Conference Articles

 hate fishing. First of all, I'm scared to death of water and second I'm fairly certain there is always something large following the boat at all times, a species yet to be discovered. My floating leg will be the first clue of its existence. I mention this because a few weeks ago Superintendent Steve asked our Next Level Group (NLG) to go on a "father-son" fishing trip in the waters of Mexico. The last thing I'm going to do is feed my seven-year-old son to that thing following the boat so I chose to go it alone.

For those who don’t know, the NLG is a group of leaders early in their respective ministries. The group is vital for me as I run ideas past people I respect who are going through or have gone through similar situations. We share vision, mission, strategy and sushi (thus the fishing trip, I guess).

Steve showed up with two sons, a family friend and enough fishing gear to outfit all the paparazzi at a Paris Hilton ride to prison. We boarded the boat at 10pm after a couple of Dramamine and short speech from the captain covering small stuff like "what to do if you fall overboard," "drowning," and "if we wanted to get married in international waters." I wasn’t really listening.

The trip turned out to be awesome. We had a great time of fellowship, playing cards, talking about family and ministry, sharing stories and playing “Come up with the best spiritual fishing analogy.” It’s a little game Buzzy invented. John Hansen won, which was fine with me because I’m stealing his analogy for my next sermon.

Does fishing make a good team-building trip? Absolutely. It was fantastic rooting for each other as we battled barracuda and yellowtail, ripping them from their family and ocean friends to be put in a sack to die a slow death. Praise God! I had no idea a 25 pound yellowtail would love his family so much. Anyway, the best episode was when Steve’s son hooked a massive yellowtail tuna. With muscles bulging and veins popping he labored to land it. Suddenly, his pole bent even farther. Something larger had grabbed the yellowtail. It was like one of those painted Russian dolls where the smaller one goes in the bigger one (except this was on the ocean with sea-life and blood and hooks and stuff.) It was a sea lion or a seal or walrus or something. He struggled with whatever it was for what seemed like hours. Actually, I’m not sure how long it was because I got scared and scurried below deck. He finally reeled in all that remained. A head.

When Jesus called Peter he called him from fishing to relationships. We came full circle bringing relationships to fishing. It was a great time. Plus, I caught the biggest fish and won the $55 jackpot. Which is the other thing the NLG does a lot…gamble. But that’s another story…