John Fischer The Catch

by Marti Fischer

My roots will reach to the water…  Job: 29:19

I know a man who lives to plant trees.

The first time I met Jack he was in his old, weather-worn pickup truck. His elbow was resting on the driver’s window, and he was radiating a smile that made me believe I had known him all of my life. He thumbed me to the back of the truck where the bed was full of miniature trees. His ambition was obvious: to replace all the trees that were cut down when building a highway through the Ozark Mountains, and return Branson to its original forest of trees.

“Hello,” I shouted, stretching out a hand.

“Hello, yourself,” Jack relied as he stepped from the truck, extending his.

During this brief encounter, Jack sought to teach this city girl with high-heeled shoes sinking into the ground about his “no pain, no gain” school of horticulture. He pulled from his truck a few trees, pruned a branch from a young redwood, then bent down on his hands and knees and placed it in the soil.

Trying to enter into his project, I asked, “Who will water these trees, Jack?” noting the already rather warm spring weather.

“Rarely do these trees need watering,” was his simple answer and then adding, “Watering spoils them.”

Not wanting to distinguish myself as the hothouse tomato that I am, I inquired how one could indulge a tree.

“If you coddle trees, each generation grows weaker,” Jack explained as he stomped the ground around the newly planted tree. Hesitating, as if to consider whether I was capable of understanding, his eyes turned toward me to distinguish whether there was anything about me that was beyond the obviously out of place New York styled black dress for such a warm day.

“Too much watering makes for shallow roots, while trees that are not pampered grow deep roots in search of moisture.” He tossed his shovel back into the bed of the truck, reached to open the door and with a wink he concluded, “Deep roots are to be treasured.”

Several years later, when John and I moved into our first real home in California, we planted a couple of trees in our tiny backyard. We watered them, sprayed them, fertilized them, dug around them, and fussed over them resulting in over-indulged trees that expected to be waited on hand and foot. They were sissy trees — toddler, juvenile trees that keeled over at the first heavy wind that blew, and for southern California, that’s not saying much.

Later in the year and during one of Missouri’s chilling storms, I drove by the place where Jack and I had first met. In contrast to our wimpy trees, Jack’s trees were surviving the adversity of the much harsher Missouri weather. They were strong, tough, and sturdy. Just as Jack had said, deprivation had benefited them; the roots had grown deep, preventing the trees from being swept away.

Jack’s words of wisdom as illustrated through his trees got me thinking about adversity and how I pray for our family and especially our children to be spared the hard times. Yet, as inevitable as a Missouri storm, there will always be a cold, cruel wind blowing somewhere. So, instead of asking for our children to be spared, I pray that our children will be deeply “rooted and established in love,” drawing on God’s hidden springs and sources, filled with his affection and strengthened with His might. For, when the storm clouds gather and the strong winds rage, they will remain firmly entrenched.

“Deep roots,” as Jack once said, “are to be treasured.”

*****

John and I are so grateful to you. With the community coming together we are fast approaching our goal for the requested amount to reestablish our home. Thank you! Yet what is most important is that we are combing our backgrounds to provide new forms of community and experience to our Internet congregation, a real time ministry, where of course the Lord will always conquer because our relationship with Him and with each other will always come first and will never be in conflict with asking for or receiving a gift. Therefore, be faithful only to what the Lord is leading you to do with whatever He puts on your heart.

John suggests that if you wish to send a check to just email us back your intension and the Bank has agreed to accept the amount toward the monies required by the end of today. To learn how to make a contribution on line or where to send a check – click here.

Expect updates throughout the day.

Thank you for your outpouring of love and support with special thanks today to:

Laurence from Vista, California; Mark from Powey, California; Peggy Lee in Nashville; our good friend Art from Roswell, Georgia; special thanks to Jonathan in Fresno, California; Michael in Shawnee, Kansas; Donald from Canandaigua, New York; Marvin in Spokane; Richard in Jenison, Michigan; Jeffrey in San Jose, California; David from Canby, Oregon; Dean from Victoria, Australia; Fabrizia in Grinzens, Austria; Alan in Palm Bay, Florida; Marta from Riverside, California; Marc from Edmond, Oklahoma; Jeffrey from Rowlett, Texas; Anthony in Valley Stream, New York; David in Richardson, Texas; Jennifer in West Chapel, Florida; Phillip in Tigard. Oregon; Katherine from Waterbury, Connecticut; Matthew in Rochester, Minnesota; David in Corona, California; Daniel from Hershey, Pennsylvania; Tom in Spokane, Washington; Wendy from Boone, North Carolina; Tamara from Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Lois from Wausa, Nebraska; Ruth from Moreno Valley, California; Kristin from Chesterfield, Missouri; Marty in Naperville, Illinois; Alma from Alberta, Canada; Fernando from Lakewood, Colorado… more to come!

A Little About Jack…

Among his many business ventures and philanthropic endeavors, Jack Herschend works with Christian organizations to promote positive values in communities, including the Christian nonprofit Lives Under Construction Boys Ranch that gives teenage boys an opportunity to change destructive patterns and succeed in a structured, supportive environment. To raise funds for the Ranch, Jack recently paired his Gift of Green reforestation project that looks to plant 1 million trees with the Ranch to create “Branch Out — Trees for Life.” The boys are transplanting seedlings, mulching, fertilizing and like themselves, watching the trees grow. The boys sell the trees with profit designated solely to the work of the Ranch, which is to transform the lives of its current and future residents.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!
No bondage, no legalism, no fear.
No judging, no condemnation, no pride.
No anger, no suspicion, no jealousy.
No factions, no intolerance, no bigotry.
No faking, no hiding, no masks.

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17, New International Version

The Gospel of Welcome is a gospel of freedom. It takes you as you are and makes you into who you are to be in Christ without manipulation, comparison or control. It is the Spirit of God working in us on the inside, working its way out into our daily life and relationships.

The Catch is all about setting people free.

Like Gideon in the Old Testament, hiding from the enemy behind a winepress, God calls us out from an entire world in hiding and into the glory and freedom of His Spirit, into His kingdom in the world. It’s an adventure — a whole new way of looking at the world and our place in it — and it’s all about being set free to set others free as well.

This includes me.

I tell you that I am a minister of the gospel, and it is true; it was not by my choice, nor can I really choose to be anything else. But I can and do sometimes hide from what is to me the scary parts of the job. I am not afraid of continuing to proclaim God’s radical grace and to call for reformation of the church some 45 years after publishing ‘The Cold Cathedral.’ But with the Catch, modest as it seems most days, the Lord has started something global, something that requires a type of leadership that stands up first, and calls to battle, and comes to grips with immediate reality trusting in God.

The Catch, it has turned out, is far more than a devotional blog and some Bible studies by a mild-mannered itinerant survivor of the Jesus movement. For more and more people all over the world, the Catch is the one voice of the gospel of grace and welcome that actually reaches them. Some are in urban areas surrounded by sound mainstream churches whose voices are drowning each other out; some are far from any other voice at all. Some are the most devoted ministers I have ever seen, ministering faithfully to many or few or one, as they are placed by God, without recognition or fanfare, against the nonsupport or outright opposition of local Pharisees. These are just looking for a drop of encouragement, some echo out there in the world of the Jesus they know and love and serve, and I am so humbled to hear they find it in the Catch.

Something that started as an avocation, something I couldn’t help doing, has opened up an avenue through the Internet into an outreach and a platform for the gospel – to seekers, rejecters, and those who already believe – of huge scope. The work of keeping it and my household going, and responding to people, and endeavoring to live out what we are teaching, has consumed our lives. If only Gideon would show up now with a call to arms, and among other things boldly ask for money that has already been spent or will surely be spent in the immediate future. Gideon, after God gave him a good shaking-down, would be everywhere, at the doors of the wealthy, going door to door gathering coins, preaching and providing for his troops with boldness and without shame, and setting fires to wet kindling wherever he went.

Who, me?

And so when our annual report stated that there was a shortfall for 2012, and reported our needs for the first quarter of 2013, where was I? I was behind a winepress in the neighborhood waiting for another more suitable candidate to come marshal the troops. So the need persists and the reason for this letter.

So far, 2013 has been a tough lesson in boldness. Boldness doesn’t come from a sense of calling, because if I don’t answer the need that has been awakened by the Catch, someone else will. Boldness is a choice, based on the truth of the message of grace-once-and-always, and based on the character of the one who sends it, who was and is our God. Gideon was reduced to a tiny handful of men against a mighty army so there would be no doubt about the power of God in the middle of victory. God does the same with us now. Every day. When we are weak, we are strong. When we are few, He gives the victory. When we have little, He uses it to achieve much.

I believe we are on the verge of seeing the Catch connect as never before to the kingdom of God in the wider world through the Internet. Just as Marti and I, the Elder/Leadership board and a dedicated team are coming to exciting conclusions about how to pursue this ministry into the rest of this decade, we are there with Gideon, at the most perilous financial pass ever. Just as we gather focus on the message, and wisdom on how to proclaim it, just then comes the most frightening night of all. But we have the position, the place, the power and the presence to make this happen. God will take every one of us and multiply His kingdom using us to set others free.

Will you commit yourself to being a part of this work? We need your faith, your willingness to step out of hiding and to be available to the Spirit of God where you are. We need your prayers for us and for our new Elder/Leadership Board as they seek direction.

And we need your urgent financial support this very day.

Better late than never
It is my responsibility to inform you of our financial status which is in a deficit now – not because you wouldn’t give, but because I didn’t ask. We are limping along like the walking wounded because I didn’t tell you!

Here are the facts:
Fourth Quarter Program Deficit:                         $26,045
First Quarter Business and Program Deficit:      $30,100
Total                                                                             $56,145

It is a deciding moment for the “us” of the Catch that includes you. We have come together this far, and there is such promise just ahead of the greatest impact by the soundest means on the truest and surest foundations. But between us and it lies this challenge. I am answering the challenge, not excluding the ridiculous, to cast the Catch vision and see it to fruition, and doing whatever is necessary to prevent the bottom-line from ever seeing red again.

Please stand and be counted for the gospel of welcome now, when the ministry of the Catch itself lies in the balance; “only be very strong and courageous.”

The Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.”
Deuteronomy 31:23, New International Version

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. Psalm 56:3

When Chandler was younger, he used a phrase that qualifies for one of those priceless things that kids say: “You have to get over your afraid.” Turning “afraid” into a noun is something a child gets to do, and in some ways it captures the truth better than the word he wanted, which would have been “fear.”

I’ve thought a lot about getting over my fear, but I’ve never thought about getting over my afraid. Come to think of it, getting over my “afraid” makes a lot of sense.

Fear is a human emotion. It is a dark cloud or a freezing hesitation or a claustrophobic entrapment. It may or may not be attached to what’s actually happening.

Fear can get you all by itself, but your “afraid” has to have an antecedent. You’re afraid of something. Your fear can be vague, but your “afraid” is specific, and it helps to identify what it is. You are afraid of what?

Often when we face into what we’re really afraid of we discover:
1) It isn’t as overwhelming as we thought,
2) it’s just in our head,
3) we can actually find something to do about it; we can take manageable steps toward a solution.

Besides, God once told Isaiah, “Do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary.” (Isaiah 8:12-14).

In other words, do not fear what everybody else fears; fear the Lord instead, because when you fear the Lord, He becomes a place of refuge for your fearful heart and you don’t have to be afraid anymore. You can get over your afraid by being afraid of the right thing.

Laguna Beach is an art town. It seems as if every other shop in the popular part of downtown is an art gallery. In one gallery there is a print that looks as if it were made for Presidents’ Day. The artist has rendered an imaginary gathering of past Presidents around a table. It looks as if Abraham Lincoln has just cracked a joke and Kennedy and F.D.R. are cracking up. Somehow seeing so many of them all together in such a light makes them all seem so ordinary and human — like any gathering of friends around a poker game. It’s hard to imagine that these men influenced the course of human history as much as they did by the decisions they made. And yet they were no different than any one of us, and no better either.

We are, all of us, human vessels made to contain the Spirit of God. On one hand, we are common, made up of the same stuff; on the other hand, we contain the presence of God in the Holy Spirit who was given to us. We are ordinary; we are extraordinary. What we accomplish will come by faith and through the power of God as we are thrust into life. The more demanding the situation, the more opportunity to grow.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Treasure in a clay pot. Spirit in you and me. Whether you’re the President of the United States or a clerk in the back office, the same elements apply. Get in the picture. Hear, decide and act. You, too, can change the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. Today.

It’s a conversation that allegedly took place between Abraham Lincoln and his life long friend, Joshua Speed. Speed, upon finding Lincoln reading the Bible, laid a hand on his shoulder and remarked, “I am glad to see you profitably engaged.”

“I am profitably engaged,” was the affirming reply.

“Well, if you have recovered from your skepticism, I am sorry to say that I have not.”

“You are wrong, Speed,” said Lincoln, looking up from the pages of his Bible. “Take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will die a happier and better man.”

This story resonates with me for numerous reasons.

1) It’s Abraham Lincoln, an obviously smart and great man who gave God respect, believed the Bible, and relied on Christ for strength to lead America through one of it’s most trying times.

2) It’s a great statement on the cooperation of reason and faith. Christianity is not unreasonable. It does not require blind or stupid faith. It requires a reasonable faith. That would be, as Lincoln described it, a faith that travels along with reason until reason can go no further, at which point faith goes the rest of the way alone. That says that faith is not antagonistic to reason, it’s just that reason alone isn’t enough.

3) Joshua Speed, who is said to have been one of Lincoln’s best friends, did not share Lincoln’s belief. They even disagreed over the slavery issue, yet they remained close throughout Lincoln’s life and presidency. This is a good example for us, because we tend to gravitate, especially with best friends, to people who support the same belief systems we hold. We might have acquaintances that are not believers, but rarely best friends. I’d be curious as to whether Mr. Speed ever came to faith. It’s hard to imagine a long, close friendship with a man like Lincoln that wouldn’t have deeply impacted Joshua Speed about the reality of all that Lincoln believed.

At any rate, it’s a great example of the kind of friendships I believe we as Christians need to cultivate — relationships of mutual respect with those who are different from us. It’s hard to deny the powerful witness of a life of faith over the long haul.