December 7, 2024
I am not a fisherman. I fished as a child, but I was always scared to touch the fish and get it off the hook because I didn’t want it to cut me with its fin. And after about age 11, it was just pathetic to have my dad get the fish off the hook, so I quit fishing.
Still, one thing that is certain about fishing is that you have to go where the fish are. If you cast a line in your swimming pool, you probably aren’t going to catch anything.
We speak a lot about what the message of the Gospel is and how to share it. But how often do we ask, “Where do we share it?” We are called to fish for men (Mark 1:17), so where are the fishing holes that we go to find the fish? We might say, “Talk about Jesus everywhere.” But generalities are rarely helpful. What are the specific places we can find people that need the Gospel?
For years now, I have counseled people to look for people that need Jesus in several spheres in their lives.
Family and Friends
The closest people in your life are those to whom you are related and those you associate with in your free time. Yet these can sometimes be the hardest to evangelize. If the conversation goes south, you’ve got to see them at Christmas or you might lose the friendship. But do not miss the importance of this group.
Timothy seems to have become a Christian through the influence of his mother and grandmother. (2 Timothy 1:5) When Andrew met Jesus, the first person he went to find was his brother Simon. (John 1:41) When Philip met Jesus, the first person he went to find was his friend Nathanael. (John 1:45)
The reality is, we are possibly the first line of connection to Christ in the lives of our friends and family. So we must prayerfully consider how to evangelize them.
Work
Whatever your job is, you likely interact daily with people who do not know Jesus. That could be customers, clients, co-workers, or others. You work where you do for more than just to get a paycheck. You are an ambassador for Christ on the job.
When Jesus called Matthew to follow Him, the first thing Matthew did was have dinner with all of his fellow tax collectors so they could meet Jesus. (Matthew 9:9-10) He leveraged the position he had for the sake of the Gospel.
The reality is, a pastor or a missionary may never meet some of your co-workers. But you are a missionary to them every day.
Neighborhood
Whether you own a home, rent, live in an apartment, a dorm, a nursing home, or anywhere else, you live there by God’s plan. (Acts 17:26) You live in the country, state, city, and on the street that God chose for you. And He put you there with a purpose.
You are planted in the place you live so that others may know Jesus. How are you going to get to know your neighbors and have them part of your life so that they may hear the Gospel?
Hobbies
What do you do for fun? This could include any number of things. Think about those places you find yourself as you do the things that bring you leisure. Some of the places might include the golf course, the hair salon, the gym, the movie theater, your kid's ball games, deer camp, coffee shops, art studios, comic conventions, and so many others.
If you are anything like me, a lot of those hobbies are also practiced by non-Christians. What a great opportunity to connect with them over something you both love and build a bridge straight to Jesus! We are to do all things to the glory of God and that includes eating, drinking, and whatever we do. (1 Corinthians 10:31) We glorify God in these things by bringing people to Jesus within them.
Strangers
We encounter dozens of strangers every day. These are people that are not a regular part of life but whom we may interact with anywhere from just once to every now and then. This could be your cashier at the grocery store, your server at a restaurant, the UPS driver who delivers your packages, a homeless person asking for money, the person seated next to you on an airplane, somebody you pass on the sidewalk downtown, or any number of others. Who are the people you might come in contact with during the day? Not one of them passes by you on accident.
Philip hadn’t met the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:27). He just saw him passing by and noticed he was reading from Isaiah so he used that as a conversation starter with a complete stranger that led to the man’s salvation. In the same way, what are some avenues you could take to strangers around you?
So who are in these spheres of influence in your life? Your fishing holes. Maybe a challenge for you is to think over this list and identify 1-3 people in these spheres and begin to pray for them regularly and look for opportunities to speak of Jesus with them.
Jesus has called us to fish for men. Where are your fishing holes?
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Aaron Frasier is the pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Chula, Ga. He holds a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Studies from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
