English 中文

Introduction of Seaman Mission

The purpose of this article is to introduce the seaman mission. It is hope to remind Christians that seamen are another group people need our attention. There are souls to be saved, and there are works to be done for our Lord among seamen. This article is based on a book “Church on the Oceans – a missionary vision for the 21st century” by Martin Otto, a chaplain at Hamburg, Germany.

Facts about seaman: There are three types of ships on ocean – cargo, passenger, and military ships. Excluding military ships, there are about 1.3 millions seamen working on ships. It is a profession they choose to make a living. They have to sign a contract with the company they are serving. The contract usually lasts 8 to 12 months. At end of the contract, they can stay at home for about one month. Many of these seamen are from the 10-40 windows. They work 7 days a week without vacation, when the ship is on ocean. Sometimes their ship travels 35 days on ocean before reach the next port. They are away from family, friends, and their home church. Sometimes, the weather at sea is severe, and makes them sick. Their works are routine; some are risky. Their superior or colleague may cause additional pressure on them. Around them, there are many temptations, such as, wine, gambling, pornography, or sex. Most seamen like to visit the port where their ship will be docked, but due to security or health reason, some country is no longer welcome seamen to enter their territory around the port.

In general, life of a seaman can be very lonely and easy to fall into temptation and problems. But because of their difficulties in life, they are very open to Gospel.

Facts about seaman mission: The earliest seaman mission happened, when missionaries traveled overseas on ships during 19th century. They shared Gospel and God’s words with passengers and sailors. There were churches built and organizations (such as Seamen’s Christian Friend Society) formed to serve seamen. Seaman Mission has its image problem – many people (including some missionaries) don’t understand what it is. Today, there are many seaman missions worldwide, and many do not preach the gospel but focus mainly on giving practical aid. But the correct seaman mission should provide gospel materials, preach Gospel and God’s words, make disciples, and help to establish church at each ship. The main goal is to spread the Gospel and help brother seamen’s spiritual life – close to God.

Church on ships: This is not a new idea. There are ships having church on them. These churches are formed by Christian seamen. They don’t have a building or pastors like other churches on shore, but their churches function the same as other churches. They practice the four basic elements of the church (Acts 2:42) – fellowship, prayer, teaching, and the breaking of bread and wine; plus evangelism. In general, seamen like to hear God’s word, to have a Bible study group, to be able to fellowship with other believers, to attend a church, to have someone care for them and preach to them. Seamen need more than just a Bible study or a Christian CD, they need a church – a spiritual home. Church on a ship is only temporary for the time the sailors are on board, and its members may change every year. But this church will glorify God and minister others on the ship.

The advantages of having a church on a ship are: it helps Christian seamen to continue worship and pray to God, to grow spiritually, to fellowship with other believers, and provide an opportunity to let nonbelievers to know God.

Bible basis for a church on a ship: The New Testament defines ‘the church’ as people who belong to Jesus and who are called to be in relationship with each other. In Bible Matthew 8:20: ‘Where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.’ Hebrew 10:25 ‘Let us not give up meeting together.’

Guidelines for Planting a Church on Board

Pray: Psalm 127:1 ‘unless the Lord builds the house, its builder’s labor in vain’. We are not the church builder, the Holy Spirit is. And it is Christ who is the head of the church (Ephesians 1:22).
Make friends and lead them to Christ.
Bring the believers together and give them a vision - they are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Share the vision of ship church with your home church – to encourage and fellowship with each other.
Build a strong relationship between the port chaplains and seamen. This can be achieved thru e-mail, phone call, or letter.
General things to observe: Have a good sense of the ethnic and the religious backgrounds of other seamen. Know the general atmosphere on board; any other believers on ship. Let captain or chaplain knows your plan to have a church on board. Pray together for starting a church. Practical considerations: meeting schedule and where. Church on board should be no denomination to avoid division. One practical thing that often helps ship churches to get started is a library.

Starting, Growing, Multiplying churches on a ship:

Starting a church on board: Church is not an organization, but an organism. In New Testament, we see that churches need a strong leader with a vision and a person with apostolic gift.
Growth: Believers in a church need the right spiritual food, so that they have a clear sense of the purpose, goals, and vision of their church. These foods can come from Bible correspondence courses, books, tapes, videos, DVD.
Some churches do not grow for the simple reason that the members are not balanced in using their gifts. These gifts are (Ephesians 4:11-12): apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. For a small church on a ship, port missionaries can help them to fix up the inadequacy. Communication between port missionaries is important to identify which gift a ship church lacks.
Home church can help a ship church by praying, teaching, encourage them, and offer training. Pastors can also help seamen by writing and counseling them. Radio ministry can help seamen in their daily walk with the Lord.
Multiplying: 2 Timothy 2:2 ‘And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.’ It is not enough that one seaman starts a church. Those who start churches need to train others to start churches on other ships. Port missionaries play a vital role in establishing churches on board. Missionaries and pastors need to train these leaders carefully through Bible studies, personal conservations, and prayer, so that they will get sufficient spiritual food. Many times seamen just need that extra bit of encouragement and prayer before they start a church. Often they need more good solid teaching from the word of God. We could see many more churches formed, if only more missionaries shared this vision.

Difficulties in planting churches and keeping them alive on a ship:

Working schedules are different; one group may work 4 to 8 morning and evening; but the other works 8 to 12 morning and evening.
Fear of superiors: Especially, superiors are in different religion or disagree of Christian activities.
Need a reliable person to lead the church activities.
Sins: Martin Otto (Chaplain) said: I have seen over the past 16 years, even the strongest believer stops to share their faith when they fell into sin.
Seamen need an extra measure of encouragement because they are far away from family, friends, and home church.

Opportunities and challenges:

The churches on the oceans as a tool to reach the least reached: some countries won’t allow missionaries enter their country. After 9-11, some countries close the border for security reason. But thru churches on board ships, Gospel can be brought to these nations thru their seamen.
What can the church on shore do to help the church at sea? : Let the church on shore knows that they can help to plant a church at sea. The port missionaries can be a bridge between the church on shore and at sea. This relationship benefits both churches, and it happened before.
A challenging idea: Let missionary work as seamen. The people, whom a seaman missionary would meet on a ship, are completely free to listen and to accept the Gospel. Seamen are subject to very little cultural, religious or political pressure. No one polices them as long as they serve on the ship for the period of their contract. They can help establish a church at ship. The advantages are clear. Seamen missionaries will receive pay, so they may not need a mission agency to support them. But they need to be a seaman, which is not an easy job. May be 2 or 3 missionaries should work on a same ship to help and encourage each other.

A new vision for both seamen and missionaries: Acts 20:28 ‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be Shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.’ A port missionary should shepherd the Christian seamen. But they have limited time for seamen. Some seamen without lengthy seminary training can also be the leader to establish a church on a ship. The new vision is to let home church, seamen, and the port chaplain work together to help establish God’s churches on ships around the world.

Examples of ships with a church on board:

A report from Challenge (a Christian newspaper in England): Queen Elizabeth 2 is a luxury liner. It has a group of 25 Filipino Christian crews having regular praise and worship meetings in the crew’s library. Whenever the QE2 berths at Southampton, port chaplain of the Seamen’s Christian Friend Society, David Thomson, is on board for encourage and helping them. A few years ago, it struck rocks and had to go to Hamburg for repairs. The port missionary in Hamburg, Martin Otto, held several group Bible Studies, explaining who Christ is and the need to take him into our lives as our personal Lord and Savior. I (David Thomson) consequently saw the result of this, when the ship came back to Southampton. Nine men testified that since they put Christ in first place in their lives, many aspects of their lives were changing. They are beginning to see practical help in the Bible.
Eddie, one young man on QE2, became ‘pastor’ and helped fellow seamen to establish the church. For many years, this church has been a tremendous blessing for many seamen. The Seamen’s Christian Friend Society’s network of ‘Port Links’ around the world is a lifeline to the isolated Christian seamen. These links are often ordinary families living in the port area. A phone call to the family results in an invitation to come to their home to share a meal, and the sailor does not have to join his ship mates wandering aimlessly through the town and being exposed to all sorts of temptations.
Royal Princess: It is a large luxury liner. Many crews are Filipino, but also some from Mexico, India, Portugal, Canada, England, and Nepal. I (Martin Otto) boarded the ship in September, 2003, with a huge bag full of tracts, Bible study courses, Bibles, inspirational books, and Christian music CD. After a short time, they were all gone. When I preached, people listened very carefully. I think they were so interested in spiritual matters, because a Christian church had existed in this cruise liner for quite a long time.
The church on Royal Princess meets at least three times a week, a gathering of between 10 to 15 Christians. Wednesday, they have a prayer meeting from 10:30 pm until 12 am. Friday, they meet for Bible study from 10:30 pm to 12 am. Sunday, their worship service begins at 10:30 pm and sometimes lasts until 1:30 am. During this service, they listen to testimonies from various crew members, sing, pray, and also hear preaching – from a tape or from a fellow crew member. They break the bread on the 1st Sunday service every month. They also take regular offerings to buy musical instrument and to support a missionary work in Chile. Their members peaked at about 30 a few years ago.
I asked Bernie, the church ‘pastor’, “How does the church grow?” He said 1st we try to make sure that everybody has a regular quiet time. Also we meditate upon the word of God together. 3rd, we encourage members to share their faith with those they meet and also to share testimonies during our worship service. 4th, we train people to start preaching or at least to share something from the Bible. 5th, we all listen to preaching tapes. Bernie told me that in recent years quite a number of seamen have come to know Christ because of the evangelistic efforts of those involved in the church. They had elected two elders to lead the church.

It is clear that once a church is established on board, it has a positive influence on everyone. Christian crews grow in their faith and develop loving and caring relationships with each other. It also helps nonbelievers to know God.

World: It has many apartments, which are sold to people who can afford them. The 12 Christians on board had just started a church.
A luxury yacht owned by a Saudi Arabian: Starting with a bible study, then, a church on board the ship.
Sierra Express: It is a container ship that regularly runs between Hamburg and Central America. Many crews studied Bible courses. They practiced the four basic elements of the church (Acts 2:42) – fellowship, prayer, teaching, and the breaking of bread and wine. This church is ended with its members leaving the ship.
Saga Rose: It is an old passenger ship. Its captain is a Christian. He organized the church meeting each Sunday and they enjoyed some wonderful time worshiping God. The captain taught Bible to those attending the church. They learned not only to keep their faith, but also to share it with others.
USS Nicholas: It is a USA military ship. It has a church on board and provides a place to service God.
HMS Liverpool: It is a British military ship. The church on this ship is a slow labor of love for 3.5 years. Alpha course has been a great tool to outreach the ship’s crew. They have a passion to tell others the Gospel.
OM (missionary) ships: Our family (Martin Otto) lived on board the Operation Mobilization ships MV Logos and MV Doulos for 15 years. I served as pastor on both ships for more than 7.5 years. The OM ship ministry focuses on the local churches at each port (help to establish local church). But we also function on board as a church. Each staff and volunteer on board is sent by their local church. The 300 people on Doulos are from 35 different nations. The Bible is our foundation, our inspiration, and motivation for the life we live and the service we offer.