Family Talk Pod

Our kids put us into relationships with other adults. How can we use those relationships as an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus?

Full Episode Transcription: 

Mark 1:16-19 recounts the story of Jesus’ calling a group of fishermen to be his apprentices:  

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with hired men and followed him.  

We have a particular way of reading this text as people in the West, and it’s shaped by how we think about fishing. When we tend to think of fishing, we think of a person out on a shore or on a boat, by themselves with a rod, silently poised and ready to hook a solitary fish with the right bait, and reel them in. 

This has shaped how we think of evangelism. We can learn to prepare for evangelism by thinking of the right message or presentation, and we go out to try and win over another person and reel them into life with God. Our understanding of evangelism has been shaped our understanding of fishing.  

 

This is not what Jesus’ disciples would have thought. Mark takes care to note that Jesus’ first disciples are involved in the primary tasks of fishing in that time, casting and preparing nets. It’s been said that the fishermen of that time wouldn’t have spent most of their time actively fishing, but instead spent most of their time working preparing and mending their nets. How does it look if fishing with nets is the biblical metaphor for understanding evangelism? Those fishermen cast nets, and those nets dredged up everything that fell within them. Well prepared nets were the key to success. 

When we think about being fishers of people, we need to start realizing that one of the most effective ways we can do that is by building a strong network of relationships with followers of Jesus and with people who aren’t following Jesus yet, and our kids are excellent at putting us into contact with other families with whom we can build a network of relationships. 

Whether you send your kids to public school, private school, daycare, homeschool them, or keep them home, your kids put you into contact with other families. We get invited to birthday parties, to PTA meetings, to homeschool co-ops, parenting groups, and athletics leagues. Have you ever considered those networks of relationships fertile ground for missional living? 

Maybe you’ve already said yes to some of those commitments; maybe you haven’t. But say yes to some of those things, and as you’re going, consider the opportunity you have to build relationships with other families through the life and activity of your children! What if the people you meet at PTA are people you can get to know and share the story of Christ with? What if the other dads who are coaching Little League with you need someone who will answer their genuine questions about faith? What if you connected with other parents at birthday parties and became a part of each others’ lives, and in the process encountering your life, encountered the Living God? 
 
I’m not asking you to have all the answers to everyone’s deep theological questions, but I do want you to consider how these events and groups become a pivotal part of building a net by which you can be fishers of people, just like Jesus called his first disciples to.