What bait do you use?

Pastor Beth had a great sermon yesterday and so I want to make very clear from the start that these are her ideas, not mine.  My intent is to simply relay them to you because she put witnessing in a way that I've never heard it talked about and I hope you find it as insightful  as I did.  I don't have a copy of her sermon so I will be paraphrasing her ideas as best I can from memory.

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Did your parents or grandparents ever take you fishing when you were growing up?  Was it something that you looked forward to or dreaded?  I always looked forward to it.  I was excited to go. 

Jesus calls us to be fishers of men.  He is calling us to go fishing.  How many of us react to that invitation with as much enthusiasm as we did to going fishing when we were a kid?  My guess is not many.  I know I sure don't.  So the first insight was to re-frame our view of witnessing from something scary and a chore to something exciting and fun.

So then the question is why are we not excited about fishing for men?  Maybe part of it is not feeling prepared.  When we went fishing we had the proper equipment to catch fish.  One of the most important decisions when fishing is what bait to use. It's no different when fishing for men.  What bait do you use?

This is the second part of Pastor Beth's insight that I thought was brilliant.  When trying to figure out what bait to use when fishing for men, the fish will tell you! 

How cool is that?  The fish will tell you.  Let me explain. 

When we witness we know that the ultimate goal is to lead them to Christ so that they have their sins forgiven and receive eternal life.  Unfortunately most of the fish don't really understand that they need eternal life.  We're using the wrong bait.

When the fish tell you that they are struggling financially, they've told you what bait to use and eternal life isn't it.  You can take them to scripture and show them how Jesus wants His people to prosper and has a plan for helping them do so.  Now you are fishing with the bait that they are truly looking for.  You now have a basis to invite them to church where they can learn all about how Jesus' plan can help them with that immediate problem, not something like eternal life that is so far down the road that it doesn't seem real to them.   

When they share problems about their health they've told you what bait to use and again eternal life isn't it.  You can tell them about Jesus' love and healing power. 

If they share about broken relationships again you now know what bait to use.   Isn't that a great idea?

I want to again thank Pastor Beth for sharing that great insight in her message yesterday.  To learn more about Jeff and Beth Jones Ministries and for some great resources please click http://jeffandbethjones.com/ .

To learn more about Valley Family Church please click  http://www.valleyfamilychurch.org/