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Pastor Karri Anderson

One of the things I love the most about interim ministry is the opportunity it gives me to “sail on different ships.” I get to see the amazing variety of ways that God’s people gather together, worship, and serve. This image of the body of Christ sailing together through the waters of life comes from the early church when congregations would gather in the nave to worship.

The nave is the architectural term for the place where a congregation gathers for worship. It is taken from the Latin term “navis” which means ship. (This is also where the terms navigation and navy originate.) The name came from the vaulted ceilings in early churches which resembled the shape of a ship’s keel.

When I “board”, most ships are floating aimlessly in the waves. Some of them are just drifting along not really sure where they are going. But many of them are in the midst of storms. The real challenge is not how bad the storms are, but how well each sailor has trained for the voyage and how well they work together.

Gary Wilburn, a Presbyterian pastor and author writes; “The fact is our religious ships are dead in the water. The answer is not bigger and better sails. It is how we ‘listen to the wind in the riggin’” and how we position our sails to the wind. If anything is going to change, we need to take personal responsibility for our own spiritual voyage.”

If we want to be ready to catch the wind of God’s Spirit in our sails, we need to be ready when it blows. We need to know which sails to use and when, and how to watch for approaching storms. Sometimes sailing on the wind of God means we have to lower the sails and just hang on for dear life and sometimes it means we must wait patiently while no wind seems to blow at all.  But no matter what the circumstances, our mission is to have our boats and our sails prepared to catch the wind of God – however it may blow. Our task as children of God is to do our best to position our sails to the Wind.

As a community of faith, Zion has already done so much to get ready for the next burst of God’s wind. During Lent we will have the opportunity to do even more by learning how to grow the life giving habits that will help us carry out our mission statement and set sail for the future. We will look at the core habits that Christian’s have practiced for centuries; scripture reading, prayer, worship, community, service and giving in order to strengthen our faith both individually and corporately.

I am so excited and feel so privileged to sail with you on this voyage of a lifetime, and I pray that the preparation we do together will make us ready to set sail with the good news of Jesus Christ, into a waiting, needful world.

Let the voyage begin……

Pastor Karr