Once again, I agree with what you say. Let me extrapolate a bit on your statement,

God is the Captain, and he never fails to send enough inspectors and willing workers to keep the ship afloat.

That is true: God does send inspectors and willing workers to get the job done, but sometimes others, passengers and crew, refuse to cooperate and the ship is abandoned – not by them but by God, as he threatened to do with the church of Ephesus in Rev 2. It happens and it is sad when it does.

Throughout its history, from the beginning, the Church’s ship has been taking on water. Prophets are the inspectors who call for the bucket brigade, while those in the upper cabins go on like nothing is happening.

Take your pick, from day one till today, Christendom has always had leaks, sometimes even major holes that threatened to sink it. But God is the Captain, and he never fails to send enough inspectors and willing workers to keep the ship afloat.

It is almost comical, however, when an obvious leak appears in a well appointed cabin that thought itself immune to the problems of the other areas of the ship. We are all in the same boat.

However, I don’t get that alarmed about it. Yes, the church has to be true to God’s word, but that’s always been true and will continue to be true. I find postmodernism annoying, not because I’m a Christian but more because I’m old enough to still be modern. Christianity has survived cultural shifts in the past. As Christians, we should be more focused on how to present the gospel to postmodern world and less on keeping the ocean out of the ship. I’m not saying that we abandon God’s word or allow drift from orthodoxy – we always have to be orthodox. I am saying that we should be more focused on how to communicate the gospel in postmodern language. It may even be easier to communicate the gospel in a postmodern culture. We don’t want to find ourselves defending our culture instead of the gospel.

When culture shifted to a modern culture, the church responded reacting against modernity. Eventually the church caught up. Now, culture is shifting to postmodernity. The church will catch up. Christianity is trans-cultural. There are modern Christians and postmodern Christians. Don’t forget who said, “I will build My church.”