When the Church Loses Sight of the Truth
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There’s a story about a woman named Florence Chadwick that has stayed with me because it illustrates something I believe is happening in the church today.
Florence was an accomplished long-distance swimmer who had already accomplished something remarkable. In 1950, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. She understood what it meant to endure cold water, exhaustion, waves, and the physical demands of swimming long distances.
But one of her most important lessons came from a swim she didn’t finish.
In 1951, Florence attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. The distance was roughly 26 miles, and she had already been swimming for many hours when something she couldn’t control began to work against her: a thick fog settled over the water.
She could no longer see the shoreline.
The cold was exhausting her. The fog surrounded her. She couldn’t see where she was going, and eventually, after hours in the water, she asked to be taken out.
What happened afterward is the part of the story that has always struck me.
Florence later said that if she could have seen the shore, she believed she could have made it. She wasn’t defeated simply by the distance or the water. She had lost sight of her goal.
And I believe there’s a lesson here for the church.
It’s Possible to Keep Moving and Still Lose Sight of the Goal
One of the things that grieves me most is seeing the church lose sight of its vision and its objective.
The church has never been called to simply survive in the culture. We weren’t called to blend into the culture, accommodate the culture, or allow the culture to determine what we believe.
We’ve been given a mission.
We’ve been given God’s Word.
We’ve been given the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we’ve been given the responsibility of living in this world while remaining faithful to the truth God has revealed to us.
Yet there is a fog that has settled over much of the church, and that fog is the desire for cultural relevance.
I’ve watched the church become increasingly concerned with being accepted by the culture, and when our desire to be accepted becomes greater than our desire to remain faithful to God’s Word, we eventually lose sight of where we’re going.
That’s dangerous because once you lose sight of the goal, you can continue moving without actually knowing whether you’re moving in the right direction.
Florence Chadwick was still swimming.
She was still expending enormous amounts of energy.
She was still moving through the water.
But she couldn’t see the shore.
And sometimes I wonder if that’s what has happened to the church.
We’re busy. We’re active. We’re producing content, holding services, creating programs, organizing conferences, and trying to speak into the issues of our culture, but activity doesn’t necessarily mean we’re still moving toward the goal God has given us.
The fog of cultural relevance can become blinding.
Jesus Never Told His Disciples to Become Like the World
Jesus understood that His followers would live in a world that didn’t share their values or their allegiance.
In John 17, Jesus prayed for His disciples shortly before His crucifixion. He didn’t ask the Father to remove them from the world. Instead, He prayed that they would be protected and sanctified while remaining in it.
Jesus said:
“I’ve given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world… Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.”
There is an important distinction here.
Jesus didn’t tell His disciples to withdraw completely from the world. But He also didn’t tell them to become indistinguishable from it.
They were going to remain in the world, but they were not supposed to be shaped by the world.
That distinction matters enormously.
The church is supposed to influence culture, not allow culture to determine the message of the church.
We are supposed to carry the Gospel into the world while allowing God’s truth to shape the way we think, speak, live, worship, and respond to the problems around us.
That’s what Jesus prayed for His followers.
And that’s still our calling.
What Happens When the Fog Becomes More Important Than the Truth?
The problem begins when we allow something other than Scripture to become our authority.
Human philosophy can become an authority.
Cultural expectations can become an authority.
Political ideology can become an authority.
Popular opinion can become an authority.
Our personal experiences can become an authority.
Even our desire to demonstrate God’s love can become distorted when we separate love from truth.
I’ve watched theological ideas develop that begin with an understandable concern but eventually move people away from the authority of Scripture.
Ideas surrounding deconstructive theology, wokeism, liberation theology, critical race theory, and intersectionality have entered conversations within the church, and I’ve become deeply concerned when these frameworks begin replacing biblical categories rather than being evaluated by Scripture.
The issue isn’t whether we should understand what is happening in our culture.
We absolutely should.
The issue is what determines our understanding of it.
If I begin with culture and then try to make the Bible fit what culture has already decided is true, I’ve reversed the order.
The Word of God must remain the standard by which I test every idea.
That’s why Jesus said, “Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.”
Not, “Sanctify them by whatever the culture currently considers acceptable.”
Not, “Sanctify them by popular opinion.”
Not, “Sanctify them by whatever philosophical system is currently influential.”
Truth comes from God.
The Church Needs to See the Shore Again
Think about what happened to Florence Chadwick when the fog lifted.
The shore was still there.
Her destination hadn’t disappeared.
The goal hadn’t changed.
She simply couldn’t see it.
That’s an important distinction.
The church’s mission hasn’t disappeared because our culture has become increasingly hostile to biblical Christianity.
The truth hasn’t changed because people reject it.
God’s Word hasn’t become less reliable because society has embraced other ideas.
The Gospel hasn’t lost its power because people need to hear something different.
The shore is still there.
The goal is still there.
And the church needs to see it again.
We need to remember why we’re here.
We are here to proclaim Jesus Christ.
We are here to preach the Word of God.
We are here to make disciples.
We are here to live lives that demonstrate the transforming power of the Gospel.
We are here to influence the world without becoming conformed to it.
That’s why I believe we need to return again and again to Scripture.
Not because we don’t care about the culture, but because we care enough about the culture to give people something more solid than the culture can offer them.
When We Lose the Word, We Lose Our Bearings
Imagine trying to navigate a long-distance swim without being able to see where you’re going.
Every stroke becomes harder because you don’t know whether you’re moving toward the destination or away from it.
That’s what happens spiritually when the church loses its biblical bearings.
When Scripture becomes secondary, everything else becomes uncertain.
Our understanding of truth becomes uncertain.
Our understanding of sin becomes uncertain.
Our understanding of salvation becomes uncertain.
Our understanding of holiness becomes uncertain.
Our understanding of marriage, family, human identity, justice, forgiveness and redemption becomes increasingly shaped by whatever voice happens to be loudest around us.
But God’s Word gives us our bearings.
The Bible is God’s infallible, inerrant Word. It is the source of absolute truth, and that means I don’t get to edit it when I encounter something in Scripture that conflicts with my preferences or the expectations of my culture.
That’s not a limitation.
It’s an anchor.
We don’t need a new truth.
We need to see the truth we already have.
The Fog Can Clear
There’s also hope in Florence Chadwick’s story.
After being pulled from the water, she later returned and attempted the same swim again.
This time, she succeeded.
The difference wasn’t that the distance suddenly became shorter. The ocean didn’t become less challenging. She had simply learned what she needed in order to reach the other side.
And that gives me hope for the church.
I don’t believe the answer to cultural confusion is for the church to panic.
I don’t believe the answer is to chase every cultural trend in an attempt to become relevant.
And I don’t believe the answer is to abandon the mission Jesus gave us.
The answer is to return to the Word of God.
When we preach the Word clearly, when we refuse to apologize for biblical truth, when we refuse to compromise the Gospel, and when we live lives that are genuinely sanctified by that truth, the fog begins to clear.
People need to see the shore.
They need to know there is something beyond the confusion of this present world.
They need to know that truth exists.
They need to know that forgiveness is possible.
They need to know that Jesus Christ saves.
They need to know that eternal life is real.
And they need the church to point them toward that hope rather than becoming lost in the fog with them.
Don’t Lose Sight of the Goal
Florence Chadwick’s story reminds me that sometimes the greatest danger isn’t that we’ve stopped moving.
It’s that we’ve stopped seeing where we’re going.
The church can remain incredibly busy and still lose sight of its purpose.
We can become so focused on responding to the culture that we forget the Gospel.
We can become so concerned with being accepted that we stop speaking the truth.
We can become so consumed with contemporary ideas that we forget the authority of God’s Word.
And when that happens, the fog gets thicker.
So let me encourage you today: don’t lose sight of the goal.
Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Stay rooted in the Word of God.
Measure every idea against Scripture.
Don’t allow the culture to shape your understanding of truth.
And don’t forget why the church is still here.
We’re here to proclaim the Gospel, make disciples, and live as people who have been sanctified by the truth.
The shore is still there.
The promise is still there.
The hope is still there.
And when we keep our eyes on God’s truth, we can keep swimming toward the goal.
