How Salmon Fishing Is Like Being a Pastor

Jesus' first disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John, were fishermen. When he called them to come and follow him, he told them that he would make them "fishers of men".

Over the last couple of days I've been reflecting on how fishing resembles pastoring in a number of ways.

1. First, fishermen have to be patient, persistent, to catch fish. You can't catch fish if your lure is not in the water, if you're not fishing. So fishermen wake early in the morning. They fish in all kinds of weather, in the cold and rain; they wait, they cast...then suddenly they find that they are in the right place at the right time and they have a fish on! Pastors too, have to be patient and persistent. Pastors wait, they bide their time, nothing seems to be happening, then suddenly a life crisis hits and a person's heart opens up to the reality of God. Suddenly a person who has been spiritual dead and distant and cold comes spiritually alive and the pastor is there, waiting, fanning the flames.

2. Second, fishermen learn to fish where the fish are. Salmon travel in schools. Fishermen learn to find the salmon, to follow and fish where the salmon are schooling. Fly fishing for salmon in Canada I've learned to watch for schools of salmon. When I see them jump or fin, I cast my fly in front of them and slowly drag the fly in their path. When I cast to where fish are, often I'll feel a tug, the pull of a salmon. In the same way, humans are "social animals". We go in "schools". We work together, play together, eat together. Pastors learn to go where people are. They learn to find places where they can strike up conversations, and relationships. In Seattle I spent a lot of time at a coffee shop called Zoka. It was a great place to work. More importantly, it was a great place to meet people, to make friends. I love my calling as a pastor because I am drawn to people, drawn into our common shared life in the city, drawn into friendship and solidarity with my neighbors.

3. Third, fishermen make sure their lure/fly is clean, free of seaweed. A lure or a fly will not attract fish if it is covered with seaweed. Whenever there is seaweed on my fly I clean it off; I don't even try to cast with it. In the same way, pastors need to make sure they are presenting the pure gospel and not a message that is covered or distorted by human traditions or religious accretions. When I share the good news of Jesus Christ I want people to understand the pure, simple gospel: Our broken relationship to God because of our sin; God's love for sinners demonstrated in his giving of His only Son to die on the cross for us; our new identity as sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ. If people reject Jesus, I want them to reject the real thing, not reject a false idea of what Christianity is.

4. Fourth, God is the great fishermen. He fishes for us lost, broken, rebel sinners with infinite patience and perserverance and love. He pursues us through the cold and wind and waves. He casts the beautiful gospel our way, and slowly moves it through our lives in such a way that we hunger for it, we grasp for it and we take the hook of Jesus. I'm so thankful that God's gospel lure - Jesus - caught me. I fought and struggled against the Fishermen but he did not let me go. He drew me in, and captured my heart, and made me his own.

5. Fifth, there is one significant difference between fishing for salmon and fishing with the gospel of Jesus Christ for people. The end of fishing for salmon is to catch and kill the salmon and to have a delicious salmon dinner at the end of the fishing day. But, in contrast, the end of catching people with the gospel is not death; it is life. To be caught by the gospel of Jesus is to be brought into "abundant life" - a life where one knows one's identity (as a beloved child of God), a life where one knows one's purpose (to live for the glory of God and the good of others), a life where one experiences new and fresh experiences of God's love and grace, again and again, through joy and suffering, all they way to life forevermore.

I love fishing. But I love, infinitely more, to be a fisher of men and women, a fisher of souls.