It was 3:00 in the morning. Ben was dying, but only Jonathan knew. He was the only one awake when he snuck into Ben’s hospital room and climbed into bed with him. Jonathan was wishing for something neither of them could have. More time. One more adventure. One more outrageous idea. One more argument with the boy who had waken up the whole church and given Jonathan courage well beyond his years.
But there would be no more adventures.
Ben opened his eyes, felt Jonathan next to him, and looked up at the clock, “Jonathan,” he said in a small weak voice. “It’s 3:00. Gotta get the news out.”
Jonathan tried to tell Ben it was three in the morning, not three in the afternoon, but by the time he did, Ben was gone.
A newspaper route? Really? Of all the things he could have said? But perhaps Ben wasn’t thinking about newspapers at all. Perhaps, even at the end, he was thinking about what would happen after he was gone.
Ben couldn’t finish the route. But Jonathan could.
And suddenly those five words were no longer about delivering newspapers. They were about carrying on what someone else could no longer finish.
I wonder if the disciples felt something like that when Jesus entrusted them with His Great Commission. After everything they had been through, after losing Him to the cross and discovering Him alive again, Jesus was entrusting His work to them.
These were ordinary people. Frightened people. People who had failed Him, misunderstood Him, and occasionally behaved as though they hadn’t understood a single thing He said.
And still, He chose them. “Go and make disciples of all nations,” He said. (Matthew 28:19)
Imagine that. The Son of God was entrusting the news of God’s love and reconciliation to people who were barely learning how to love one another.
He didn’t wait until they were ready. He promised to be with them. “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
There is the difference between Ben’s commission and Christ’s. Ben had to leave Jonathan to finish the route alone. Jesus never leaves us to finish His work alone.
And what exactly has He entrusted to us? Not simply the responsibility to tell people about God, but the extraordinary privilege of letting people discover, through us, that God has not forgotten them.
That they are loved.
That they are welcome.
That reconciliation is possible.
That there is a place for them at His table.
Sometimes that news travels halfway around the world. Sometimes it travels across the street. And sometimes it travels no farther than the person sitting beside us, quietly wondering whether anyone cares.
That is our side of the street. And that is why the Catch Ministry exists.
Not simply to publish five Catches a week or gather people for Sunday Church, or counsel someone through a separation, but to develop disciples who will carry the Gospel of Welcome into lives we may never personally touch.
John and Marti cannot finish that route.
Neither can Noel.
Neither can you.
But together, with Christ in us, we can keep delivering the news.
And that is what our Gotta Get the News Out campaign is all about. Every contribution, every shared Catch, every prayer, every new relationship makes it possible for the news to travel farther. Not because an organization needs to survive, but because someone, somewhere, still needs to know they are loved by God.
Think about Jonathan lying next to Ben, hearing his labored breathing. He couldn’t save his friend. He couldn’t give him another morning. But he could take what Ben had entrusted to him and carry it forward.
And perhaps that is the question Christ is asking each of us: What will you do with what I have entrusted to you?
The news is still good. The route is still unfinished. And somewhere, someone is waiting.
It’s 3:00. Gotta get the news out.
Grace Turned Outward — to everyone, everywhere.
2026 Annual Fall Campaign — Gotta Get the News Out
The Catch Ministry is developing disciples to carry the Gospel of Welcome into the lives of others. Your contribution allows this work to continue and grow.
