What Are We Fishing For?

Recently I attended Ben Arment's White Board conference [which was spectacular all around] but Vince Antonucci's talk in particular really made an impression on me.

He told a story about two fisherman--both claiming shark as the goal. One geared everything on catching only sharks. The bait, gear, location, time, etc. The other less specific in his approach. This fisherman ended up catching more fish, but only a couple of sharks. The focused angler only caught sharks, but the net total was fewer. [not apologizing for the pun]

"Who was more successful?", he asked.

The majority of churches I run into say they want to reach lost people. People who don't know what it means to have a relationship with Christ. These people may say they believe in God, but not sure they buy into the "whole Jesus thing" yet. Where are these people supposed to learn if it's not IN church?

I've been seeing several stirrings in the blogosphere about a recent post slamming Granger Community Church specifically [although I'd imagine any others with a similar mindset are also in the bulls eye] and I'm about to scream.

If a large percentage of people coming to the church aren't clear on things like salvation, the Bible & Jesus, wouldn't that equate success if those are precisely the people you're trying to reach?

I'd be a lot more concerned if it were the other way around. Obviously, it's important to educate, equip & help people grow in their faith. But to claim GCC isn't a church because they're reaching a lot of lost people is just ridiculous.[Or perhaps this definition of "church" needs to be reevaluated]