11-developing-your-strategy

11

Developing Your Strategy

Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.

1 Corinthians 9:22 (LB)

Jesus called out, “Come along with me and I will show you how to fish for the souls of men!”

Matthew 4:19 (LB)

M^y dad is the best fisherman I’ve ever met. If there is only one fish in a lake or stream he will catch it. This always amazed me growing up. Ten of us could be fishing the same lake and my dad would catch all the fish. How did he do it? Was it magic? Did God just like himbetter?

As I got older I realized his secret: My dad understood fish.

He could “read” a lake and figure out exactly where the fish were; he knew what time of day they liked to eat; he knew what bait or lure to use depending on the type of fish; he knew when to change bait as the temperature changed; he even seemed to know exactly how deep to drop the line into the water. He made it as easy and attractive as possible for fish to swallow his hook—so they did! He caught fish on their terms.

In contrast, I never had a strategy when I went fishing. I’d cast out anywhere in the lake hoping something might bite. Fish rarely went for my hook because I fished with a take-it-orleave-it attitude. I was always more interested in enjoying the outdoors than actually catching anything. While my dad would crawl through brush or get wet up to his waist in order to get to where the fish were, my fishing spots were usually determined by what was most comfortable to me. I had no strategy, and my results showed it.

Unfortunately, many churches have this same lackadaisical attitude toward fishing for men and women. They don’t take the time to understand the people they want to reach, and they don’t have a strategy. They want to win people to Christ as long as it can be done in a comfortable way.

The secret of effective evangelism is to not only share Christ’s message but to follow Christ’s methodology. I believe Jesus gave us not only what to say but also how to share it. He had a strategy. He modeled timeless principles of evangelism that still work today if we’ll apply them.

Matthew 10 and Luke 10 are two revealing accounts of Jesus’ strategy for targeted evangelism. Before Jesus sent out his disciples to evangelize, he gave them specific instructions about whom they were to spend their time with, whom they were to ignore, what they were to say, and how they were to share it. There isn’t space in this chapter for a detailed exposition of all the instructions Jesus gave. Instead, I want to identify five fishing guidelines for evangelism found in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples. We have built Saddleback’s evangelismstrategy around these five principles.

KnowWhat You Are Fishing For

The kind of fish you want to catch will determine every part of your strategy. Fishing for bass, catfish, or salmon requires different equipment, bait, and timing. You don’t catch marlin the same way you catch trout. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to fishing. Each demands a unique strategy. The same is true in fishing for men—it helps to know what you’re fishing for!

When Jesus sent his disciples out on their first evangelistic campaign, he defined the target very specifically: They were to focus on their own countrymen. “These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel’ “ (Matt. 10:5–6).

There may have been several reasons Jesus narrowed the target, but one thing is certain: He targeted the kind of people

the disciples were most likely to reach—people like themselves. Jesus was not being prejudiced, he was being strategic. As I mentioned in chapter 9, Jesus defined the disciples’ target so they’d be effective, not in order to be exclusive.

Go Where the Fish Are Biting

It is a waste of time to fish in a spot where the fish aren’t biting. Wise fishermen move on. They understand that fish feed in different spots at different times of the day. Nor are they hungry all the time.

This is the principle of receptivity that I explained in the last chapter. At certain times, unbelievers are more responsive to spiritual truth than at other times. This receptivity often lasts only briefly, which is why Jesus said to go where people would listen. Take advantage of the responsive hearts that the Holy Spirit prepares.

Notice Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 10:14 (NCV): “If a home or town refuses to welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake its dust off your feet” (italics added). This is a very significant statement that we shouldn’t ignore. Jesus told the disciples they were not supposed to stay around unresponsive people. We aren’t supposed to pick the green fruit, but to find the ripe fruit and harvest it.

Before starting Saddleback, I led evangelistic crusades and revivals in many churches. Often the local pastor and I would spend the afternoons making evangelistic house calls. Many

times the pastor would take me to the same stubborn case that previous evangelists had failed to win. It was a waste of time.

Is it good stewardship to continue badgering someone who has rejected Christ a dozen times when there is a whole community of receptive people waiting to hear the Gospel for the first time? I believe the Holy Spirit wants to direct us to the people he’s already prepared to respond. Jesus told us not to worry about the unresponsive. Shake the dust off your feet and move on.

The apostle Paul’s strategy was to go through open doors and not waste time banging on closed ones. Likewise, we should not focus our efforts on those who aren’t ready to listen. There are far more people in the world who are ready to receive Christ than there are believers ready to witness to them.

Learn to Think Like a Fish

In order to catch fish it helps to understand their habits, preferences, and feeding patterns. Certain fish like smooth, still water, and others like to swim in rushing rivers. Some fish are bottom crawlers, and others like to hide under rocks. Successful fishing requires the ability to think like a fish.

Jesus often knew what unbelievers were thinking (see Matt. 9:4; 12:25; Mark 2:8; Luke 5:22; 9:47; 11:17). He was effective in dealing with people because he understood and was able to defuse the mental barriers they held.

Colossians 4:5 (NCV) says, “Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity.” We must learn to think like unbelievers in order to win them.

The problem is, the longer you are a believer, the less you think like an unbeliever. Your interests and values change. Because I’ve been a Christian for most of my life, I think like a Christian. I don’t normally think like an unbeliever. Worse than that, I tend to think like a pastor, and that’s even further removed from an unbeliever’s mind-set. I must intentionally change mental gears when seeking to relate to non-Christians.

If you look at most church advertising, it’s obvious that it was written from a believer’s viewpoint, not from the mind-set of an unchurched person. Take a church ad that announces “Preaching the inerrant Word of God!” Such a statement certainly doesn’t appeal to unbelievers. Personally, I consider the inerrancy of Scripture as a nonnegotiable belief, but the unchurched don’t even understand the term. The spiritual terminology that Christians are familiar with is just gibberish to unbelievers. If you want to advertise your church to the unchurched you must learn to think and speak like they do.

I’ve often heard pastors complain that unbelievers are more resistant to the Gospel today than in the past. I don’t think that is true at all. More often than not, resistance is just poor communication. The message just isn’t getting through. Churches need to stop saying people are closed to the Gospel and start finding out how to communicate on the unbeliever’s

wavelength. No matter how life-changing our message is, it won’t do any good if we’re broadcasting on a different channel fromthe unchurched.

How do you learn to think like unbelievers? Talk to them! One of the greatest barriers to evangelism is that most believers spend all their time with other Christians. They don’t have any non-believing friends. If you don’t spend any time with unbelievers, you won’t understand what they’re thinking.

As I shared in chapter 1, I began Saddleback by going doorto-door for twelve weeks and surveying the unchurched in my area. Six years earlier I had read Robert Schuller’s book Your Church Has Real Possibilities, which told how he had gone door-to-door in 1955 and asked hundreds of people, “Why don’t you go to church?” and “What do you want in a church?” I thought this was a great idea but felt the questions needed to be rephrased for the more skeptical 1980s. I wrote down in my notebook five questions I would use to start Saddleback:

• 1. What do you think is the greatest need in this area? This question simply got people talking to me.
• 2. Are you actively attending any church? If they said yes, I thanked them and moved on to the next home. I didn’t bother asking the other three questions because I didn’t want to color the survey with believers’ opinions. Notice that I didn’t ask, “Are you a member?” Many people who haven’t been inside a

church for twenty years still claim membership in some church.

• 3. Why do you think most people don’t attend church? This seemed to be a less threatening and offensive wording than “Why don’t you attend church?” Today many people would answer that question with “It’s none of your business why I don’t go!” But when I asked why they thought other people didn’t attend, they usually gave me their personal reasons anyway.
• 4. If you were to look for a church to attend, what kind of things would you look for? This single question taught me more about thinking like an unbeliever than my entire seminary training. I discovered that most churches were offering programs that the unchurched were not interested in.
• 5. What could I do for you? What advice can you give to a minister who really wants to be helpful to people? This is the most basic question the church must ask its community. Study the gospels and notice how many times Jesus asked someone, “What do you want me to do for you?” He began with people’s needs.

When I took the survey, I introduced it by saying: “Hi, my name is Rick Warren. I’m taking an opinion poll of our community. I’m not here to sell you anything or sign you up for anything. I’d just like to ask you five questions. There are no right or wrong answers, and it will only take about two minutes.”

Several thousand churches have now used these five survey questions in their own communities. One denomination that I consulted with used these questions to start 102 new churches on a single day! If you have never surveyed the unchurched in your area, I strongly recommend that you do.

Four basic complaints

We discovered four common complaints about churches fromour survey in the Saddleback Valley.

”Church is boring, especially the sermons. The messages don’t relate to my life.” This is the complaint I heard the most. It is amazing how churches are able to take the most exciting book in the world and bore people to tears with it. Miraculously they are able to turn bread into stones!

The problem with boring preachers is that it causes people to think God is boring. From this complaint, I determined to learn how to communicate God’s Word in a practical, interesting way. A sermon does not have to be boring to be biblical, and it doesn’t have to be dry to be doctrinal. The unchurched aren’t asking for watered-down messages, just practical ones. They want to hear something on Sunday that they can apply on Monday.

”Church members are unfriendly to visitors. If I go to church I want to feel welcomed without being embarrassed.” Many unchurched people told me that they felt like the church was a clique. When they didn’t know the “inside” terminology,

songs, or rituals, they felt foolish and felt the members were watching them in judgment. The greatest emotion the unchurched feel when they visit a service is fear. As a result, we determined that at Saddleback we would do whatever it took to make visitors feel welcomed and wanted without feeling watched.

”The church is more interested in my money than in me.” Due to the highly visible fund-raising efforts of televangelists and other Christian organizations, the unchurched are incredibly sensitive to appeals for money. Bill Hybels found this to be the greatest complaint in his area when he took a similar survey. Many believe that pastors are “in it just for the money,” and opulent church buildings have only added fuel to the fire. We decided to counteract this complaint by giving a disclaimer when we take an offering. We explain that the offering is only for those who are a part of our church family. Visitors are not expected to give.

”We worry about the quality of the church’s child care.” The Saddleback Valley is filled with young couples, so we were not surprised to discover this complaint. The church must earn the trust of parents. Saddleback has adopted and published a set of stringent guidelines for our children’s ministry to insure safety and quality. If you want to reach young couples, you must have an excellent programfor their children.

Jesus told the disciples to be strategic in their evangelism. “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). In

football, successful teams know how to “read the defense.” When the offensive team lines up for each play, the quarterback looks out at the opposing team to see how they are lined up. He tries to figure out in advance how the defense will respond and what barriers might prevent the execution of the play. If the quarterback doesn’t do this, he usually gets sacked!

In evangelism, “reading the defense” means understanding and anticipating the objections unbelievers will have before they voice them. It means learning to think like an unbeliever.

What seemed most interesting to me about our survey was that none of the complaints from the unchurched in our area were theological. I didn’t meet a single person who said, “I don’t go to church because I don’t believe in God.” However I did meet a lot of people who said, “I believe in God, but I don’t feel church has anything I need.” Most of the unchurched aren’t atheists: They are misinformed, turned off, or too busy.

Using the information we gathered through the survey, we mailed an open letter to the community addressing the major concerns of the unchurched and announcing a church service designed to counteract the most common excuses they gave.

I wrote this letter totally on faith. When we sent it out, we hadn’t even held a service yet. In faith, we announced in advance the kind of church we were determined to be.

I defined our target in the first sentence of the letter by

positioning Saddleback as “a church for the unchurched.” The entire tone of the letter was written to appeal to what the unchurched were looking for, not to attract Christians from other churches. In fact, all of the critical and angry letters I received in response to this first letter came from Christians who questioned why I had not mentioned Jesus or the Bible. Some even expressed doubt over my own salvation! They just didn’t understand what we were trying to do.

Because of the letter, 205 people attended the first service of Saddleback, and within the next ten weeks eighty-two of them gave their lives to Christ. The results were worth being misunderstood by some Christians. You have to decide who you want to impress.

March 20, 1980

Hi Neighbor!

AT LAST!

A new church designed for those who’ve given up on traditional church services! Let’s face it. Many people aren’t active in church these days.

WHY?

Too often…

• The sermons are boring and don’t relate to daily living
• Many churches seem more interested in your wallet than you
• Members are unfriendly to visitors
• You wonder about the quality of the nursery care for your children

Do you think attending church should be enjoyable?

WE’VEGOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!

SADDLEBACK VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH is a new church designed to meet your needs in the 1980s. We’re a group of friendly, happy people who have discovered the joy of the Christian lifestyle.

At Saddleback Valley Community Church you

• Meet new friends and get to know your neighbors
• Enjoy upbeat music with a contemporary flavor
• Hear positive, practical messages which encourage you each week
• Trust your children to the care of dedicated nursery workers

WHYNOT GET A LIFT THIS SUNDAY?

I invite you to be my special guest at our first public celebration service EASTER SUNDAY, April 6 at 11:00

a.m. We are currently meeting in the Laguna Hills High School Theater. If you don’t have a church home, give us a try!

DISCOVER THEDIFFERENCE!

Sincerely,

Rick Warren, Pastor

Catch Fish on Their Terms

This is the heart of Saddleback’s evangelism strategy: We must be willing to catch fish on their own terms. As I pointed out in the illustration of my dad, successful fishing often requires doing things that are uncomfortable in order to get to the fish. Did you know that the average fisherman never ventures farther than a half mile from a paved road? Serious fishermen, however, will go to any length to catch fish. How serious are you about the Great Commission? How serious is your church? Are you willing to go to any length and be uncomfortable in order to win people to Christ?

Understanding and adapting to their culture

Jesus told the disciples, “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you” (Luke 10:8, italics added). In saying this, Jesus was giving more than dietary advice, he was commanding them to be sensitive to local culture. He was telling them to fit in with those they wanted to reach. They were to adapt to local customs and culture when it didn’t violate a biblical principle.

When I served as a student missionary to Japan I had to learn to eat what was set before me. I didn’t like everything I tasted, but I loved the Japanese I wanted to win to Christ, so I adapted to their ways.

Too often we let cultural differences between believers and unbelievers become barriers to getting the message out. For

some Christians, any talk of “adapting to their culture” sounds like theological liberalism. This is not a new fear. In fact, it was the reason the apostles held the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15. In those days the issue was, “Do Gentile believers have to follow Jewish customs and culture to be considered true Christians?” The apostles and elders answered with a clear “No way!” From that point on, Christianity began to adapt to each new culture as it spread around the world.

The Gospel is always communicated in the terms of some culture. The only question is, which one? No church can be culturally neutral. It will express some culture because it is composed of human beings.

For 2,000 years Christianity has adapted itself to one culture after another. If it hadn’t adapted, we’d still be a sect within Judaism! We are ignoring 2,000 years of church history when we insist that our own cultural expression of the faith is better or more biblical than any other.

I’ve noticed that whenever I go fishing the fish don’t automatically jump into my boat or throw themselves up onto the shore for me. Their culture (under water) is very different from mine (air). It takes intentional effort on my part to make contact with fish. Somehow I must figure out how to get the bait right in front of their nose in their culture.

Churches that expect the unchurched to show up simply because they build a building and hang out a “We’re Open” sign are deluding themselves. People don’t voluntarily jump

into your boat. You must penetrate their culture.

To penetrate any culture you must be willing to make small concessions in matters of style in order to gain a hearing. For example, our church has adopted the casual, informal style and dress of the southern California community we minister in. Since the beach is just a few miles away and the weather is sunny and mild most of the year, people don’t dress up as much as in other parts of the country. So we designed our services to reflect that same informal style. If you see men in suits and ties at Saddleback, they’re likely to be out-of-town visitors.

Letting your target determine your approach

Catching fish on their terms means letting your target determine your approach. When you go fishing, do you use the same kind of bait for every kind of fish? Of course not. Do you use the same size of hook for every kind of fish? No. You must use the bait and hook that best matches the fish you want to catch.

Paul always allowed his target to determine his approach. He describes his strategy in 1 Corinthians 9:19–22:

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law …, so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save

Some critics might say Paul was being a chameleon, that by acting differently with different groups he was hypocritical in his ministry. Not so. Paul was being strategic. His motivation was his desire to see all people saved. I love the Living Bible paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 9:22–23: “Yes, whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him. I do this to get the Gospel to them and also for the blessing I myself receive when I see themcome to Christ.”

I once read through the gospels in order to discover the standard approach Jesus used in evangelism. What I learned was that he didn’t have one! He had no standard approach in witnessing. He simply started wherever people were. When he was with the woman at the well, he talked about living waters; when he was with fishermen, he talked about catching fish; when he was with farmers, he talked about sowing seed.

Beginning with the felt needs of the unchurched

Whenever Jesus encountered a person he’d begin with their hurts, needs, and interests. When he sent his disciples out he told themto do the same: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8).

Notice the total emphasis on felt needs and hurts. When you are in pain, either physically or emotionally, you aren’t

interested in the meaning of Greek and Hebrew words. You just want to get well. Jesus always ministered to people’s needs and hurts. When a leper came to Jesus, Jesus didn’t launch into a long discourse on the cleansing laws of Leviticus. He just healed the man! When he encountered the sick, the demon-possessed, or the disturbed, he dealt with them at their point of pain. He didn’t say, “I’m sorry, that doesn’t fit my preaching schedule. Today we’re continuing our series through the book of Deuteronomy.”

If your church is serious about reaching the unchurched, you must be willing to put up with people who have a lot of problems. Fishing is often messy and smelly. Many churches want the fish they catch to be already scaled, gutted, cleaned, and cooked. That is why they never reach anyone.

Understanding and responding to the hang-ups of the unchurched

At Saddleback we take the hang-ups of the unchurched very seriously, even when they are based on ignorance. Unbelievers have hang-ups about churches asking them for money, about churches that use guilt or fear to motivate, about churches that expect them to attend every meeting the church holds, and about churches that make visitors stand up and introduce themselves.

Our strategy is to counteract these hang-ups as quickly as possible. For instance, in our surveys of the unchurched we found that denominational labels carried a lot of negative

baggage for many of the unchurched in southern California. This caused us to choose the neutral name “Saddleback Church.”

I am not ashamed of my Southern Baptist heritage, and we clearly explain in our membership class that Saddleback is affiliated both doctrinally and financially with the Southern Baptist Convention. But when we asked unchurched southern Californians, “What does the termSouthern Baptist mean to you?” I was amazed at the widespread misperceptions. Many unbelievers, particularly those with Catholic backgrounds, told me they would never even consider visiting a Southern Baptist congregation.

This left me with two options: I could spend years educating the community about what the SBC really stood for before I got themto visit our church, or I could clear up the misconceptions after they accepted Christ. We chose the second option.

Did I get criticized for my choice? What do you think? Some well-meaning folks accused me of all sorts of theological heresy and lapses of integrity, but they weren’t my target anyway. I wasn’t trying to attract Christians or target other Baptists. Some of these people became my friends once they understood who we were trying to reach. Choosing a neutral name was an evangelism strategy, not a theological compromise.

In 1988, a Gallup poll revealed that 33 percent of all Protestants had changed denominational affiliations during

their lifetime. I’m sure that number is even greater now. Given the increasing popularity of generic products, it’s obvious that today’s generation has very little “brand” loyalty. For most people, value is a greater draw. Few people choose a church on the basis of the denominational label. They choose the church that best ministers to their needs.

Change methods whenever necessary

If you’ve ever fished for an entire day, you know that sometimes you have to change bait as the day wears on. What the fish were biting on in the morning they seem to ignore in the late afternoon. The problem with many churches today is that they are still trying to use bait and hooks from the 1950s in the 1990s—and the fish are no longer biting. The greatest enemy to our success in the future is often the success of our past.

Use More Than One Hook

Where I grew up, using more than one hook was called “trotline fishing.” It consisted of attaching multiple hooks to a single fishing line. The concept was that the more hooks you have in the water, the more fish you’re likely to catch.

Due to advances in technology, people in America are offered more options than ever before. While there used to be three television networks, I can now get over fifty stations on my television, and with fiber optic cable that may soon grow to three times that. There used to be one kind of Coke®; now there is Diet Coke®, Cherry Coke®, Classic Coke®, Diet Cherry Coke®, Caffeine-Free Diet Coke®, and so forth.

Last year I saw a televised report on the choices now available to consumers. The documentary estimated that each week about 200 new grocery items enter the market, and each year nearly 300 new magazines are published. The Levi corporation alone has 70,000 products of different sizes, shapes, types, and materials. We live in a world of multiple choices.

These changes have produced a generation that expects to be offered options in every area. Unfortunately, when it comes to worship services most churches offer only two options: Take it or leave it! If you can’t attend at 11 a.m., you’re out of luck.

It is not pandering to consumerism to offer multiple services

or even multiple styles of worship. It is strategic and unselfish, and it says we will do whatever it takes to reach more people for Christ. The goal is not to make it as difficult as possible but to make it as easy as possible for the unchurched to hear about Christ.

Growing churches offer multiple programs, multiple services, and sometimes even multiple locations. They realize it takes all kinds of approaches to reach all kinds of people. Jerry Falwell calls it “saturation evangelism”: using every available means to reach every available person at every available time.

Why do we normally fish with only one hook? Why do most churches have few or no outreach programs? I believe it is because we ask the wrong question. Too often, the first question asked is, “How much will it cost?” The right question is, “Who will it reach?” How much is a soul worth? Isn’t it worth it to spend five hundred dollars on a newspaper ad if it will reach one unbeliever for Christ?

It Costs to Reach Your Community

If your church is serious about developing a comprehensive evangelism strategy, it will cost money. With this in mind, let me conclude this chapter with some thoughts about financing your strategy.

First, money spent on evangelism is never an expense, it’s always an investment. The people you reach will more than repay the cost you invested to reach them. Before we held the

first service of Saddleback, the people in our small home Bible study went about $6,500 in debt preparing for that service. Where did we get the money? We used our personal credit cards! We believed the offerings of the people we reached for Christ would eventually enable everyone to be paid back.

One of the miracles of our dress rehearsal service was that a man who had not attended our home Bible study came to that service and gave a check for a thousand dollars when we took the offering. After it was over, the woman in charge of counting the offering came up and showed me the check. I said, “This is going to work!” Sure enough, we paid everyone back within four months. Please note: I’mnot advocating that your church use credit cards to finance it. I’m just trying to illustrate how willing we were to pay the cost of reaching people for Christ.

When finances get tight in a church, often the first thing cut is the evangelismand advertising budget. That is the last thing you should cut. It is the source of new blood and life for your church.

The second thing to realize when thinking about church finances is that people give to vision, not to need. If need motivated people to give, every church would have plenty of money. It is not the neediest institutions that attract contributions but those with the greatest vision. Churches that are making the most of what they’ve got are the churches that attract more gifts. That’s why Jesus said, “It is always true that those who have, get more, and those who have little, soon lose

even that” (Luke 19:26 LB).

If your church is constantly short on cash, check out your vision. Is it clear? Is it being communicated effectively? Money flows to God-given, Holy Spirit-inspired ideas. Churches with money problems often actually have a vision problem.

Third, when you spend nickels and dimes on evangelism, you get nickel and dime results. In Matthew 17, Jesus told Peter to go find money in a fish’s mouth in order to pay the Roman taxes. Verse 27 says that Jesus told Peter: “Go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin.” I believe there is an important lesson in that story: The coins are always in the mouths of the fish. If you’ll focus on fishing (evangelism), God will pay your bills.

Finally, remember the famous motto of the great missionary strategist Hudson Taylor: “God’s work done God’s way will not lack God’s support.”

Fishing Is Serious Business

I’ve always loved Jesus’ analogy of evangelismas “fishing,” but I’ve had one hesitation about it: Fishing is just a hobby for most people, something they do in their spare time. No one sees fishing as a responsibility. Yet fishing for men is serious business. It’s not a hobby for Christians; it is to be our lifestyle!