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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
FROM
THE BISHOP From The
building was just a hut and there
was only one boat, but the few
devoted members kept a constant
watch over the sea. Many lives were
saved by this wonderful little
station. Some
of those who were saved -- and
others in the surrounding area --
wanted to associate with the
station, so they gave their time and
money. New boats were purchased and
new crews trained. The little
lifesaving station grew. Eventually,
some of the members of the station
grew unhappy that their building was
so crude and poorly equipped. So
they replaced the emergency cots
with beds, and put better furniture
in an enlarged building. Fewer
members, however, were now
interested in going on lifesaving
missions, so they hired professional
lifeboat crews. About
this time, a large ship was wrecked
off the coast, and the hired crews
brought in boatloads of cold, wet,
and half-drowned people. They were
dirty and some were sick. The
beautiful new clubhouse was
considerably messed up. So
the property committee had a shower
house built where victims could be
cleaned up before coming
inside. At
the next meeting, there was a split
in the club membership. Most of the
members wanted to stop the club's
lifesaving activities as being
unpleasant and a hindrance to the
normal social life of the
club. A
few members, however, insisted upon
lifesaving as their primary purpose
and pointed out that they were still
called "a lifesaving station." These
members finally were voted down, and
told that if they wanted to save
lives they could begin their own
lifesaving station down the coast.
They did. As
the years went by, the new station
experienced the same changes as the
old. It evolved into a club, and yet
another lifesaving station was
founded. History
continued to repeat itself, and
today you will find many exclusive
clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks
still are frequent in those waters.
Sadly, most of the people
drown. Our
mission is to be God's abassadors,
telling people the good news about
Jesus Christ. The
fields are ripe. The harvest is there.
Are you willing to be in the lifesaving
business? This
column was adapted from Bishop
Davis'
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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SPRING
2003
The
tale of the lifesaving station
A
modern parable
Fifty
years ago, Theodore Wedel, warden of
the College of Preachers in Washington,
D.C., wrote this insightful
parable:
On
a dangerous seacoast, where
shipwrecks often occur, there was
once a crude little lifesaving
station.
Now the lifesaving station became a
popular gathering place for its
members. They redecorated it
beautifully and furnished it
exquisitely.
The
mission of the Church
Friends,
every church and every individual
believer is called to be in the
lifesaving business, reaching out to
people who need to know that God has
acted to rescue them from
sin.
and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation....
Therefore, we are ambassadors for
Christ,
God making his appeal through us.
(2 Cor. 5:18, 20)
Bishop G. Lindsey Davis
North Georgia Conference
The United Methodist
Church
The
parable of the lifesaving station,
condensed for this article,
first appeared in Oct. 1953 issue of
The Ecumenical Review.
six-part video series on Second
Corinthians (Cokesbury,
1989).