Launch out into the deep . . .

Some time ago, I read that most people who have been saved over three or four years do not know any unsaved people. They usually don't make friends with unsaved people after they are born-again and, therefore, are sharing their faith with no one.

Those who are eager to win souls try every thing from door-to-door evangelism, to servant evangelism, to witnessing to the waiters and waitresses, grocery store checkers, and anyone else that will stand and listen.

Many grow weary of these kinds of efforts, though, because they never see the fruit of their labor in church. Even if they do manage to get people to come to church, they find that way too many of them slowly disappear. Discouraged, they lose their zeal to win the lost, thinking that no one is interested in God anymore.

The record of Luke 5:1-10 addresses a similar situation pretty well. Jesus found Himself in need of a place to stand and address the crowds that had come to the lake of Gennesaret. What He observed were two fishing boats that had been beached and left idle while their owners washed their nets.

The fishermen had "toiled all night [exhaustingly] and caught nothing" (v. 5). As seasoned and accomplished as these men were, they had become discouraged and had given up.

Nothing is more frustrating than doing what you know how to do and have it produce nothing but "empty nets." We who are "fishers of men" can find ourselves going through times when, we too, have "caught nothing."

In the American Church today, according to George Barna's Research Group, most church growth is transfer growth not the induction of new souls. It is, many times, the movement of those who "having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number . . ." (2 Timothy 4:3 - Amp). It is the same as having yesterday's "catch" jumping into another boat.