When the world began to change in March of last year, the Rev. Allen Randle Sr. sought comfort by going fishing.

The pastor of Lighthouse Missionary Baptist Church in New Iberia, Franklin and Abbeville had grown up with the pastime as a child, but life had taken him in other directions in adulthood.

One day, Randle realized that the techniques of fishing and the techniques of ministering are similar, in some ways too similar. 

That revelation culminated in “Fishing for Souls: The Responsibility of Every Believer,” a book recently published by Westbow Press that Randle hopes will inspire Christians the same way the “God-given inspiration” inspired him. 

A call to God

A Baldwin native, Randle graduated from Franklin Senior High School as a baseball player with the hope of becoming a professional pitcher. 

He took that ambition to Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe (now UL Monroe), where he pitched for three years and graduated in English Language Arts.

According to Randle, he had set several records during his time as a baseball player at the college, and scouts were interested in helping reach the major leagues. A knee surgery in his senior year scrapped those ambitions, however, and Randle went on to become a coach in Leesville and later Galveston, Texas. 

All the while, Randle said he had grown up going to church but had never been a particularly devout believer. 

“I was in church but church wasn’t in me,” he said. 

He was a searcher, however. Randle described his early life as a series of catastrophic accidents. Before 18, he was hit by a car at 9, fell out of a tree at 10, electrocuted at 11 and hit by a train in 1991. 

He and his wife Pamela Randle, first lady of Lighthouse Missionary, were married for six years but had no children. Randle said doctors would tell them they were unable to have children. 

In 1993, a friend asked him to go to a church where a guest pastor was speaking. That sermon, which Randle remembered being titled “A Good for Nothing Christian,” changed him and set him on the path to becoming a believer. 

After that, Randle recalled several events that he can only call miracles, including he and his wife eventually conceiving two children. 

In 1995, he said he asked God if he was supposed to be a preacher. After asking for three signs, Randle said all three were given to him but he was still skeptical. After ignoring the call, Randle got sick soon after, and experience from several past surgeries let him know it was serious. 

While working as a counselor during a church service, Randle said the Lord told him to announce his calling to the church, but he didn’t want to do it. 

“As I stood there along that wall it felt like there was a knife stabbing me in my gut,” Randle said. “I would make a move to the altar to make an announcement, and  it felt like the knife was being removed.

“Then I would gather back to the wall and the knife would go back in. Finally I got up and said the Lord called me to preach the gospel. I’ve been pastoring since for the last 20 years this November.”

A call to fish

Randle got the inspiration for his book last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I grew up fishing, but as life would go on and baseball would intrude into my life as well as other things, I wouldn’t fish as much,” Randle said. 

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, he said he needed to preoccupy himself and started fishing on the bank at Myette Point. 

One Wednesday in April, Randle drove up to the landing and saw money on the ground. The sighting was strange, so he decided to collect as much of the money as he could see to turn in. 

He got back in his car and headed to his fishing spot, where he would find a wallet filled with hundreds of dollars. After searching the wallet, he found an insurance card with the name of the owner, and decided to track down the person instead of fishing. 

Randle found the owner the next day, and said the man broke down in tears along with his son. 

“The Lord told me, ‘Now I know you really love me,’” Randle said. 

After that, the pastor said the fishing floodgates opened for him. Randle said he always wanted a Boston Whaler, and found one for sale soon after while driving to Louisiana 14. 

His wife Pamela had never been a fan of outside activity, but after fishing with him in July she quickly became a fishing lover and even bought her own rod and reel recently. 

One day, Randle said he decided to do a “fish list” for any families in his congregation that wanted fish. 

He would skin and clean the fish he caught for those who signed up, and by the end of November he estimated more than 240 families were fed as a result. 

While talking with a fellow pastor about his fishing, it was suggested that Randle write a book about fishing and ministry. That was late October, and Randle said something about the idea had grabbed him. 

“In November I began to write this book,” he said. “Fourteen days later I was done with 28 chapters. I now know how God controls the mind of a man and causes them to write.” 

Fishing for souls

The major insight Randle gained while writing was that fishing for fish “literally correlates to fishing for souls.”

In one chapter of the book, he discusses the different fish bite on bait, and compared it to the ways that people are attracted to God.

“Some will immediately hear the gospel and you’ve got them hook, line and sinker,” Randle said. “Some others give you the impression they’re going to take it and then let up.”

The concept also comes from the gospels, where in John chapter 3 it’s said that people love darkness instead of light. 

“People are in a sea of sin, and they like the deep and the dark rather than the light, and when you hook them they’re going to fight to stay there in the darkness,” Randle said. “It takes discipleship to get from the deep and the dark of sin into the marvelous light.”

Randle also said the concept applies to one of the mandates given by Jesus in the Bible, which is to baptize. 

“We don’t make disciples,” Randle said. “Our pools and our churches are drying up. Baptismal pools are being used for storage in some churches. Some churches don’t baptize at all, so we have tossed that mandate to the side.”

Randle has taken the mission to “fish for souls” directly to his churches, where he has started classes on baiting lines, casting and even fishing in a pond behind his house. 

Although the book was only recently published, Randle said the response has been enthusiastic, and despite a global pandemic he will be baptizing four people this Sunday. 

“All I hear is, ‘pastor I’m fishing, I’m going get them,” he said. “Now they’re literally applying the book to their lives and that’s what it’s all about.”

An official book launch for “Fishing For Souls” will be held Sept. 11 at Lighthouse Missionary Baptist Church.