top of page
Search
brucechow

6/6/2021 Ship Builders ~Rev. Benjamin Chung

Did you know that you’re supposed to be a “ship builder”? First off, we believers know that our God has designed us—our primary purpose—is to worship God. Isaiah 43:21 (ESV) says, “The people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.” We are to praise God. The other simple aspect of this, that we might gloss over, is that this is to be done as a people. Worshipping God is to be done as a “congregation” of people.


Now, back to the first question I posed. What do I mean by a “ship builder?” What I mean by this is, and this is lost in translation when it gets translated into Chinese, we ought to be looking at the suffix. In churches, we have many “ships”: worship, mentorship/discipleship, relationship, fellowship… I even found a few more from a church online that I hadn’t heard used before but do make sense. They are: Christian Churchmanship, Christian Entrepreneurship and Christian Statesmanship. According to this church, here are the definitions of all seven Christian “ships”:


1. Worship: the Christian Faith applied to human response towards God in Spirit and in Truth.

2. Discipleship: the Christian Faith applied to imitating Christ in personal Morals and Manners.

3. Relationship: the Christian Faith applied to interacting with Family, Friends, and Folks.

4. Fellowship: the Christian Faith applied to interaction among Fellowship Christians.

5. Churchmanship: the Christian Faith applied to roles in the church for effective Worship, Fellowship and Discipleship. (In other words, a church leader.)

6. Entrepreneurship: The Christian Faith applied to enterprise in the Marketplace. (This means, the work that is done in the world, such as where we work and interact with others in public places.)

7. Statesmanship: the Christian Faith applied to roles and services of Public Office. (I don’t think this means that we are all to be politicians, but there is a place for us to be active in our local communities, as this is just one more way for us to bring our Christian faith into the different spheres of the world.)


The application for us now is to consider personally where we are in each of these stages, almost like a staircase, where Worship is the first step and most basic. What this means is if one is, for example, not engaging in Christian Worship then one should not be focusing on Christian Churchmanship, as one is attempting to serve in an area he/she is not prepared for. While the order is important, what is of greater importance is to seek to fulfill these ships, one at a time. As we do so, we are partaking in the harvest and bringing more people into the “ship building” process. Let’s keep building up the Lord’s Kingdom for his glory!

2 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

5/21/2023 信心和順服之旅 ~鍾卓權牧師

信心能趨使我們獻身於上帝和祂對我們生命的計劃,是重生之後正常的回應。 主耶穌在升天之前,馬太福音 28:16-20 中記載衪告訴門徒要將福音傳給萬民。 然而,信徒中有不少的人並沒有為完成這個大使命而努力,至少不是熱烈地或者踴躍地去執行這個命令。 是什麼原因阻礙了我們...

5/7/2023 一天一步順服神 ~鍾卓權牧師

在我們的生活中,順服神的旨意是否會成爲一種負擔?跟隨神的行動是否是一種冒險? 我們經常認爲遵循神的旨意是爲了避免或是不願承擔後果。而有時,我們還以爲改變自己的計劃去順服神可能也是一種沒有把握的冒險。 將順服神的旨意視爲負擔的原因是因爲我們認爲跟隨主是要付出極大的代價。然而,...

4/9/2023 復活節之後 ~周錦榮執事

七日的頭一天,天剛亮的時候,婦女來到耶穌墓前,想為祂身體薰香,以表示敬愛,卻發現墓石打開,不見主的身體,守墓的兵丁也不在。主的使者向她們顯現,首次宣告主耶穌己復活,並要她們轉告門徒這消息及往加利利見耶穌,耶穌會在他們以先往加利利。在途中,婦女與主相遇,再次要她們告訴門徒往加...

Comments


bottom of page