Pretty gross title but find me a creative little boy or girl who hasn’t sat down concentrating intently on some intentional dismemberment.
I’ve sat in a building in Mebourne this week wrestling along with 50 pastors about what’s next for Jesus’ bride the church. As we have done that it has felt a bit like dismembering a creature made and loved by God but in need of some change, some even think extermination and rebirth.
As I was talking with some people an old picture came to me. It was of the original Australia II yacht that won the Americas cup in the 1980s. You can see her in the Perth maritime museum with her revolutionary winged keel. She is a beautiful thing pared to the bone designed for nothing but pure speed.
We need keels as well as sails. The better the keel the more sail we can hoist. In church the keel are those good people who offer integrity, faith, resources and honouring of leadership. They are rarely going to initiate the new thing but the support the need for it. The sails are those pioneering types who want to go, go, go, in new adventures out on the rim of the church’s life or even way beyond it. To sail into deep enduring discipleship that will last we need the keel and the sails.
On Sunday we are having a discussion in our church to raise $1000000 plus to fund mission adventures into the future that we cannot even imagine today. That will test the quality, integrity and radical nature of the keel design. It might create amazing challenges to the sails as well as those who hoist them and try and steer the boat.
What wonderful challenges to have.
