Halloween 2024 – A Reminder
Vacuum 4 – The Enemy, That Hideous Strength
‘This ‘Hideous Strength’ is far more fearsome and all-embracing than Lewis envisaged over 70 years ago. The technology available is far more potent and far reaching in its ability to capture imaginations and minds than at any point in the world’s history. The political will of the opponents of Christianity is strong and unrelenting. The Church by and large appears confused and compromising. The stakes are incredibly high; nothing less than the survival of a civilization and the eternal well-being of countless souls.’
Collapse – We’ve Seen this Movie Before
‘The former long-serving Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, recently asked a very important question. ‘Could western civilization finally collapse?’ What would be your answer to that question I wonder?
Common Illusions and the Sound of the Cuckoo
In this time of catastrophic and ongoing decline in Christianity in Australia, and the western world generally, simplistic assessments of church vitality will only compound our missional failure. What is actually needed is a forensic critical analysis of churches and the reasons for their long-term failure to make Disciples of Jesus in anything like the numbers required if there is to be any hope of reversing chronic trends of decline
A Third Elephant – Don’t Mention the War (With apologies to the TV series Fawlty Towers)
“the culturally compliant strain of Christianity promoted in Australia does not oblige (people) to embrace lifestyle choices that might involve discomfort.”
Vacuum 3 – The Darkness Falls
The sun’s rim dips, the stars rush out, At one stride comes the dark’
Vacuum 2 – Compassion
The retreat of Christianity in western countries has left a Vacuum, that has been filled with a whole range of fundamentally demonic influences that are tearing the fabric of society. While it is a spiritual vacuum, there are material consequences. One of these is the loss of the God-reflecting exercise of Compassion flowing from a deep emotional concern for the needy, whether spiritually or materially, even enemies.
Another Elephant – The ‘Success Illusion’
“Hear this Word, this lament I have concerning you. I hate! I despise your religious gatherings; your church services are a stench to me. Even though you give money in the offering plate, or on-line, I will not accept it. Though you give offerings for special causes and occasions, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your praise songs! I will not listen to the music of your keyboards, drums and guitars. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Vacuum 1 – The Degradation
‘The West cannot survive without a re-energized belief in Christianity’.
The First Elephant – Cultural Intelligence – A Missional Necessity
The current missional mindset of most local churches, and particularly of those in leadership, continues to be controlled by the assumption, even if subconsciously, that the goal is to reach a still-Christianised society living on what might be termed a ‘cultural Earth,’ whereas the reality is that most of Western society has changed address to a distant ‘cultural Pluto’. The failure to realise and respond to this is a major factor in the missional malaise
