Who’s Driving the Boat?

Color me a tad annoyed by parts of this article in Christianity Today:

The Church is notorious for its course corrections. Toward the end of the 19th century, theological liberals began to emphasize the humanness of Christ. They presented Christ’s life as the main focus of the gospel. Evangelicals reacted by emphasizing the atoning work of Christ (especially as explained by Paul), almost to the exclusion of the life of Christ. So liberals concentrated on good deeds and evangelicals on saving souls…But lately some disconcerting trends—more course corrections, if you will—have left me feeling uneasy…But by the middle of the 20th century, we evangelicals realized our mistake…But that is a woefully inadequate strategy.

Well, dare I be so bold, but it doesn’t seem to me that the problem (as the author alleges) is that the church is focusing too much on social issues and not enough on evangelism. It seems to me the problem is that the church is off doing its own thing being blown about every wind that wants to move it hither and yon. The question for Christians to ask is not, “Where’s this boat going?” but “Who’s driving it?” If God is not driving the boat and we’re simply following whatever suits our fancy or whatever is the fashionable thing of the moment, we’re in trouble. What we need is not for church leaders to fight over the wheel but for us to cry out, “Jesus, take the wheel.”

Until that happens, the Evangelical Church will simply drift back and forth trying to find equilibrium.