This has been, and continues to be, one of the most difficult realities for me to learn in my life. While in many ways I am improving in this regard, an honest conversation with my wife will reveal that I too often spend too much energy attempting to prove the accuracy of my case failing to act with grace and love. If you resonate with the struggle identified in this post…we’re in this together!

First I assume your going to be fishing from shore not from a boat or wading in the river. Try to find a spot where the water is a good depth (2-5 feet) at the bank and where the water isn’t flowing too fast, then look for any fallen trees or or large rocks or anything fish might think they can hide around. Stand down stream and cast upstream if you can.

If your using lures I recommend starting with a simple jig head (1/4oz) and plastic grub of some sort in the 3″-4″ range just cast it out toward (or past if you can) the spots you think fish might be in and reel it in at a moderate pace. I find this to be more exciting that the sit and wait approach of bait fishing but you do limit the types of fish you will catch to predatory ones (bass, pike, walleye and panfish)

If your using worms or other “real” bait put your bait onto a hook move up stream cast out into the water and let your line drift out until you think it is near the spot where the fish are then make the line tight and wait. You can catch types of fish such as carp, suckers, and catfish that won’t go for lures very often and you can still catch bass and panfish easily.

Anyways just some thoughts off the top of my head if you want some more specific advice tell me what the river is like at places you can get to it. Good Luck and I enjoy reading your Blog every so often.

The question it seems you are asking is: Is it right for a body of believers to expend time, energy and money building an organization with facilities, programs and events (what most churches are today)?

I’d say, it depends. What needs to be done? Can it only be done with a building? Or a complex organized children’s program? Does God care more about whether we spend money on a building or whether we’re following him?

1 Samuel 16:7 says that God looks at our hearts, not our outward appearance. If we are seeking to serve God with all our heart, soul and mind, is building a facility just plain not an option? Ever? Can anyone say that?

In terms of “prescription” vs “description”, I would lean towards “description” when discussing what impact the early church model has on today’s church. I think that what is described provides great insight into how to deal with certain situations, but do not see it as God’s prescription for how all churches should function.

Some desire a pure organic experience when it comes to “how church is done”, attempting to avoid the bureaucracy, politics and overhead that come with an organization. The counter to that is that the early church started developing a structural basis for leadership and management of “services” (see Acts 6). I’m not sure there is any reason to consider that a further development of this to meet the needs of the group is wrong and to be avoided.

Bottom line, for the group of believers that you are part of, you (collectively) need to determine, with the direction of God’s revelation (Bible, Holy Spirit, experience), what needs to be done to meet the needs of your group. I don’t know of any indicators, scriptural or otherwise, that indicate to the contrary.

| provide for the needs of the poor
| (both in and out of the church)

Do you have any verses that show the early church helping the poor outside of the church? This is not an argument against doing it, just curious. I’m just trying to build a case for “description” vs “prescription”. Prescription would say, if the early church did it, we should too, and if they didn’t, we shouldn’t. I don’t buy that approach.

Ryan