• Catching Little Wigglers
Catching Little Wigglers
While in elementary school, I lived in Encinitas, CA. I have memories of my Father taking my two younger brothers and I on a fishing trip to the Colorado River. My father used his deep sea fishing gear and us boys only had lightweight tackle. Dad used big hooks and big pieces of bait. He was attempting to catch a large river catfish (channel cat). He cast his line way out in the middle of the river. His heavy sinkers took his tempting bait to the bottom. Then he waited hopefully.
Meanwhile, us boys could only fish the edge of the river with small hooks and tiny mill worms. As the day progressed us boys continued to catch bluegill and crappie—nothing over 6-7 inches long. At days end, we had a stringer full of little wigglers—my Dad caught nothing. That night around the campfire we ate our little fish, which was plenty. We began teasing my Dad about his lack of fish—comparing our haul to his. What a day! This was my first experience catching “little wigglers.” I had no idea how symbolic that experience would be for the rest of my life.
When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, He said, “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.” What Jesus said to me, “Follow me and I will make you a fisherman of little wigglers.” So I began to prepare myself for the high calling of evangelistic ministry of catching children. Now after more than fifty years of fishing experience with kids, I have the following observations about children’s evangelism.
1. The Need for Children’s Evangelists is Great! The need for evangelists to concentrate on children is greater than I ever imagined. There are few full-time children’s Evangelists. There is a great need for men to reach kids. Who will respond to this high calling?
2. We Cannot Catch Fish in the Bathtub. We have to go where they are. The need is not only in the United States, but children all over the world need the Savior. There are great schools of children in far away places that take special expeditions to reach. Some are in the shallows—tucked away. Look for them.
3. We Need to Catch the Fish, Not Feed the Fish It is not good enough to be content to teach the children the gospel. We must also secure a personal faith response to claims of the gospel for them to be evangelized. It’s not what they know; it’s who they know. The difference between “teaching” and “reaching” children is not semantics. It’s life or death.
4. Vision for Catching Many Includes One Fish Those who are passionate about fishing are all about catching the next fish—whether there are more or not. I have gone to a lot of work for just one. Sure, there are times to reach hundreds, but the test of passion for catching little wigglers is measured in reaching one.
5. We Need to Choose Appropriate Lures By concentrating on good gospel methods that work with children, we can better reach them. There are more super-duper, sure-fire gospel methods available today than any other time in history. We need to reallocate our arsenal of gospel lures where needed most—where there are none. Resource centers are needed in strategic places to help the kid-fishermen.
6. We Need to Adapt our Fishing Methodology Reaching different kinds of children from different religious backgrounds requires different kinds of methodology, i.e., camp work, city-wide events, performing arts, or personal work. We need to choose the most effective method to reach these kinds of kids.
7. We Need to Catch and Clean the Fish This “cleaning” is really about discipleship and follow-up of those we catch. We do not want to neglect newborns. We need to evangelize where the greatest potential for nurture and training can occur. Working with existing ministries matters for Kingdom extension.
8. We Need a Revival of Child Evangelism We need a strong sustained revival emphasis on reaching children of the world. To reach these kids we need another generation of fishermen who are passionate about catching little wigglers.
Challenge: Cast out your nets! Let’s go fishing for Little Wigglers! Catching a child means they have their whole life to live for God. Reaching children is a long-term investment. To influence a nation for Jesus, we must reach the next generation of children now.
B. Kinard ©2013, Rights reserved
Rev. Barney Kinard
Husband, proud father of four, thrilled grandfather of eight, children's evangelist, children's missionary, leadership coach/mentor, speaker/author, gospel magician, puppeteer, ventriloquist and designer of creative children's ministry resources and now...a blogger!Join Premier Site for Children’s Leaders
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