Fishers of Men

Day 1: Convert or Apprentice?

Rundown In the American church, we often celebrate the moment someone walks down an aisle to make a decision. Since the 1820s, the altar call has driven us to create converts—people who have an emotional response to a message. But Jesus didn't call us to make converts; Matthew 28 commands us to make disciples. The Greek word for disciple is Mathetias, which means a learner or a follower. In the first century, this wasn't a standard classroom dynamic where a teacher gives you information for a test. It was an apprenticeship. You left your family, lived with your rabbi, and went wherever they went—from the local market to the town center. The goal wasn't just to gain head knowledge; the ultimate goal was to become exactly like your teacher.  

The Challenge A convert is looking for a transaction, but a disciple says, "I'm gonna give my life". A disciple actively changes who they are to mirror their teacher. If our entire faith is built around showing up for an hour and a half on Sunday morning to get our "Jesus fix" before returning to our "real life" on Monday, we are fundamentally missing the mark. Discipleship isn't a sales pitch for the gospel; it's laying down everything you are to look like Jesus. If you are not actively pursuing the habits, the discipline, and the heart of Christ during the week, you are a student auditing the class, not an apprentice laying down your life.  

Action Step

Take a brutal inventory of your faith today. Are you just consuming information on Sundays, or are you actively apprenticing under Jesus throughout the week? Pick one area of your life (how you speak to your spouse, how you handle stress at work, or how you spend your money) and ask yourself: Does my behavior here look like Jesus, or does it just look like me?

Day 2: Spot Dissection and Ladyfish

Rundown Any real fisherman knows that 90% of the fish are only in 10% of the water. Finding them requires intense preparation before the boat ever hits the ramp: studying the barometric pressure, wind direction, outgoing tides, and knowing exactly where the drop-offs and creek mouths are. You have to know that fish like snook and redfish will stack up at a creek mouth because they are lazy and waiting for the bait to come to them. But many Christians act like "weekend warriors". We pull up, throw out an anchor, cast dead bait into empty water, kick our feet up, and hope a fish swims by. Sure, you might catch a dirty catfish, but you aren't actually fishing.  

The Challenge Only about 24% of Christians actively pursue their faith outside of a Sunday service. The rest of us are just coasting, waiting for the drag to go off while we take a nap. But spiritual growth requires the same obsessive preparation as a tournament angler. You have to budget your time. What you put into your mind—the music, the podcasts, the YouTube videos—is actively building your heart. If you are only giving Jesus an hour and a half out of the 168 hours you have each week, you are going to get skunked spiritually. You cannot expect a deep, resilient faith if you refuse to study the Word and prepare your heart during the week.  

Action Step

What is your "ladyfish" right now? What foundational, unglamorous prep work do you need to do today so you are ready for the bigger spiritual moments tomorrow? Budget 15 minutes today to actively study the Word. Don't just read it to check a box—study it to understand the waters.

Day 3: Dropping the Excuses

Rundown When Jesus called His first disciples, their response was defined by one word: Immediately. Peter and Andrew were actively casting a net to provide for their families, and they dropped it. James and John were in the boat with their father mending nets, and they got up and left him behind. They didn't play twenty questions, and they didn't ask for an itinerary of where they were going. Peter had a wife and a family to care for, yet he still walked away the second the call came. It wasn't a calculated five-year plan; it was absolute, immediate surrender.  

The Challenge We live in a society where our attention is the number one commodity being bought and sold. Between social media, entertainment, and our own hobbies, we gladly sell hours of our week to a screen. Yet, when Jesus calls us to mission, we suddenly need to check our calendars. We treat the mission of the Gospel like something we can get to when it's convenient for us. When a man asked Jesus if he could go bury his father first, Jesus bluntly replied, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead". He wasn't being heartless; He was revealing that the mission is far more urgent than our temporary, earthly obligations.  

Action Step

Where has God been calling you to move, but you've been delaying with excuses? Today, pinpoint one area where you have been hesitating. Commit to taking immediate action on it by the end of the day, whether that's having a hard conversation, dropping a bad habit, or taking a bold step of faith.

Day 4: Roughnecks in the Storm

Rundown If you were building a team to establish the Church, you would logically draft the Pharisees. They were trained by the best, like Gamaliel, and could quote the scriptures from Genesis to Malachi without hesitation. But Jesus bypassed the religious elite and went straight for uneducated fishermen. Why? Because Pharisees stayed in their ivory towers and prayed lofty prayers on street corners just to be seen. Fishermen are roughnecks. When an afternoon storm rolls in and the water gets dangerous, they don't panic and run for the boat ramp; they drop the anchor, turn on the bilge pump, and ride it out.  

The Challenge The modern church is filled with people who know all the right Sunday school answers but have zero grit. We love having deep theological debates in the safety of a climate-controlled room, but the moment a storm hits our life, we abandon ship. Jesus didn't draft people based on their academic pedigree; He chose those who were willing to do whatever it takes to complete the mission. Following Jesus guarantees you will face rough waters. The question is whether you will be a fair-weather follower who bails at the first sign of lightning, or a roughneck who stays on the mission no matter the cost.  

Action Step

Think about a current storm or point of friction in your life. Instead of praying for the storm to just go away, pray for the grit to endure it. Ask God to use this specific challenge to forge the kind of character in you that doesn't run back to the dock when things get hard.

Day 5: 95% and the Empty Hook

Rundown The statistics are staggering: an estimated 95% of Christians have never shared their faith or led someone to Christ. Yet, 50% of Gen Z individuals say they would be happy to attend church if someone they knew simply invited them. The harvest is plentiful, but we refuse to cast a line. Look at the believers in the early church: When the demon-possessed man at the tombs was freed, he begged to stay with Jesus, but Jesus sent him back to tell everyone in town. When Peter and John were beaten black and blue for preaching, they told the authorities, "we cannot help but talk about what we have seen and heard".  

The Challenge We claim to have experienced the transformative power of God, yet we sit silently in our workplaces and neighborhoods. We treat evangelism like it's a job strictly reserved for professional pastors. A professional tournament angler will cast a lure 200 times in a single trip just to find the fish. Are you willing to cast even once? Your neighborhood, your workplace, and your city is the wilderness. You do not need to fly to a third-world country to be a missionary; you just need to open your mouth right where you are.  

Action Step

Cast a line today. Think of one specific person in your life—a coworker, a neighbor, or a family member—who doesn't know Jesus. Send them a text, invite them to service this Sunday, or simply share a short testimony of what God is doing in your life. Don't let your hook sit empty.