STAY OUT OF THE STAGNANT WATER
Palmer Chinchen, in his book, True Religion, talks about traveling to the western edge of Zimbabwe with his brothers to raft the Zambezi River, starting at the base of the Victoria Falls. The falls are the largest in the world, more than a mile wide and three hundred feet high, and the water from the falls rushes down the gorge below, creating the world's largest rapids. In the United States, the highest-class rapid you are allowed to raft is a Class 5. The Zambezi's whitewater rapids can top 7 and 8...
Chinchen says as he and his brothers sat on the edge of an eight-person raft below those towering falls, their guide told them, WHEN the raft flips..." There was no "IF the raft flips" or "On the off chance we get flipped." The guide said, "WHEN the raft flips stay in the rough water. You will be tempted to swim toward the stagnant water at the edge of the banks. Don't do it. Because it is in the stagnant water that the crocs wait for you. They are large and hungry. So WHEN the raft flips, stay in the rough water." (Palmer Chinchen, PhD, True Religion, David C. Cook, 2010, pp. 55-57)
That's a good lesson for the church. Stagnancy will kill the church, so we must resist stagnancy. Christ, our Guide, needs us to stay in the rough waters, where it's just a little bit uncertain and unsafe, pouring our lives into people.
From a sermon by C. Philip Green, In the Fire! 7/30/2011