Our hope is not in the hereafter but in what we are after here. We estimate spiritual growth by the figures on a bulletin board. Success is a matter of attendance and accounts. It is not so much a statement of conviction as the statement from the bank which is of vital concern. True, it is safer to let down our nets closer to shore, but that which is safest may not be sanest, if the object is to catch fish.
Faith involves a risk.
There is a difference between being saved and playing it safe. The world got rid of many of them because they had already rid themselves of the world. One of our crucial mistakes is to think we must wait for some big crisis in which to demonstrate faith. But the quality of faith does not depend upon the magnitude of the problem which confronts us. Besides that, the church is always at crisis while in this world.