By Ken Blue
If a church is drifting, one of two causes exists: The church has no charted destination, or the captain is asleep at the wheel.
The church that is adrift, with no clear destination, is at the mercy of the current. Its only objective is to get through another Sunday. Next Sunday will be another day, and we will deal with it as we did today.
This is the status of many churches. Their only goal is have church Sunday and observe another phenomena. The bulletin is printed because churches are expected to have them. The songs are selected with no relevance to the pastor’s message, and the sermon is preached with no intended purpose or expected results. Everything rises and ebbs with the tide. This is the church without clear objectives or destination and is adrift.
Some churches have a purpose statement, somewhere, but like a New Year’s resolution; they write it and forget it. It has no bearing on anything that actually happens. Statements are easy to write, but old habits are hard to break. Unless we plan everything according to a clear destination, we are simply drifting in circles.
Even with a clear destination, it is difficult to keep a church on course. Churches are like ships and airplanes. All are prone to drift. The only hope is to have a strong rudder and an alert captain at the wheel.
The question is, is your church adrift; if so, why? Is it because you don’t have a clear vision of what you are trying to do, how to do it, and where you want to go? Or, is it because your church activities have nothing to do with the purpose statement you have misplaced? Only you can stop the drifting.
Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.