What I learned from Ed Young @ Story 2009

After doing some research on Yacht Clubs Ed discovered that most Yacht Clubs began as Rescue Societies. They gave themselves to the hard and dangerous work of going to sea in the worst of conditions in order to save people in trouble. Over time people began to tire of all of the work involved, and the Rescue Societies began to be transformed into Yacht Clubs where people joined, not for the adventure or sense of duty of saving people in trouble, but for what the Yacht Club had to offer them in the way of networking, prestige, food and pleasure.

The Church is NOT a Yacht Club.

The main thing for the church is to throw drowning people the rescue ring of Christ (cue Flood by Jars of Clay).

Excuses for not throwing Christ to the people (I’m highlighting excuses I commonly hear at HCC):

1. The Depth Excuse, “I’m just looking for something deeper” – ALL rescues happen in DEEP water! Philippiams 1:6

2. The Knowledge Excuse, “I just don’t know enough to rescue people.” – If you don’t know your own story of transformation then maybe you’ve never been rescued because that is the only thing you need to know.

3. I Need to Pray About It Excuse – We’re commanded to do this, so why do you need clarification?

4. The Sheeple Excuse – When you are comfortable with growing in numbers by transfer from other churches, then you cease being the church. True growth is through baptism.

My reflections:  True growth is in baptism of the unbeliever, and a growth in love and compassion by the believer for the unbeliever.