“From now on you will catch men” … They left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:11)

Peter’s business was catching fish.  No problem with that; catching fish in a small town on the Sea of Galilee was a good way to provide for Peter and his family.

Jesus was about his Father’s business, catching Peters.

What business are you in?

This is not a call to quit your job, or to turn you into the next Billy Graham.  But it is a call to remember what business our Father in heaven is running.

It’s a family business, the business of building the Family of God.  It’s a highly-diversified, multi-national, global enterprise, headquartered in hearts, with offices in the greatest cities, in the remotest villages and everywhere in between.  Its “product” (and that’s not even the right word for it) is daughters and sons of God: more and more beloved communities that represent and express the triune life of The Community of Love.

Peter gets it, or better, is gotten by it: he’s caught!  Receiving a better “job offer” (again, not really the right word) than anything he ever could have imagined, he and his brother and his business partners leave everything to follow the Older Brother into the Father’s family – and family business.

Into the family; into that family’s business.

You’re right: most of the members of this family aren’t called to leave their “day jobs” or relocate or go into what is (mistakenly) called “full-time ministry.”  But if we’re in the family, we’re in the family business.

Our family’s Firstborn Son described the business like this: fishing for people.  Not simply this or that special, particular sort of person, but people: everyone, everywhere is welcomed and invited into this family.

But before they can know that they’re welcomed and invited in, they have to be caught, they have to be swept up by the Net of Love.

Since the “fish” are everywhere – in every neighborhood, household, ethnic group, professional association, gang, university, hospital, office space, rural community, urban community, war zone, mansion and hovel – the Fishing Family folk need to be everywhere.  Can’t catch fish unless you are where the fish are!

You are already perfectly positioned.  To mind the business that, because it is his, is yours as well.

What are the ways you cast the net of love where you are?

Is there a particular fish or two that you have your eye on?  Could you name them in the family C-suite, and ask for the resources you need to fish for them?

If you'd like to read or re-read the overview/summary of this week's passage, you can find it here.