The Church is a Battleship

“The Church is not a cruise ship, it is a battleship.”

Just as I do on most Sundays, I spent this morning sitting in church listening to a sermon and refilling my spiritual battery to help be get through my week. We had a guest speaker today, the talented Stan Simmons, former head pastor of Faith Chapel. As I have come to expect from Stan, the service was excellent. There were many great talking points, lots of good information, and several hard facts about christian life. The one that stuck with me the most today is the comment from above. “The Church is not a cruise ship, it is a battleship.” Stan was remarking on the mindset of many that they are in church to be entertained by the preacher, when that is not the case. I would like to unpack this comment further, throwing out the musings my brain has been going through in the last several hours.

Cruise Ship or Battleship?

Cruise ships are about as different from battleships as large seafaring vessels can get. Several important points come to mind with a cruise ship.

1. You paid to be here.

Unless you are lucky enough to win a free cruise, you or someone else paid for your tickets. Your presence on the ship is entirely due to this point. You have come here to take part in something that many others would like to do. The space is limited, and the cruise may fill up if you do not act fast enough.

2. Leisure and entertainment are expected.

Part of paying for a cruise is the expectation that you will be able to relax and enjoy your vacation. All of the necessities are taken care of for you. There is world class food, plenty of time to lounge about, and expensive entertainment. The expectation is that you will not have to put in much more work than simply enjoying your time.

3. You expect safety

With the exception of the occasional massive storm or grounding, cruise ships are generally safe places. There are rigorous safety measures in place, some as results of learning from the past mistakes (make sure there are enough lifeboats). People expect to avoid any form of major danger while on a cruise.

Battleships are much different.

1. You volunteered to be here.

If you find yourself on a battleship, you are not there simply because you wanted to take a trip and someone let you come along. You have volunteered to take on the duties of a sailor, with all the risks and rewards that entails. Assuming you are fit for service, it is rare that you will be turned away. There is always room for another soldier.

2. You are here to work.

Though there is downtime in the military, it is a job. You are not here to relax and be pampered. You enter the military fully expecting to be broken down and built back up into a better, stronger person. You are here to do hard work, and it will take everything you have at times.

3. Safety is never guaranteed.

Every person that joins the military, law enforcement, or similar organization understands that at some point they may be asked to give everything they have, to the very last breath. Your life is not just your own, it belongs to your squad, your commander, and the people you are protecting.

In the simplest terms, you choose a cruise ship for a life of leisure, and a battleship for a life of warfare. There are no cruise ships in God’s fleet. The church is in a constant state of warfare.

Spiritual Warfare

The term spiritual warfare is often misunderstood, misrepresented, or simply ignored. As far as modern history goes, we have had two World Wars. These involved multiple nations, and multiple continents. Each devastated the world and left destruction in its wake, but sowed the seeds for what was to come. Despite the massive scale of these wars, there is a larger war that has been going on for thousands of years. You could call it a universal war. You could call it the Universal War. There will never be a second. When this war is over, the seeds sown during the conflict will grow into something new, something free from war for the rest of eternity.

War always has sides. There are the opposing sides, and there are those not involved in the war. The Spiritual war can be broken down into three camps. There is God’s army. This group includes the angels who stayed with God after the fall of Satan, and the members of the church. There is Satan’s army. This group includes those angels who sided with Satan during the fall, and those people who for one reason or another willingly work for Satan and his minions. The last group is the hostages of Satan. These are the people who are stuck behind enemy lines as it were. They don’t always know the truth, and they are sometimes used as unsuspecting pawns in Satan’s attacks. Like a child with a bomb strapped to them, these hostages may not be intentionally attacking God’s army, but they will be used as weapons by Satan nonetheless. As anyone who has seen an action movie can attest, it is the job of the hero to rescue the hostages, even those hostages who don’t know they are in danger. This is the job of the Church, of God’s army.

You may notice that I did not mention any neutral party. I did not talk about those who are not involved in the war, because there are none. If you have not chosen a side, then you fall into the hostage category. In fact, most people are in this group. Those who have willingly chosen to follow Satan, with full knowledge of their actions, are rare. Most only work for Satan’s side because they do not realize the result of the actions they are taking. They ignorantly follow what they believe to be true, blind to the truth that is in front of them.

Satan doesn’t direct his wrath against his hostages, because he knows they are likely to stay in their current role if no outside influence reaches them. Satan directs his attacks against God’s Army, hoping to limit their effectiveness.

Those in God’s army fall into two categories, combatants and casualties. There are no non-combatants in spiritual warfare. A casualty is defined as a person killed or injured in a war or accident. Once we join God’s army, Satan’s best option is to turn us from a combatant to a casualty. Despite what you may think, Satan is more interested in turning us into the second kind of casualty, those injured. A dead Christian may become a martyr, a symbol, someone whose example inspires others and leads them toward God. Satan prefers injured christians, those who spend their lives in the infirmary because they have been hurt. A soldier cannot fight a battle from their hospital bed, a spiritual warrior cannot defeat Satan’s forces and free Satan’s hostages if they are in a spiritual hospital bed.

The most potent injuries are those of fear. Fear keeps us from stepping out and taking risks. Fear keeps us from trusting in God’s blessing. A fearful christian will never spread the gospel because they are too concerned about what will happen to them in the attempt. Fear is a favorite weapon of Satan.

Like any good general, God makes sure we are equipped to deal with the enemy. Most people are at least partially familiar with the concept of The Armor of God. It is related to us by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6 (NIV).

The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

The description is obviously old. We don’t use swords, shields and breastplates anymore, but the concept is still sound. The Prayer Foundation (http://prayerfoundation.org/) gives us an example of a modern day equivalent.

"Stand therefore, having your waist girded about with the cartridge belt of truth, and having on the flak-jacket of righteousness: and your feet shod with the combat boots of the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the air-cover of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery incoming missiles of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the automatic rifle of the Spirit, which is the Word of God: maintaining constant contact with Command Central by praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching with all perseverance and supplication for all your fellow soldiers..."

While this modern equivalent is a handy thing to look at, I would like to focus some more on the older version.

The armor described in these verses is that of a roman soldier.

The belt of truth. Truth is a support to us and is stable in our central area. A sword would be hung on a soldier’s belt. the only weapon mentioned is anchored to the truth.

The readiness of the gospel on our feet. Marching without good shoes is a pain. the gospel protects our feet specifically, because the gospel is supposed to be moving. Our feet spread it to the world. In those days, they didn’t have the internet. Even letters had to be delivered by people walking long distances.

A breastplate is designed to cover the vital areas, but the protection it gives is passive. Righteousness is simply there, God grants us righteousness along with his grace.

A shield is much more mobile than a breastplate. It was designed to place specifically between you and the enemy. In combat, an enemy may never make it past your shield. In the same way, strong enough faith will repel most any attack. In Roman times, they used a modified version of the Greek Phalanx. Soldiers stood side to side, forming a wall with their shields. Not only were you protected by your own shield, but also by the shields of your brothers in arms. Faith is the same. Surround yourself with those strong in the faith, and you can weather any attack by drawing strength from one another.

Finally, we come to the only offensive part of the Armor of God, the Sword of the Word of God. The Word of God is power. It is truth, absolute and unbreakable. It is also love, compassion and servitude. We need no other weapon than this.

The interesting part here, is that Paul mentions a sword. Phalanxes, and the variations thereof, fought with spears and javelins. It was rare for a sword to ever be drawn. If a sword was drawn, it meant that your formation was overrun. The enemy had broken your spears and gotten so close that the advantage of such a weapon became a hinderance. Phalanxes would fight one another and lose hardly a man, but when swords were drawn the death toll rose.

This is the type of warfare we are in. We are not gingerly prodding the enemy with spears searching for a weak point while hoping they do not find one in us. We have been overrun by an enemy that knows all our flaws, and how to exploit them. We are pressed back to using the sword because there is no way we can effectively retreat back to the safety of the spear.

We are left with nowhere to flee, and our only choice is to fight or become a casualty. That said, I circle back to where I began this piece. The Church is a battleship. The purpose of a battleship is to have one ship that can dominate an entire battlefield. We are that one ship, and this is our battlefield to dominate.

About the Author:

Stephen Mayo lives in Montana with his wife, daughter, corgi, and three cats.

You can keep in touch with him on Facebook and Twitter. Find more on his podcast A Side of Mayo. If you enjoyed reading this consider buying him a coffee or supporting him on Patreon.