I heard a question recently that concerned me: how much of what Christians do still depends on Christ? Another way to ask it is this: Is Jesus still the center of Christianity, or is He just a bystander? 

It concerns me because in the letter to the church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14–22), Jesus reveals a group of God’s people who think everything is fine, but its not. The reason? He is not inside; He’s no longer a part of their church (Revelation 3:20 – the reason for His knocking). Therefore, according to Jesus, a church that is no longer reliant on Him is not only a possibility, it’s a reality. Sadly, we can get to a point where our religion is less CHRISTianity and more CHURCHianity—more about us than about God.

If we’ll be honest with ourselves, much of Christianity in developed countries resembles this Laodicean attitude. More often than not, it seems that a lot of what we do is something of our own creation and has no reliance on the power and authority of Jesus. Our worship services are typically tailored to the people we hope will attend rather than focussing on the God who deserves our worship. Ministries in our churches often come from brain storming committee meetings rather than time spent in prayer. Even our evangelistic efforts have become well-practiced strategies of persuasion rather than organic testimonies about our experiences with Jesus.

The Bible gives us two clear examples of why we shouldn’t try to do these things on our own. They’re fishing stories.

Fishing with Jesus, part 1 (Luke 5:1–6)

Jesus was teaching on the shore of the sea of Galilee when the crowd grew too large and forced Him into one of the boats nearby. They pushed off a little from the shore and He continued teaching. When He was finished, He turned to the boat’s captain, Simon Peter, and told him to go further out and cast out his nets. Simon argued that they had already been out—all night, even—and didn’t catch a thing. However, since Jesus was the one asking, he obeyed. As soon as he cast them out, the nets filled with fish. So many that the nets began to break! They even called their other boat to help but, because of the amount of fish, both boats began to sink. Wow.

What strikes me about this story is not just how many fish they caught, but Jesus’ comment about it to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” (Luke 5:10). The whole purpose of Jesus’ demonstration of His power and authority was to prepare Simon, and the others, to trust Him in ministry. Jesus would be sending them out to do the impossible: create more disciples of Jesus. However, with Jesus in the boat, their fishing would be sure!

Fishing with Jesus, part 2 (John 21:3–6)

I don’t think it was by chance that this event happened again. This time, it happened after the resurrection and after Jesus appeared to the disciples. For some reason, a few of the disciples were at the Sea of Galilee again. While they were there, Peter decided to fish and the others joined him. (I often wonder if he went out because it was relaxing and a way to pass the time, or if he was reverting to his old career.) Nevertheless, their fishing was fruitless: they didn’t catch anything. Then Jesus arrived (but they didn’t recognize Him). He asked them if they had caught any fish and they replied that they hadn’t. He instructed them to cast their net on the right side where they’d find some. When they did, like the first time, they caught so many fish they couldn’t bring it all in.

Why would Jesus do this again? In that moment, before sending His disciples out to finish the work of the kingdom (Acts 1:7), He was reminding them that He is the source of power and authority. They would not be successful without Him. They could not, dared not, try to finish the work on their own.

Have we been trying to fish without Jesus? Do we still depend on Him for the things we do as a church? Or do we think we can handle the rest of the work on our own? It seems plain to me: we need to let Jesus be the foundation of our worship, our ministries, our evangelism, and every other part of Christianity. We need Jesus back in Christianity.