John Fischer The Catch

Ben and Jonathan are taking on Jonathan’s newspaper route together. They pull off pranks in the church together. They play with their model cars together. They spy on the church staff together. They create a strategy to save the Edsel together. To say they have a tight relationship would be an understatement.

All this underscores the importance of relationships. Think how Jesus taught his disciples and it becomes clear that they walked and talked together. The disciples observed what Jesus did and they listened to Him teaching the crowds and then afterwards they gathered together and discussed it. “What did you mean by such and such.” They questioned a lot because Jesus spoke in parables and hid the truth in statements that were hard to decipher. Some of those we’re still wondering about  today even with the words on a page.

The point is, the gospel was spread by relationships. Look at the people Paul took with him on his missionary journeys. Or the fact that Jesus sent the disciples out two by two. Or think of all the individuals mentioned in the New Testament — in the gospels, the Book of Acts, the epistles. They were all meeting together, sharing their lives with each other, studying Paul’s letters together, sharing prophecies from the Torah, debating, praying, doubting, doing life together. They didn’t learn by themselves from a sermon, a notebook, or a seminar. They learned from each other. They learned through relationships. Relationships carry the gospel farther than institutions can.

I would put forth that Ben and Jonathan learned more about the gospel from each other than from church or Sunday School. Ben even shared his doubts about God with Jonathan, and Jonathan didn’t judge him or try to argue him out of his doubts. They just carried them together along the way. The ministry doesn’t wait for professionals; it is the ministry of ordinary people.

Here at the Catch, ordinary people are carrying out the gospel.
Prayer warriors take one side of the street.
Counselors take another.
People forward a Daily Catch to a friend.
Someone says, “You need to read this. And then let’s get together and discuss it.”
Someone gives because another person cannot.
Someone prays because another has run out of words.

It’s not only people we hold in high esteem who will make the difference. It’s you and me.

Just like Ben and Jonathan.

Gotta get the news out.
Grace turned outward.

A Special Message from Noel Paul Stookey:

Click here

To participate in the “Gotta Get The News Out” Campaign:

Click here

and thank you for joining us in getting the news out to everyone, everywhere.

‘Gotta Get the News Out’

**CAMPAIGN NEWS**

$12,092! And we’re just getting started.

Something is happening across the Catch Community. People are stepping forward, investing in the future of a ministry committed to taking the Gospel of Welcome to everyone, everywhere.

And the news is traveling!

Our Founder, Peter Herschend, stepped forward with a $5,000 leadership gift. Peter’s challenge has been met and exceeded bringing us to $12,092 toward our $20,000 goal!

That’s more than halfway there. And every giver represents someone who believes the Gospel of Welcome is news worth sharing.

We are especially delighted to have Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary standing shoulder to shoulder with us as Chairman of Gotta Get the News Out! Noel is not simply lending his famous name. He believes in the story behind this campaign, John’s novel Saint Ben, and in the power of ordinary people to carry extraordinary news.

Don’t miss Noel’s video message below. You’ll be hearing more from him!

And now there’s room for another name in this story.

Yours.

The Catch Community isn’t an audience watching a campaign unfold. We are the people who make the Gospel of Welcome visible in the world with our boots on the ground.

The news is out. The route is ours. And there’s a place for you!

John Fischer

______________________

Take the Other Side of the Street

So Ben convinced Jonathan that Jonathan needed help with his newspaper route, but when they actually got out on their first street, Ben discovered that Jonathan still hadn’t gotten the point.

Continue reading →

‘Gotta Get the News Out’

**CAMPAIGN NEWS**

We are so honored to have Noel Paul Stookey as Chairman of our annual fall campaign Gotta Get the News Out. He is a good friend of the Catch and a big fan of my novel, Saint Ben, which is the story behind this campaign. Be sure not to miss his video message below and other messages from him coming your way.

We want to send out a big thank you to Pat, Tami, Mike, Laura, Lisa, Kristin, Linda and Joanne who have all gotten us closer to matching our Founder, Peter Herschend’s lead gift of $5,000. Let’s keep it going!

John Fischer

_________________________

‘Two Are Always Better Than One’

The red and white ’56 Chevy rumbled away up the street it’s custom muffler job firing backfires around the neighborhood. Jonathan’s new newspaper dealer faded into the distance as Jonathan cut the wire around his first stack of 54 editions of the Pasadena Independent Star-News — the local afternoon newspaper.

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Today’s Catch — By Special Arrangement (Without Permission)

“Jonathan! We’ve got a problem.”

“What now, Ben?”

“John Fischer can’t write today’s Catch. His shoulder’s busted.”

“That’s terrible!”

“Of course it’s terrible. But somebody’s got to get the news out.”

“Who’s going to write it?”

Ben stared at him.

“Oh, no,” said Jonathan. “Absolutely not.”

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“Gotta get the news out” comes from Ben’s conviction that everything that he and his friend, Jonathan, do matters. Ben knows his life is going to be short, but no one knows he knows this. He was born with a hole in his heart, and ever since he could read, he’s been studying medical textbooks and journals. He knows more about his condition than most doctors.

The end result is that Ben keeps this secret to himself and lives deliberately.

Every moment counts.

Ben is the son of Pastor Jeffery T. Beamering, pastor of the Colorado Avenue Standard Christian Church in Pasadena, California. His only friend is Jonathan, son of the choir director. Jonathan understands Ben, even though he doesn’t know why.

So when Ben starts helping Jonathan with his paper route, his seriousness becomes evident. To Ben, this is not just a paper route; it is an assignment to deliver important news to the people of the neighborhood.

For Ben, the news isn’t really delivered until he hears the sound of the paper hitting the driveway—

SLAP!

It’s a similar thing when it comes to the Good News of the Gospel.

Once you know it for yourself, you realize it is not just for you.

It’s for you to deliver.

There is a difference between carrying the news and delivering it.

A carrier can possess the news and never let go of it. A deliverer makes sure it reaches somebody else.

And perhaps this is where Ben’s story becomes our story.

Ben was born with a hole in his heart.

In one way or another, so were we.

There is a place in the human heart that achievement, possessions, politics, religion and even other people cannot ultimately fill.

We keep pouring things into that hole.

And still we thirst.

Until we encounter the One for whom the heart was made.

That is the Good News.

And once the grace of God begins filling the hole in our own heart, something remarkable happens:

We begin noticing the holes in other hearts.

That is why the Catch exists.

Our purpose is to develop disciples so that we can make real our vision: introducing the Gospel of Welcome—Grace Turned Outward—to everyone, everywhere.

Five Catches a week and Sunday Church are not simply articles and a service. Together, we receive the news, grow in our understanding of it, and become equipped to deliver it.

Boots on the ground.

Someone receives the Good News through the Catch and carries it to someone else. Someone comes for prayer or counseling and discovers the welcome of God—and then carries that grace into another life.

The person who received becomes the person who delivers.

That’s multiplication.

That’s making disciples.

And that’s how a relatively small ministry can take seriously two enormous words:

Everyone. Everywhere.

We don’t have to personally reach everyone.

We equip someone who reaches someone who reaches someone.

The route keeps growing.

Which brings us back to an eleven-year-old boy with a hole in his heart.

Ben knew he didn’t have forever.

Neither do we.

So he lived deliberately. He took his assignment seriously. And he didn’t consider the job finished until the news had been delivered.

There are people all around us with holes in their hearts.

And we have been given some very Good News.

So find your route.

Deliver the paper.

And listen for the sound.

SLAP!

Somebody just got the news.

A Special Message from Noel Paul Stookey

Click here.

To participate in the “Gotta Get The News Out” Campaign

click here

and thank you for joining us in getting the news out to everyone, everywhere.

Yesterday, we got the news out.

Today, we have some news.

Continue reading →

by Marti Fischer

You may have noticed something today.

There was no Catch.

There is a reason.

The newspaper boy fell down.

Continue reading →

There was a time when 3:00 in the afternoon meant something very different to a kid with a paper route.

School was out. The bicycle was waiting. So were the newspapers.

And so was the route.

In John Fischer’s novel, Saint Ben, Jonathan’s workday began at 3:00. There were papers to fold, a bicycle to load, houses to reach and people waiting for the news.

Sometimes Ben came along.

When he did, the work changed. One boy took one side of the street. The other took the other.

And the news went out.

Those of you who have read Saint Ben already know that the paper route becomes much more than a paper route. Those who haven’t read it—I’m not going to spoil it for you.

Not yet.

Because over the next few weeks, we’re going back there.

Back to Jonathan and Ben.
Back to the bicycles.
Back to 3:00.

And eventually, back to five words that have stayed with me for a very long time:

Gotta get the news out.

We chose those words for The Catch Ministry’s 2026 Annual Fall Campaign because somewhere along the way I realized that, in a very different form, we’re still running a paper route.

Every morning, we send out the Daily Catch. But what we’re carrying isn’t a newspaper. It’s the Good News. The news that grace is available to people who don’t deserve it—which, of course, would be all of us.

The news that nobody has to clean themselves up before coming to the table.

news that Jesus didn’t send us out to find people worthy of His love. He sent us to make disciples.

We call it the Gospel of Welcome—Grace Turned Outward. We are in 143 countries.

And there are still streets we haven’t reached.

That’s why, beginning today, we’re setting out again.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 to continue and expand the work of The Catch Ministry. And this year, an old friend has agreed to ride along with us.

Noel Paul Stookey is serving as Chairman of our Annual Fall Campaign.

Noel and Saint Ben go back a long way. When he first read the book, he wrote that he “absolutely loved” it, had been “moved to tears several times,” and called its “honoring of each person’s soul-searching-for-integrity” brilliant.

So when Noel agreed not only to chair this campaign but to bring his voice—and perhaps even some music—to it, Marti and I knew we had the right companion for the route.

You’ll hear from Noel today.
You’ll hear from him again.

But before this campaign is finished, I want to tell you the story behind those five words. Because they aren’t really about newspapers. And ultimately, neither is this campaign.

For now, the bicycle is loaded.

It’s 3:00.

We’ve got News to deliver.

— John

Click here for a special message from Noel Stookey

Click here to participate in the “Gotta Get The News Out” Campaign, and thank you for joining us in getting the news out to everyone, everywhere.