Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Which Direction Are You Paddling?

On April 15, 1912, 1,517 people lost their lives when the mighty Titanic went down in the Atlantic Ocean. While this was no doubt one of the greatest tragedies of all time, many lives were lost because of something other than the sinking of the Titanic. When the funeral ships arrived at the site three days later, they found 328 men, women and children floating in the water with their life jackets on. They had frozen to death. And what was determined after further investigation is that those people lost their lives, not because the Titanic sank, but because the people who made it into the lifeboats failed to go back and get those who were not yet in.

Most of the lifeboats which were used that dreadful night left the site of the accident only half full of people. In fact, it was reported that the first lifeboat that launched only had 28 people in it, and yet it had the capacity to hold closer to 65. Could this scene describe the Church today? Does it describe your church? Does it describe you? What many of us don't realize is that we are often also guilty of paddling in a direction that takes us away from the people who need the lifeboat the most. There are people going down all around us and we are too busy singing our lifeboat songs and going to our lifeboat meetings to even notice the people around us who are crying out for help.

Somewhere along the way we bought into the belief that lost people are supposed to come to us if they need spiritual rescuing. Yet there has never been a person rescued from drowning while they stood at the door of the lifeguard station. Rescue swimmers have to go out to where the would-be victims are and give them the help they need so that they don't die.

And some of us have bought into the idea that our programs, styles of worship, and size of our gymnasium are really impressing people who are far from God and causing them to want to know our Jesus. While it is very important to have a facility that is welcoming and conducive to life change, a large percentage of lost people won't even step inside a church door no matter if we sing a hymn or the latest praise song, if we have a recreational building or traditional sanctuary, or if we use cool moving backgrounds in our MediaShout or if we just stick with good old Powerpoint.

Don't misunderstand me. These things in and of themselves are good things and are often necessary to enhance what we are seeking to accomplish in a quality worship experience. But they don't take the place of your personal contact with the lost world. As Ron Hutchcraft says, "The program of God, for the rescue work of God, is still the people of God." It's people like you who have been assigned a certain stretch of the beach that God is trusting you with as the spiritual rescuer of those around you. Some of us have family members, friends, and coworkers who are spending every day without a Savior. We've got to take time to evaluate how we are doing with our attempts to reach them.