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Writer's pictureChristopher Spicer

Sometimes a Ship has to Sink before it can Sail!

Updated: Sep 18



Having been conscripted into the Royal Air Force, my father found himself assigned to boat building. His skills as a master carpenter were well suited to building and repairing air-sea rescue launches that were vital to the British war effort. But before he could work on anything, he would have to complete a theory class and then build and successfully launch a small wooden sailboat.


Although having never seen the finished article, knowing the perfectionism with which my father did everything, that boat would have been a pristine example of his freshly acquired shipwright skills. But the real test was yet to come!


With the concrete slipway lined with spectators, Dad’s tutor gave the command to launch. Satisfied that he had successfully completed the task assigned to him, Dad was fully expecting his craft to effortlessly slide into the sea to the cheers of the on-looking crowd. Imagine then the shock and horror when his masterpiece, having hit the water, began to act more like a submarine than a sailboat. Letting in water at an alarming rate, people looked on in amazement as my father’s creation began to sink.​


Much to the amusement of the instructor, dad was told to retrieve the boat and try again! Unbeknown to him, this was a familiar occurrence with this particular type of boat-build. Needing firstly to be thoroughly soaked, the moisture content would cause the planking to swell and close any remaining gaps. Sure enough, a second launch proved to be successful, as the sailboat took to the ocean like a proverbial duck to water.


Sometimes a ship has to sink before it can sail!


So, here are my thoughts:


  • What if in this season of lock-down certain aspects of the good ship Ecclesia need to sink before it can sail as its creator first intended?

  • What if we have unintentionally framed something in terms of local church, that needs to die before we can truly experience resurrection life?


Jesus said, ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit’[1] To experience a resurrection, you must first to encounter a death.


In this season of lock-down when God has afforded us time to think about our creations, one has to wonder if this is not an ideal opportunity to rethink the way we do church. Are there certain aspects of the good ship Ecclesia that have to sink before she can sail, as the original creator intended?[2]

[1] 1 John 12:24

[2] 2 Matthew 16:18

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