An Aircraft Carrier Anniversary
This weekend, we celebrate Mission Church’s 10 Year Anniversary. 10 YEARS! From Stratford Middle, to Lake Park High, then finally to 82 Stratford Drive, Mission has been about Helping People Find & Follow Christ from day 1.
Years ago I read a book by JD Greear that talked about 3 kinds of churches; cruise ship churches, battleship churches and aircraft carrier churches. Greear’s comparison of the 3 has become an ever-present reminder to our Staff, Partners and Planters of what we are here for - what we’re created for.
So, what does that have to do with ships? Glad you asked!
Cruise ships offer lots of different options; options in food, options in entertainment, options in activities, etc. People choose what they want when they want it and don’t bother with the rest. Some people have the same mentality about church. They like church only when their favorite person is leading worship or preaching. If they don’t like the options that day, they’d rather stay at home. That’s cruise ship thinking. It screams “it’s all about me”. For the cruise ship church-goer, it’s about THEIR preferences; THEIR seat, THEIR pastor and THEIR music. I get it. This is human nature and is how patrons and consumers think. There are usually lots of cruise ships in the harbor and so “Cruise Ship Christians” will jump from ship to ship. Their last pastor didn’t meet their needs, so they moved on to the next place. The other church didn’t sing the songs that they liked or the way they liked them, so they moved on to another. Here’s what I know. With that mentality, no church, pastor, worship, or anything for that matter, will live up to their expectations. They don’t need church improved as much as they need church redefined.
Battleships, on the other hand, are totally about a mission. They are in the fight, but they are still depending on the paid professionals to pick and choose the mission and give commands. They rely on their leaders alone to pick and choose the targets that everyone will go after together. This is better than a cruise ship, but this is the kind of church that still isn’t unleashing its people. We’ll always have some battleship-ness about us, but we are, through Missional Communities, becoming more and more like the 3rd kind of church; an Antioch kind of church… an aircraft carrier church.
Aircraft carriers, like battleships, engage in battle but not in the same way as battleships. Aircraft carriers equip planes to carry the battle elsewhere. Aircraft carrier churches are equippers… unleashing their people with permission to GO and be the church. They are launch pads. They teach, train and fuel up, then they send out. This is the kind of church we want to increasingly be! If that excites you, I think you’ll love the decade ahead of us. We are Mission and WE ARE NOT DONE!
Happy 10th Anniversary, Mission Church!
The best is yet to come.