The more I work at it the more I think it's not so much the fishing that scares them but the catching.
Especially with the book of Jonah, many churches are more afraid of success in an evangelism program than failure. Jonah got angry at God because Jonah's preaching was successful! Catching means broken nets and sinking boats. Catching today means something I might just have to change - what wasn't broken will now need to be "fixed" to suit the new catch - the boat I always thought was safe to get into is now filled to overflowing and I can't find my old pew to sit in - Maybe what we are more about is "Catch and Release."
I think that's true with many long-time church members. They aren't opposed to new people, but they want the newbies to love the church as much as they do. Unfortunately, that can also mean, "love what we've been doing for decades as much as we do" and an attitude, "since they haven't experienced all our history, they couldn't possibly love the church as much as we do."
They cannot be part of the past. They are always "outsiders" to the past. They join because of the future. They can be part of that. Congregational members who keep talking about the past are probably not going to attract many new people.
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