Don Wildmon

AFA/AFR founder

October 1996 – Once upon a time there was a region on the northeast coast that was extremely dangerous for ships. The area was dangerous because of many hidden shoals and  rocks and because of sudden, unexpected storms. Ships were being sunk, lives were being lost, families broken apart, and many sailors were injured for life because of shipwrecks in the area.

One day a concerned individual came up with an idea. Why not build a life-saving station in the area. The purpose would be to warn ships in advance and to rescue those who were wrecked. He shared his idea with a few friends and neighbors, and before long they had built a life-saving station, bought boats and buoys and even built a lighthouse. 

It was such a good idea that many people joined in. Many lives were saved, many families held together and many injuries avoided. For years people were proud of the good that the life-saving station did. 

Over a period of time the life-saving station became a central part of their lives. They held fellowship suppers, social events and special meetings at the building. Then one day some of the members of the life-saving station decided that the old building needed repair, the furniture was worn, the seats and facilities uncomfortable. So the people decided to build a new life-saving station.

When it was completed, they had the largest, most beautiful, most functional life-saving building around. They increased the number of activities in the building.  They held all kinds of social events. More and more people became a part of their life-saving fellowship.

But a strange thing was happening. Fewer and fewer people were willing to go out and warn the ships, and even fewer were willing to go out in a storm to rescue sailors from a wrecked ship. The activities at the life-saving station took all their time. They just didn’t have time to save lives. So they decided to hire others – professional life-savers – to do the job for them. They could support the life-saving station without becoming directly involved in the difficult, unpleasant job of saving lives.

Several years later the members of the life-saving station decided that the life-saving activities were taking too much of their money. It was costing more and more to support their life-saving station and its activities in the manner to which they had become accustomed. They needed the funds to support their life-saving station, so they stopped paying the professional life-savers.

Many years later a member of the life-saving station asked what their purpose was. “Why, of course,” answered a member, “to provide a nice place for us and our families to fellowship, to have our community and social events. Why do you ask?”

Let me tell you another story.

Once upon a time there was a society where people lived in the midst of immorality and didn’t know Christ. Knowing that one of the by-products of a society undergirded by Christian values was a moral society, some Christians decided to build a church....