In his book, “Doing Church as a Team,” Wayne Cordeiro writes:
“Some time ago, our church ’adopted’ the USS Reuben James, a battleship depoloyed to the Persian Gulf. We agreed to pray daily for the crew and provide sailors with tapes and books. We also sent them copies of our weekend services so that they could televise them over their internal system on Sunday mornings at sea. At the completion of her Gulf tour, the ship docked in Pearl Harbor. I received an invitation to become the crew’s guest on a short excursion into the Pacific.
“After a thorough tour of the quarters and decks, I took my place by the captain as we pulled anchor and sailed into the deep blue with a crew of 800. At a safe distance from land, the gunnery detail fired a few rounds from the ship’s massive cannons. As every sailor scurried back and forth, I noticed something. Everyone knew exactly what his or her role was. Each person on that ship had a job, a function, a responsibility and a purpose for being there. Everyone except me, that is. I was the only one tagging along for the ride.
“By contrast, some months later, my wife, Anna, and I took a three-day cruise around the islands for some R&R. On deck, I noticed 400 lazy, sun-ripened humans lounging around the pool with 40 uniform-clad workers scurrying around trying to keep them happy. In a moment of reflection I heard the Lord say to me, ’My church must be a battleship, not a cruise liner. If you are to pierce the darkness and rescue lost souls you cannot be a ship of spectators. Everyone must know why they are on board.”
The church is a rescue ship, not a cruise liner.
Website: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=101860&page=4