John Fischer The Catch

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.

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by Marti Fischer

You may have noticed something today.

There was no Catch.

There is a reason.

The newspaper boy fell down.

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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.