Fishing: Pelicans Caught Unprepared

Pelicans Caught Unprepared

I recently read an article about some pelicans in California. If you’ve ever seen pelicans in action, you know they’re great fishermen, or fisher-birds, I guess. These pelicans were hanging out near a fleet of fishing boats. The fishermen on the boats would pull into the little harbor, and clean the fish right on the spot, throwing the heads and the rest into the water. The pelicans picked up on this, and began eating the leftovers without having to go out fishing. And if you’re a pelican, that’s good eating. So for weeks, they just sat by the harbor and waited for the fishing boats to come in.

After a while, the fishermen found out they could sell the fish waste, and so they stopped chucking it into the water. The pelicans were caught unprepared. They continued to sit and wait for the fishing boats to come in and throw free food in the water. And they grew thinner and thinner and seemed able to do nothing about their situation.

Wildlife officials came to check out what was going on, and concluded that the pelicans had forgotten how to fish. So what they did was to bring pelicans in from another area to join the flock and teach the starving birds how to fish again.

The Reverend Dr. Gary Nicolosi
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Nostalgic Fishermen

Someone suggested that we imagine this fishing club where the members merely sat around swapping fish stories about the big one they landed, the whopper that broke away, but they never stepped into a boat or cast their line in the water. What kind of a fishing club would it be whose members were content to admire the trophies on the wall but never go out and actually go fishing?

A lot of churches are like that. They sit around bragging about the days when their boat was full of fresh fish. They look nostalgically to the days when the main purpose of their church was to go fishing, to reach others for Christ. But they never actually go fishing; they merely talk about going fishing. That's not what we're about as a church.

Dr. Mickey Anders, “Go Fish”
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Tips for Fishing

What are some of the tips we need to remember as we fish for disciples?

Go where the fish are. Be with people on their own turf.
Be real, be vulnerable, and be honest.
Be creative. We don’t have to do things the same old way.
Be spiritual, but not "churchy".
Be patient
Be ready for surprises!
Be willing to step out of your comfort zone.
Be on the lookout for where God is at work.
Be praying.

Rev. Linda A. Jacobus, “Forgetting How to Fish”