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Bethshan LifeBoats
Grace Darling is a famous daughter of the North East. The daughter of a lighthouse keeper she sailed out with her father on a terrible storm-tossed night in 1838 to rescue men whose boat had run aground. They were successful but at a price. The price was Grace’s own sweet short life. She had great faith and was prepared to exchange her own life, whose salvation was her deep assurance, for those who were not so certain. Maybe we have some of Grace’s spiritual inheritance as we launch our “lifeboats”. They are our own launch into the storm-tossed night that we “might by all means save some..” 1 Cor 9v22.
Bethshan’s spiritual inheritance is soul-winning. Our founding father Herbert Harrison practiced his craft of evangelism over his whole ministry perfecting the gift God had given him year on year. He was prepared to live on meagre rations in a caravan, put his foot in the door of the town’s chief criminals, preach in the midst of abuse in the city centre and go wherever God asked him. Our lifeboats are a response to Jesus call to “Go! And save the lost” Mark 16v15.
We live in a post-church era. The majority of people in this nation have limited experience of church. A Christian service, traditional or otherwise, is something people have no desire to experience, to them it is dated, irrelevant and out of touch. And so while we pray and expect people to come to us they rarely do and our large stately buildings remain waiting. We, like Grace Darling, have a deep assurance of the love of God and his transforming salvation in our lives yet out there are people dying because they can’t make it to where we are, safe in our churches. And so we are launching lifeboats to rescue some, to go where they are, to go where they are comfortable and we are not. The emphasis is not what we want, or how we want it, but as Paul said “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” 1 Cor 9v22.
Sunderlands lifeboat is the oldest in the country. Maybe one of the most significant changes in the Sunderland lifeboats development was when it was found that the large lifeboats, though more robust and well-equipped, were slow to go where they were needed and as a result many lives were lost. What was needed was a responsive and flexible service, a quick launch, smaller boats and smaller crews, able to get where they were needed quickly. The results were astonishing with many more saved.
It seems our current model of church needs something to change, when millions are perishing waiting for someone to respond to their cry. We are going out to the lost where they are with the message that Jesus loves them and has a glorious plan for their lives. This is the commission call from Jesus to Bethshan church. Jesus was not a stranger to preaching from a boat if it suited his ministry. He was not a rabbi of the synagogue but a light in the darkness, a city on a hill and salt in unsavoury places. Lifeboats are the people of God answering the SOS cry of our cities taking the gospel to the people and not waiting for the people to come to the Gospel.
As the musician and psalmist Ian White wrote, “A ship that’s in the harbour is still and safe from harm, but it wasn’t meant to be there it was made for wind and storm.” The lifeboats are launched not for us but for them, the lost, the pained and the lonely. We are the volunteers ready to go were we are sent! |
Paul Weaver, 29/09/2009 |
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