Meta4 Picture: Cruise ship or rescue boat 02 - Underpowered
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Bible code: 7500700201
Scene no: 2 of 3
Meta4 Picture Description
This is the second of 3 Meta4 Pictures that was inspired by a Reinhard Bonnke (evangelist) observation, “We [in the Christian church] live like we are on a pleasure cruise, when we are really on a rescue mission from God.”
That observation really struck me, so I drew three black & white pictures to convey the idea in Sept 2014. I have just coloured them up & uploaded them (July 2015).
This second picture shows two people on the deck of a rescue boat. The cross on the flag shows that the boat is a Christian church congregation. Unlike the cruise liner (see previous Meta4 Picture), the members of this boat are Christians who are aware that part of their job is to help save other people, who are in the sea.
Notice that the boat has holes in it, it has damage, & the crew is thin, harassed, their clothing is worn out & they have no shoes! All of these details are to show a Christian church congregation which is involved in the “rescue mission”, but is ill-equipped & underpowered to actually do the job.
In the black & white version (see below) I have the sailor saying to his captain “They say it doesn’t look any better on here!” Notice that some of the swimmers in the sea are SWIMMING AWAY FROM the rescue boat!
The point I’m making is that church ought to be an inviting, attractive & above all relevant place. If it is then people will see what is on offer & flock to get it! If it isn’t inviting, attractive & relevant to “drowning” people, then why would they want to come on board?!
Sermon/teaching theme suggestions: The three pictures that make up this series could be used to talk about church life: how we can make our church congregations more appealing to people, without “watering down” the (urgent, vital) message of the gospel of Jesus the Christ.
This second picture really shows how “not” to do it: if a church congregation is unappealing to people, then why in the world would we expect them to come through the doors & want to join us?! That is not to say that God can not cause people to come in to our congregations (provided we actually are preaching the whole gospel!), but that it is a lot easier to achieve that aim if we deliberately make our congregations “user-friendly” to non-Christians. We have to deliberately show the world that we have something that they are missing, & that they actually want: peace, love, acceptance, an eternal future, hope, etc.
Underpowered, overworked rescue boat metaphor – black and white.
In the third & final picture (see next Meta4 Picture) we see a well-equipped & “well fed” Christian church congregation making a real difference: saving people from the sea, helping them up, & putting them to work (once they are ready!) saving other people.
I wanted to draw out the difference between a church congregation that is well-equipped & motivated to its rescue mission, & one which is not.
Incidentally, the colour of the rescue boat is based on the actual colours of RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) lifeboats in the UK.
You can read my Blog about this observation, & see the black & white version of this cartoon, here:
BC article: “The difference between a pleasure cruise & a rescue mission – Part 2.”
