"The weather’s right. Ain’t time for speculatin.’ It’s time to choose. It’s time to get in the boat. It’s time to fish or cut bait. “
It certainly was no coincidence Jesus picked four fishermen to be His first disciples. It was not only their occupation that would set up the symbolic parallel to catching people but also its structure and equipment necessary to get it done. Let’s look at that before we get into the specifics of administration in the Body.
Obviously three things are necessary, goal, equipment and people.
First, a goal, the mission: to catch fish.
Second, equipment. There is the need for a boat, nets, sails, oars and their maintenance.
Third, people, a crew has to be trained. You have to know where and when to fish, weather savvy, managing business affairs after fish are caught, handling family financing, budgeting, salaries and local economics.
It’s one thing to get all those aspects together but one more ingredient has to be handled, the attitudinal personalities of the crew. People are people and every day presents a relational challenge. Emotions and motivation can vary dramatically even if daily survival is the bottom line.
When Jesus picked the disciples, He picked fishermen, fishermen who were brothers, Peter and Andrew, then Zebedee’s sons, James and John, all skilled fishermen. But one more thing, they were fishermen who had hearts, members of families who were relational and who, like all of us, needed spiritual recovery, restoration to God through spiritual rebirth.
If we explore the symbolic parallel a bit more Jesus chooses two sets of brothers fishing from different boats, one casting and the other preparing their nets. The boats are the picture of what Jesus plans to be the local spiritual families comprised of spiritual brothers and sisters. The nets are the interdependent gifts that together not only catch the fish, they bring them into the boat. Further, after they are cast they need to be prepared and maintained. This is why there is not just one gift of administration but plural ‘gifts.’ Every aspect of the local Body, its people and their gifts need to be organized, arranged and directed. The question for us is, “How is this done?”
That is what we deal with next…stay tuned………
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