A Call to our Partners in the Other Boats - Doc Loomis

Posted by David Virtue at VirtueOnline, 2008/10/7 13:20:00

A Call to our Partners in the Other Boats

by Doc Loomis

The votes taken over the past 125+ years in synods and conventions across North America have one-by -one courageously moved orthodox Anglicans to disassociate from heresy. These Anglican stories now have their places in our history, and for some yet to vote, in a history soon to be written.

Perhaps no one event should be considered decisive along the timeline of our recent shared history, but this month's stand by Bishop Robert Duncan and the faithful in Pennsylvania is certainly significant. To some of us, it suggests that we are nearing the end times in our separation from a distorted North American "Anglicanism". We can now say with increased assurance that we are living in a time when most biblical Anglicans have made their choice about where to stand.

Now, we are being asked a new question: What will we do in this place?

While the move toward realignment may be in its final stages, the revival is just beginning. The efficacy of our witness and the fruit of this realignment are yet to be determined. Will the victories won in places like Pittsburgh, Jerusalem, and San Joaquin be sufficient to satisfy us and to honor God?

And what of the 150 million in the US and Canada who do not know Jesus; will a realigned Anglicanism successfully reach out to them; and how? As we discern our next steps, we do so knowing that history will answer these questions for us. Soon enough, we will be able to distinguish whether the Church was simply realigned or truly launched into revival. So, the choices we are about to make together will be as important as those we have already made separately. I believe we must choose today to pray and prepare for revival.

In the 5th chapter of Luke's Gospel, we encounter Jesus' interaction with a small fishing boat in the story traditionally called The Miraculous Catch of Fish. After obediently setting their boat out into deep water, Jesus supernaturally calls a large catch of fish toward the fishermen's net. It is in response to the obedience of the fishermen that Jesus causes this miracle to take place. It seems to me that this is a story full of wisdom for our time. Like Luke's fishermen, our acts of obedience in realignment to Christ's call are just the beginning of our story.

We are living in that moment.
We have headed to the deep water in our little boats.
The fish are poised at the net.

In Luke's recounting of the story, the fishermen drop their net only to find that Christ's miracle is beyond their abilities to secure. The catch is too heavy; arms are straining to bring it on board. The very fruits of authority, obedience, and miraculous intervention are about to drop back into the sea.

For many years the North American Church has ignored our essential participation in a unified mission to the lost. Our pridefulness, and divisions have worked against us, keeping us from the harvest...we have been as fishers vainly struggling against our own personal nets in a sea teaming with fish. These were the choices we made, to do our own things, to be separate, to do things better than the others. There is little doubt that we have each experienced this sad reality in one manner or another, and while it has been a part of our past, it does not need be a part of our future.

What is about to come can be miraculous. Already Christ is calling into the deep and the fish are gathering in schools and heading to our boats. Have you not seen this? This can be the time of the miraculous harvest. But no one jurisdiction, province, or denomination can do this work alone.

We recall that in that critical moment on the Sea of Galilee, between the miracle and the harvest, a call went out to the partners in the other boat. Come, work with us! We cannot do this alone...pull the net with us! Then, the boats drew near together and with all hands on a single net, the harvest was gathered... enough to fill both boats to near sinking. This is the call we lift to a new province today. Look, the harvest is plentiful. Bring your workers to the nets. Fill the boats! The time is now or we may lose our catch.

In these coming days we must draw our boats together. Federation or homogenous blending, this new province will only see the harvest if we work together without hesitation to plant Spirit-filled churches, and evangelize the lost. There is now no room for division or pride. Your boat has a motor and mine has a sail; no matter. Bring it here my friend...We are in need of each other. As we prepare to ply the waters with our new province, we know that another generation of individual efforts simply will not do. Pray that we come together through the power of the Holy Spirit, not in orthodoxy alone, but in the work of the harvest.

Pray that the day of the boat is giving way to the day of the net.

On the brightening provincial horizon an exciting future is already emerging. Ecumenical partners are meeting in many areas building grassroots missionary regions with common harvest strategies. Cross-jurisdictional missionary and governance committees have been formed within Common Cause to promote cooperative evangelism and outreach.

Events like the Anglican Awakenings will be hosted in several US and Canadian cities calling the partners to the nets. Cross-denominational mission is on the tongues of leaders around the world. By God's grace, a new day is upon us.

I encourage you for the sake of the harvest being gathered just below the surface, to support these national and regional efforts by setting your eyes upon Jesus and the miracle he is doing in our midst. Do not wait; pick up the nets you are mending, set sail in the unfinished boats you are building, and call to your partners. Preach, plant, and pull the nets in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Right now we can choose to humbly offer ourselves to one another; our churches, our muscle, our money, our prayers, and our Godly obedience so that every boat will be filled and the lost gathered into the kingdom of God. ..

Then we will see a miraculous catch of fish in our day.

On October 21-23 in Akron, OH, Bishop Robert Duncan and Common Cause bishops from across North America will be taking one next step together as they gather with clergy and laity in the Great Lakes Anglican Awakening. Their teachings will spring from Luke's story of the Miraculous Catch. I invite you to join us to hear from the Lord of the Harvest, and to unite your hearts, minds, and bodies in that harvest. I hope you can join us in Ohio or wherever Christ is calling you to fish.

For Anglican Awakening event information, go to: http://www.honanetwork.com/glan/08invite.html

---The Rev Canon Doc Loomis AMiA, is Co-Chair of the Great Lakes Anglican Network