I recently had the wonderful memory making privilege of fishing with all of my children.  We were at my father’s house, with a friend and his two children as well.  We headed down to the dock and took our worms and fishing poles and started the little adventure.  Now I have been fishing since I was a little boy myself, my dad the same, so we have a combined total of over 60 years of fishing experience.

Now neither of us are professional fishermen by a long shot, but fishing off a dock in 6 foot water with worms is a little bit simple, and not all that exhilarating.  Think about the more mature types of fishing we could be doing.  How does the dock compare to deep sea fishing in the Keys, or fishing for large-mouth bass in your nice, new, expensive bass boat?  Going low-tech to a dock and some worms seems a little boring right?

Well actually not at all.  I loved teaching the kids how to bait the hook, or what to look for when the cork was in the water.  I enjoyed watching my dad grab the fish and show the kids how to hold them so they could take the hook out.  I loved to see my children’s faces when they got a bite and the squeals of joy when they began to reel in a fish no bigger than my hand.  I chuckled when Anna looked into the bucket where we were keeping the fish and screamed when the fish began to flop around.  Bottom line was it was just as fun, or maybe more so than all the other more “mature” means of fishing.

Here’s the point.  Christianity is a lot like this to me (and not just because Jesus wants you to be a “fisher of men”).  It is easy to become a professional Christian and move on to the more “mature” aspects of Christianity because it is more exhilarating to you.  The key word here is “you.”  The focus is one of self-absorption.  The subsequent problem is we lose the joy, privilege and responsibility of teaching others how to do what we once did not know how to do ourselves.  If I did not take the time to help and teach my kids, how could they enjoy what I know they would enjoy.  If we do not take the time to help, lead, teach and nurture those who are unchurched, unbelievers or new Christians, who will?

The other thought that crossed my mind is that there are plenty of good “professionals” that don’t make good teachers.  Good baseball players that were terrible at being managers, or super-intelligent individuals who could never teach others what they knew.  The bottom line is we don’t need to be Christians like this!  We need to be those who not only remember what it was like to get our hands dirty digging for worms and baiting a hook but are patient enough and willing enough to teach others to do it as well.  We need to remember what it was like to not know everything that we know now (or is some cases, think we know).

What was it like when you were not as mature as you are now?  How did you get to where you are today? We need less professional Christians.  We need more people to come back to the dock.  You’ll be surprised at how much fun it really still is to help lead those who are just starting their own adventure.