This past Wednesday night our home group watched one of the messages from Andy Stanley's Go Fish series. What a powerful message it was! He spoke about the partnership between us (the fishers) and the church... how we are not meant to be in this alone. As we go out on our mission to be "fishers of men" we are to be inviting people to come and see what Jesus is doing. And the church is the place where we should find that!

There were so many great points in this message and I will in no way do them justice trying to explain them myself, so I'll try to just stick with one. Andy pointed out how Jesus and his disciples had a "come and see" approach when it came to Jesus. Those who were curious about who he was were told, "follow me" (by Jesus) or "come and see" (by others). John 1:45-46:

Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip.


Philip didn't stress out about Nathanael's response. He didn't go, "Oh dang, Nate doesn't believe me, I guess I should stop talking." Nor did he sit and try to have a discussion with Nathanael in response to the question about Nazareth. He just told him to come and check it out. "Trust me, Nate. Just come see this guy and you'll know what I'm talking about."

That is exactly how it is supposed to be in our world today. Where is Jesus working? Matthew 18:20: For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. As Andy Stanley puts it, when we gather on "official Jesus business," Jesus shows up. This is the role of the church. The church is meant to be a place of official Jesus business. People should be able to see the church and simultaneously see Jesus at work.

All that is left to do is to simply invite people to come and see. Just come see it for yourself.

The partnership between the church as a whole and the individual members of the church is a beautiful thing when it is working in this way. Jesus shows up and lives are changed.

So what about your church? Is it a place where you can confidently approach your friends and invite them to come and see? Is Jesus present there in such a way that invites the lost to keep going back... to keep learning more... to follow Jesus? What are you doing to provide an atmosphere of "official Jesus business" where Jesus promises he will indeed show up?

We are not meant to be solo fishermen. This is a corporate affair. If we want to be good fishers, we absolutely must find where Jesus is so that we can confidently invite people to come and see.
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