**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.
And many thanks to our Catch Ministry founder, Peter Herschend, for his $5,000 lead gift, and to those of you who have already recorded your gifts. The challenge continues for our whole community to join together and match him!
Finally, some of you will notice our Catch today is the same one we released Friday. I’m doing that because I know a lot of people miss on Fridays and this one is too good to miss. And if you have already read it, read it again. I’ve read it four times and found something new every time. Marti wrote this one and I think it’s brilliant. In fact, I’m going to read it again as soon as I finish this note to you.
John Fischer
What Would Ben Do?
Friday’s Catch — Re-released 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.”
“Get a pencil.” And that was that.
You didn’t argue with Ben. Well, you did, but it never did much good. Ben was brilliant, reckless, and determined to tell the truth, especially when the truth made everybody uncomfortable.
He was also born with a hole in his heart. And he wasn’t particularly happy with God about it.
“Jonathan, explain something to me. If God made me, why didn’t He finish the job?”
Jonathan didn’t know what to say. He seldom did when Ben started asking questions like that. “Maybe,” Jonathan ventured, “God isn’t finished with you.”
“Then He’s taking His sweet time.”
Ben had another obsession: the 1958 Edsel. An odd-looking automobile that the world seemed determined to get rid of. Ben understood the Edsel. They were both peculiar, misunderstood, and apparently headed for extinction. He was determined to save it.
Jonathan was determined to save Ben.
Neither was having much success.
But there was something about Ben that Jonathan couldn’t explain. Something about the way he refused to give up on people, even while arguing with the God who made them.
And somewhere in their story lies an extraordinary truth: “There is a God-shaped hole in the heart of Ben. There is a Ben-shaped hole in the heart of God.”
Imagine that.
Ben had spent his life worrying about the hole in his heart, never considering that there might be a place in God’s heart reserved especially for him.
Not for a healthier Ben.
Not for a better-behaved Ben.
Not for a Ben who stopped asking difficult questions.
For Ben. Just as he was.
And here’s the news Ben would have insisted we deliver: There is a place in God’s heart for you, too. Your doubts, your disappointments, your unfinished business with God—none of them disqualifies you from His love.
That’s the Gospel of Welcome.
It’s the news Jesus came to deliver. And it’s the news He sends us into the world to share.
Which brings us back to Ben’s newspaper route.
“Jonathan, are you writing this down?”
“Yes, Ben.”
“Good. Now get your bicycle.”
“Where are we going?”
“Everywhere.”
“Ben, we can’t go everywhere!”
“Then we’d better get some more people delivering papers.”
And isn’t that exactly what the Catch is all about?
Every day, we receive the Good News. Every day, we discover something more about God’s grace. And every day, we have another opportunity to carry that grace to somebody who hasn’t heard it.
We are the boots on the ground. Not spectators. Not merely subscribers.
Messengers.
Because somewhere, somebody is still wondering whether there’s a place for them in God’s heart. And somebody needs to tell them.
Jonathan looked at Ben. “Do you think Mr. Fischer will approve of this?”
“Probably not.”
“What if we get in trouble?”
Ben was already halfway out the door.
“Jonathan! It’s 3:00! Gotta get the news out!”
Grace Turned Outward. To everyone. Everywhere.
