Go Fish

There is a body of water in Massachusetts called Lake Char. That, at any rate, is its' English name taken from a species of trout. The Indians, however, gave it a different moniker, a 44-letter word meaning, "You-fish-on-your-side-I-fish-on-my-side-nobody-fishes-in-the-middle." The United States Board of Geographic Names reports that it intends to stick with "Lake Char." Too bad, I say.

What I mean by that is that even though the Native American name is unwieldly, it certainly has character! It also says something about the culture that once surrounded the lake. I wonder if we could play a similar game with church names? We give them nice, presentable titles, usually something about God, the Bible, or the street where the church building is located, but what if we gave them titles that really describe what goes on in those churches?

How about, "You-sit-in-your-pew-I-sit-in-my-pew-nobody-sits-on-the-front-pew"? It would certainly tell us something about the boundaries that often throttle our brotherhood/fellowship and leaves visitors on the outside with nowhere to sit at all. What do you think of, "You-have-your-friends-I-have-my-friends-nobody-makes-new-friends"? That one might help us figure out why visitors or even new members sometimes fail to be tied into, assimilated into the Body of Christ, our local New Testament Baptist Church. Here is an interesting one, "You-will-not-forgive-me-I-will-not-forgive-you-everybody-else-needs-to-choose-sides"? This one would help us to understand why some churches dry up spiritually, become stagnant and die.

But the term "church", as we have it in the New Testament, really means "the called ones" or "called out assembly." The true confession and position of the Body of Christ is "You-leave-your-side-I-leave-my-side-everybody-meets-in-the-middle-with-God's-love-and-let's-serve-the-Lord-together." May God make us just such a church! When that happens, we will quit worrying about protecting our favorite spot - we will quit worrying about showing off our catch and we can start looking around for someone to help us haul it in (Luke 5:1-11)!

Go Fish,
Pastor David Blevins