‘There was movement at the station, for the word has passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away’
Banjo Patterson ‘The Man From Snowy River
***
The famous Australian poem ‘The Man from Snowy River’ by Banjo Patterson, opens with the line ‘There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around’. We are told that there is a surge of activity at the station as a posse of the best horsemen in the district is assembled to set out and retrieve an escaped prized colt. So there is an emergency which sparks a rapid and energetic response.
I think the incident described in that poem can serve as a metaphor for what should be the Church’s response to the decades-long missional emergency, namely a swift, energetic and creative one. Sadly, when it comes to a response to the Crisis there is little sign of any ‘movement at the station’. Worse, as some are starting to say, could it be that the horse has now has well and truly disappeared?
***
However, perhaps we could be a little more optimistic and ask what might turn the good ship Church around before the proverbial ‘Iceberg’ hoves into view. Perhaps this comment from the journalist Greg Sheridan might be of some assistance in answering that question.
‘With just a few hundred demoralized followers, no powerful friends and not much money or political influence, the idea that the early Christians would transform the world would have struck any shrewd observer of the time as ludicrous. Yet by working out not only how they would live but how they would present their beliefs to a culture that thought them weird and depraved killjoys, the first Christians brought radical progress to the ancient world.’
Early Christianity was a Movement that took on and conquered the all-powerful Roman Empire. Roman society was Pagan, largely amoral and pluralistic, everything the Christian world view was not, as well as being actively hostile to Christianity and Christians who were seen as ‘weird and depraved killjoys’. This hostility resulted in persecution, sometimes severe particularly in the reigns of Emperors Nero and Diocletian
Nevertheless, by the early 4th century AD, Rome was, at least officially, a Christian Empire.
So how did the Roman Empire go from being thoroughly pagan to Christianity becoming the state religion? It was not by a civil uprising nor, as was the case with the Islamic conquest of Christian North Africa and many other places from the 6th century on, was it by military conquest? No, Christianity conquered pagan Rome by Love, in the form of service, and intellectually, by winning the battle of ideas.
Similarly, in the 5th and 6th centuries Christianity conquered pagan Britain by the Celtic missionary movement in the north, and by the Augustinian missionaries in the south. It is the fruit of those movements which eventually took the Gospel to the Americas and to Australia.
So why is this relevant to 21st century Christians? It is because we now face the same challenge as those early Christians. That is a pagan, pluralistic, biblically illiterate society which has descended into an abyss of moral bankruptcy.
One difference though. The early Christians at least understood the type of society they faced whereas it seems the contemporary Australian Church, indeed maybe the whole western Church, based on its actions certainly does not. Or, if it does, it chooses to ignore it. The result, in terms of its mission to its own culture, is a dismal and chronic failure.
The challenge the western church has not faced for 1500 years, is that of pagan mission to our own culture. Christianity won over paganism by contesting and defeating its ideas, by showing itself to be a servant movement and by creating a movement that energetically proclaimed the gospel often in the face of severe persecution.
History has seen the rise and fall of many great civilizations, as for example we see described in the book of Daniel chapters 7 and 8, leading up to the Roman Empire. Now we see western civilization in chronic decline, a civilization built on and shaped by the biblical world view that produced so many blessings for the West and the world generally. These include modern science, modern medicine, schools and universities, and the many ‘help’ organizations we are familiar with and benefit from. It has now however descended to a society akin to a pre-Christendom Rome, a pagan, pluralistic culture descending into moral bankruptcy.
The only entity that has the potential to reverse this trend is the one that defeated pagan Rome in the first place, that is the Church. For the sake of the gospel and the millions stumbling in a Christ-less darkness, it is time, indeed well beyond time, to call a spade a spade. Here are some spades!
- In a society and culture that is changing at breakneck speed, in Local/Parish churches the speed of change is that of an arthritic snail.
- In terms of mission to the local community, there is a widespread ‘dead hand of apathy’ among congregations.
- Endeavours in local mission, where they exist at all, are largely those developed in the now faded culture of the last century, what I call Square Wheels because they didn’t work the last time we used them.
- Many Church leaders appear to be unaware of, choose to ignore, or simply don’t know what to do in this presenting Crisis. The latter in most cases, who might well be godly, faithful, hardworking people who want to see converts, were not chosen to be, trained to be, and often are not gifted to be, leaders of pagan mission.
- The Church in Australia (maybe the West more generally), which faces its greatest challenge in 1500 years, is inflexible, frozen in a 20th century form and mindset, mostly weak, mute, impotent, culturally alien, and lacking in mission orientated leadership.
A journey through church history will reveal that generally the conversion of a pagan culture requires a ‘movement’, not spasmodic, isolated ‘outreach’ events.’ Thus, the most likely way to reverse current trends is by a movement akin to that driven by Christians in Roman or Celtic mission times. This needs to be a movement that understands the times and the ongoing tectonic shifts in western culture; which constitutes itself for pagan mission; which doesn’t lie down in the face of the increasing number of world views alien to the Gospel of Jesus that are filling the Vacuum left by the the fading of Christianity; which is a movement that actively and zealously challenges the ideas and morality of 21st century western culture (rather than being effectively mute as currently), and proclaims the Gospel without fear or favour, and at cost.
Many Christians express concern about where society is heading and the world their children and grandchildren will inherit, and with good reason. However, the question for them (and maybe for us!), is rather than complaining, ‘What are you doing about it?’
The answer must be to become part of such a movement as described above. Just turning up on Sundays, joining a bible study is far far short of what is needed in this Crisis.
As Tom Frame, the former Bishop to the Australian Defence Forces wrote,
“The culturally compliant strain of Christianity promoted in Australia
does not oblige (people) to embrace lifestyle choices that might involve discomfort.”
However, without the death of the prevalent comfortable Christianity and mission-apathetic Christians, we will just keep on sleepwalking into the spiritual iceberg of a pagan darkness.
Tragically, when it comes to the missional Crisis, there is no ‘movement at the station’.
Does the foregoing sound harsh? In most church circles, it certainly will be considered to be both harsh and crazy. However, I am reminded of the statement made by famous Quantum Physicist Niels Bohr to a colleague-
‘Your idea is crazy. The question is, is it crazy enough to be true?’
The above analysis may seem both harsh and even crazy, but the real question is whether it is true? The harsh reality is that the missional failure is now decades long, and the time for soft, gentle analysis that leaves Christians in comfort, and church structures unchanged, is long gone. The choice is stark. Create a new missional movement or just keep on ‘going to Church’, consign millions to a Christ-less eternity as well as letting our children and grandchildren reap the consequences!
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