Strong Nets

It has been a busy couple of weeks which has kept me away from my blog. It is hard to believe what has happened in these past two weeks and it will probably not all sink in until I get some time away to reflect and relax. I can't remember my last day off because we had so much to do to get our new church building ready for our first service, which was indescribable. When God's Spirit brings everything together like he did, there are not words to describe the experience. Then that afternoon I left for a mission trip and as soon as I was back from that I had to prepare to give my first message in our new building.
That message was about casting out our nets one more time as Jesus called his disciples to do in John 21. The story is about Jesus telling his disciples to cast out their nets one more time after an unsuccessful night of fishing. When they pull in the nets they are full to overflowing. The nets are so full they have to tow the nets to the shore. Verse 11 said something I found interesting. It said the net was full of 153 fish, which I have no idea what that number means, but then it said "even with so many the net was not torn."
Now a person like me would not really have thought much of the fishing nets tearing because I have no idea how many fish they are suppose to catch. I do not know if the nets torn often or just on the occasion of a large gathering of fish. But it was important for the writer to let us know this net probably should have been torn, but it was not. If it had torn the disciples would have lost some of the blessing they were receiving from this large haul of fish.
So my question for us is; do we have confidence in the strength of the nets God has given us? I see our new church building as a new net. It is a chance to gather in some people who could not come to our building because of accessibility issues. It is also an opportunity to catch those who may have been hesitant to worship in a funeral home.
But an even stronger net we have is our fellowship within our congregation. The nets of our people are truly where God's love and grace are shared in our congregation. And with these two nets together, both strong enough to gather in a large blessing, we need to cast them out one more time by inviting those who do not have a place to meet God. God will strengthen our nets as we gather in his people.

MISSION: Invite at least one person personally to our Open House July 27th.