to escape. Before he could make his getaway, however, the elderly gentleman reached for a pad and wrote, "I am so moved I cannot speak." Never before had anyone seriously attempted to speak with this man about Christ, and he accepted the invitation.
Each of us has our own space and time for which we are responsible. Our church succeeds or fails in its ministry according to whether or not something is happening "in Jesus' name" in the part of the world where we are involved. We succeed or fail by purposefully befriending people or by failing to be a friend.
Wayne Warner is a freelance writer from Three Rivers, Mich.
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