The Torn Net

God brought this image to me at a time when I was realizing how many people I knew and loved—who had once been "in" the church—were no longer believing in God or were having serious doubts about their faith. Among others I had already been aware of, right around this time a family member shared with me that they were not just agnostic but atheist, one was struggling with homosexuality, another had serious questions about God. A co-worker shared that she had become disillusioned with and left the church, a childhood friend and fellow confirmand informed me that he, too, was now agnostic.

This one was more of an image than a scene that played out. Again, in the early morning hours, I saw in my mind’s eye an image of a man’s hands repairing a fishing net. Having worked fisheries for a number of summers during college, I was well aware of what a tear in a fishing net would look like and even how to go about repairing it. These tan, strong hands were busy repairing the tear.

When I woke up, again it was immediately clear that the net represented the church and the hands were the hands of Christ, himself. It was clear that "fish" that had been in the net could have easily slipped out through the tears. The fish that escaped the net were all those who had been raised in the church or been going to church, but had somehow slipped out. The organized church was clearly broken. Even before I was aware of the statistics and the research that showed the mass exodus (especially of young people) from the church, this vision impressed on my heart that we had to do something about how the church was representing Christ to the world. After all, we are his ambassadors. We needed to stop merely going to church and start being the church. 

“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve

by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray

from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

2 Corinthians 11:3 NIV

“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders

from the truth and someone brings him back,

let him know that whoever brings back a sinner

from his wandering will save his soul from

death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

James 5:19-20 NIV

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV