Fishing in the Aquarium (and other ‘Bait and Switch’ Tactics)
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, June 21, 2005
- Viewed 186
- (5) comments so far
Three to four weeks into the transition things were going pretty well and we began getting these families into small groups for the first time to help with assimilation. During the 4th week something creepy happened. A nearby church began recruiting these families HARD CORE. They took them dinner every night, sent different members to say hello, had others make phone calls,etc. This church pulled out all of the stops to attract these few families whom I had been reluctant to try to persuade in the first place.
Then it hit me. Frustration.
As I tried to figure out why I had felt this way I realized that it was because this church had put all of this attention and energy into going after 'churched' people. Fishing in an Aquarium.
SIDEBAR:
I'm not that type of Pastor. I don't try to press people to attend our church. People (I pray) attend our church b/c of the vision of our church and not because of any pressure we place on them. I've learned that most of the people that have been pressured into the church by guilt or gifts usually don't stay and almost NEVER become active in the body. They usually take up a seat and complain. It's like that quote: "Whatever it took to get your spouse is what it's going to take to keep them!"
Anyway, back to the experience. I honestly don't care about their attending our church or any other as long as they are somewhere...
The part that bothers me is I wonder...
I wonder if this church goes after lost people with that same passion? I wonder if they take food to the homeless instead of the established? I wonder if they call the down and disheartened in their community. I wonder if they show the divorced or rebellious person the same sort of 'love'. I just wonder.
I certainly hope so. My heartbeat is to Encourage and Equip people to know God through His Son Jesus Christ.
In our church plant we've probably "lost" 30-40 "churched people" aside from these couple of families because I've completely determined that we will not be a church of spiritual babies in the I-chair. Our attendance at present is a little lower than if I had pacified the 'churched' and tried to be all things to all churched-people but I believe we're developing a culture in our community that values the lost and doesn't tolerate whiners. I also believe that the very things church whiners complain about are some of the things my newly saved friends consider relevant to their spiritual growth. Constructive criticism gets attention if it is aimed at reaching the lost. Comments from the peanut gallery don't have weight with us b/c we know where we're fishing.
Too many churches ask the fresh water fish what the salt water fish would want to eat.
Are you fishers of men in a sea of those who don't know Christ? Or is your ministry going to PetSmart to fish in an Aquarium?
Tally Wilgis has posted a great follow-up of an experience that happened to him. He calls it "Fishing from the Aquarium". I subtitled it, "The Ole Bait and Switch". Tally writes…
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bernie dehler on Tue, June 21, 2005
“Are you fishers of men in a sea of those who don’t know Christ? Or is your ministry going to PetSmart to fish in an Aquarium?”
It depends. If the main ‘ministry’ is evangelism, then it should be in the ‘sea.’ If it’s discipleship, then it’s from the ‘aquarium.’
This is more of an issue of sheep-stealing. This is even debateable: some would consider evangelizing catholics as sheep-stealing, while many wouldn’t.
...Bernie
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/247
Al on Tue, June 21, 2005
“This is more of an issue of sheep-stealing.”
To me this situation reminds me of the man who cheats on his wife and then marries his girlfriend. I would think the girlfriend would always wonder if he is going to cheat on her. I wonder if the pastor gets people to come from his church always wonders if they will stay or leave when the next best deal comes around?
I am with the Pastor of this article who is building a community of mature Christians, not I-Christians. Good for him, God will bless his efforts and his life will be much less complicated. The other guy has his hands full and many sleepless nights ahead of him.
BeHim on Wed, June 22, 2005
This reminds me of a sales staff fighting over territories, ESPECIALLY when a new business comes to town.
I dream of The True Church neither worshiping in this building or in that building but worshiping in Truth and Spirit.
I don’t think we are ever going to get over this hump of “fishing” in the wrong pond, “hemmoraging”, how to market in a “niche market”....
can’t anyone really see how it’s become a business and BECAUSE it’s become a business, it will become a “fish” eat fish world (we’ve become a part of the world, and the flesh and ....).
Gary Sellars on Wed, June 22, 2005
The first commandment is to love God. The second is to love our neighbor.
We get sidetracked by the offenses of our neighbors because they didn’t obey those commandments. In getting sidetracked, we’re not obeying them either.
Pete King on Fri, June 24, 2005
Sorry for the late response. It’s just that there are so many options and topics now that it’s hard to comment on all of them. Thanks Todd for that. I really like the additions. This article was great and really hits where I believe is the problem with our(The Church) thinking. We are waisting time working on catching or in this case keeping fish who are already in the tank. The problem is that once we have them in the tank then our fear is that they will jump out and kill themselves. That’s where we must allow God to decide wheither or not they are part of our fish community or should be somewhere else. We must trust that God will put in the aquarium whom He wills. Let’s let God lead the fish where they need to be and in what tank He wants them. I’m not trying to contradict Bernie here I agree that there are some aquariums contaminated and need a good cleaning neither am I talking about the other enclosed bodies of water that look like aquariums but are really glass cages used to deceive the fish inside. What I’m talking about here is church pastors and leaders not utilizing their aquariums as a means to hold the fish hostage. Let them know that there are other aquariums out there they can be a part of. Don’t let fear determine what’s in your tank. So many feel they need this person or they need that person or this family or that family but forget where you loose one there are ten out in the ocean who would love to not have to hunt for their food to survive. They would love to be fed fish food and surrounded by other fish who love them. Ok I think you get the point here. Might I make one suggestion? Since we are utilizing the analogy of fish as Christians and the Church(building) as an aquarium then maybe we can make this a two part series. The second part could compare church conflict to the slogan “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.” Just kidding.
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