Introduction: The Intersection of Fishing Evangelism and Discipleship
Which came first — the chicken or the egg?
Some of the best and brightest have debated this riddle for longer than we have historical records. While there are several different easy answers (such as God creating birds before eggs in Genesis 1 and 2), the question persists because it points us away from easy answers toward an essential link between the two objects. One cannot exist without the other.
Discipleship and Evangelism are much like the chicken and the egg conundrum. Across the generations, we have debated which was more central and essential to the mission that Jesus gave to His followers in Matthew 28:19-20. Discipleship and Evangelism are interconnected in crucial ways that cannot easily be glossed over or pushed aside. One cannot exist without the other. Here is an introduction to Fishing for People and how fishing evangelism connects with the overall work of making disciples with Jesus.
The Biblical Call: Fishing for People and Evangelism in Discipleship
In Matthew 4:19, Jesus told four fishermen:
19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
Immediately, they left their boats and followed Him, and the world has never been the same since.
This scripture is an invitation that comes with a promise. That promise was fulfilled after the death and resurrection of Jesus when He sent them out with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20 again). From the 21st-century English-speaking perspective, this promise is not very remarkable, especially compared to the many other promises given by Jesus and the Old Testament prophets. Anyone can be called to follow and then be sent somewhere else without considerable effort.
However, these phrases hold more profound significance in the first-century Jewish context. Rabbis took on students or apprentices by calling them to “Follow me.” These invitations were reserved for those with the most aptitude or prominent social status. In Roman-occupied Israel, rabbis were among the land’s most prestigious (sometimes even wealthy) citizens. It was an honor for Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be called to follow Jesus, even though it was unexpected and they were unprepared.
Being “sent” foreshadows their future roles as apostles, messengers, or “sent ones.” So, just a surface reading of this statement within the first-century Jewish context might carry more of the sense of a promise that said, “If you follow me as my disciple, I will make you into my apostle.” Those words have more significant meaning to us today. That is the core drive of this call on the lives of these men. Everything else here is a fishing metaphor.
Casting the Net: Principles of Effective Fishing for People in Evangelism
The fishing metaphor itself needs some context as well. For most people today, fishing is a hobby, not a profession. The goal as a hobbyist fisherman is to catch the biggest and best fish, not the most amount of fish. Professional fishing boats today have more in common with the fishermen of Galilee, where size was important, but the number of fish amounted to more money to take home. This is probably why the fishing miracles focus on the number of fish without mentioning how big they were.
If you want to catch more fish, follow the biblical example and use nets, not fishing poles and hooks. Nets don’t attract fish. They grab them where they are and pull them into the boat. The fish are caught because the span of the net traps them without giving them a way out. Hooks, however, are designed to catch a single fish by creating a point of connection that directs them whichever way the line goes. In other words, hooks lead individual fish to the boat, while nets carry groups of fish into it.
No sane fish would willingly bite down on a bare hook. The hooks’ effectiveness is directly connected to the bait attached to it. The more appealing the bait is to the fish, the more likely they will take a bite and be caught by the hook. Those who work in sales and marketing have used this concept since before the time of Jesus, which has become known as the “bait-and-switch” technique, where one thing is offered, but another is given once the buyer has committed. This bait-and-switch method has informed some of our ideas of evangelism as well, but this is not the fishing technique used by these early disciples.
Nets, on the other hand, rely on crowds of fish. Like lions hunting in the wilderness of Africa, when the herd of wildebeests is attacked, the weakest ones fall behind as prey to the hunters. When the lions work together, they can trap some of the others by chasing them into the claws and jaws of fellow hunters. Likewise, fish do not think strategically when a net suddenly surrounds them and may swim deeper into it in their panic. The net is aided by the number of fish, not by using bait.
Of course, hybrid versions of this are also used today. Some modern fishing enterprises use bait with nets or cages to catch sea life, but these techniques are beyond what most first-century Jewish fishermen used. They strived to find the areas of the water that gathered the most fish and cast their nets into it. This is why the fishing boat miracles at the beginning and end of the Gospel, where Jesus told them to throw the net on the other side of the boat, were so ridiculous and so powerful for them. The difference in the number of fish on one side of the boat or the other should have been insignificant, but it made all the difference for them on those two occasions. (Luke 5:4-6, John 21:6-8)
Effective evangelism, or fishing for people, does not employ the bait-and-switch method. It casts a wide net. It does not target individuals or customize to their specific desires. It focuses on calling them out of the crowd and carrying them to salvation. Like the fishermen of old who cast their nets in the deep water, when we share the gospel with the world, we do not know what we will catch until we bring in the net.
Hook, Line, and Sinker: Building Relationships in Evangelism
Using a net approach instead of the bait-and-switch method does not mean that individuals do not matter in evangelism. Working with groups of people does not mean that numbers are more important than the unique people who embody those numbers. There are two practices that are shared by both net and hook fishing: Patience and Persistence.
Patience is more than a virtue in fishing. It is a practice. Amateur fishermen like myself may wonder how long to leave the net in the water before pulling it up. Pulling it up immediately would likely result in an empty net because the movement of the net, dropping into the water, would likely scare fish away. Allowing it to sit in the water, gathering the curious fish and those seeking to pass through it, would allow for a bigger catch. To a certain extent, the longer it stays in the water, the more fish it can catch.
At some point, you have to bring in the net before the trapped fish find the time to escape it. Persistence is the second important practice in fishing. You must be willing to try again, sometimes in the same spot (or perhaps just on the other side of the boat). Fish congregate in areas because of the resources that area offers them, and if those resources are still there, they will likely return, even after having just escaped the fishing net.
Like many other aspects of discipleship, Evangelism is rooted in a ministry of presence that builds relationships. These relationships become the cords that form the net that carries people from their place of spiritual death and lostness to the salvation and life found in the boat with Jesus. Building those relationships requires patience and persistence with individuals and the crowds of people around them.
From Catch to Community: Integrating New Believers into Discipleship
When evangelism is disconnected from a faith family, it is disconnected from discipleship. Like the chicken and the egg, one does not exist without the other, and it becomes ineffective, ceasing to be anything more than a spiritual experience rather than true conversion and the beginning of transformation. Evangelism becomes effective through forming new relationships — with Jesus and disciple-makers following Him. That spiritual life grows deeper as those same relationships grow deeper. While there are always some parts of our faith that we must practice alone, many others cannot be practiced without a community, a family of faith, alongside us.
Faith family is one of the connecting points between the fishing and farming metaphors, and there is a celebration that should take place. However, we too often lose track of the relationships and try to create nameless, faceless systems to push people along in this work. We can separate disciple-makers into camps of evangelists and teachers, passing people from one group to the next. But this is not the way Jesus taught. When we extend the invitation to follow Jesus, and people accept it from us, our relationship with them does not end. Instead, it grows, and we must take the next step of introducing them to others in the family of faith so that they can learn alongside them and continue to follow Jesus with us.
Working together as a family of faith is the best way to overcome many of the challenges of evangelism. We are like individual cords that make up the net God uses to catch and carry the lost to salvation. A single strand is not a net. It is a fishing line. Two strands can make a knot together. But, as Ecclesiastes tells us,
“a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12b, NIV)
Each of us has a limited capacity for relationships. This is vital to remember when doing the relational work of evangelism and discipleship. We can speak to and share with large crowds of people, creating fragile relationships that will not last. Or we can invest patiently and persistently with people as they respond to God working through us over time. Even more than a balancing act, this work has an ebb and flow for those fishing for people.
However, we must also consider the relationship capacity of those who are lost. If you send ten people to share the gospel with one person, those ten connections will be spread thin within the lost person, no matter how focused and faithful their work is in presenting the Gospel message and the love of Jesus.
We must be aware that there is a wide scope in every soul that needs to be touched by the saving grace of Jesus and a particular sequence of things that need to occur to reach that span — and we must rely on Jesus to lead and guide us together in that work as Jesus invites them to follow Him and become fishers of people themselves.
Success Stories: Testimonies of Effective Fishing for People - Evangelism and Discipleship
Elizabeth Elliot has given some incredible teaching and lived out a powerful testimony of what it means to fish for people. She finished the evangelism and discipleship work she began with her husband among some of the natives of the Amazon rainforest. That work cost her husband and others their lives, and while Elizabeth grieved that loss, it was the forgiveness she offered those who killed her husband and the relationships that grew from that grace that became the net that saved those people.
Elizabeth sets a high standard for our work fishing for people, and many of us do not regularly face such extreme opportunities. However, Jesus is always working ahead of us and inviting us to come alongside HIm if we are willing to follow.
I worked at a church camp for middle school youth about ten years ago. One cabin of boys was causing the counselors and camp director some extra grief that week. Four of the boys were bullying a fifth one, who was the youngest of them, and the camp leaders asked me to preach a hellfire and brimstone message one evening in hopes of setting those boys straight. So, that evening, at the campfire, I preached from Matthew 5, covering the depth of the Law and the call of Jesus to love and treat one another better. It called us to go beyond what the world’s people consider “good enough” and to love perfectly.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. — Matthew 5:43-48 (NIV)
I gave an invitation and waited before drawing in the net. I don’t know how it touched any of those bullies that night because none came forward. But the youngest of them, the one who had been the victim of the bullying, came forward and said he could not follow Jesus while holding that hatred of the other boys in his heart, and he wanted to repent and offer them forgiveness.
That night, the fish I intended to catch seemed to have escaped. But who I drew up in the net God was creating became a fisher of people who had a deeper personal connection with those boys than I would have had myself, and he was sent to carry the Gospel and the message of forgiveness of sins to them.
Conclusion: Embracing Your Role as Fishers of People in Evangelism as Disciple-Makers
Evangelism is a part of discipleship, both as a beginning of our path in following Jesus and as a necessary part of our growth in following Him as we invite others to come with us. Like the chicken and the egg, one does not exist for long without the other. It is not cleanly separated who is called into the work of evangelism and when it should happen in their development because Jesus is the one who leads all of our work. My best understanding about the time and place of this work is that Jesus calls us to be ready to share anything we have received from Him as we are led by and empowered by Him.
Who are the people that formed the net that first carried you to salvation in Christ? How did they each share the gospel with you in their words and actions?
Where is God calling you to cast your net to fish for people today?
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