To rebuild western civilization we need to go back to what made western civilization such a powerful force for good and prosperity and that is the Judeo-Christian world view. This is complex as many want the values without the Saviour.’
The Road to Heaven is Strewn with Missional Roadblocks
And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
How many are there in the church today, who have been members for fifteen or twenty years, but have never done a solitary thing for Jesus Christ? . . . . they cannot point today to one single person who has ever been lifted up (to heaven) by them.’
Pondering on this cultural collage, it occurred to me that it was a perfect reminder of the West’s descent into the neo pagan Vacuum formed by the retreat of Christianity from 21st century society.
Standing in the shopping mall, those tomb-side words on that chill first Easter morning came to me, “They have stolen Him away and we don’t know where they have put Him”, words true for most contemporary Australians. But worse, society’s degraded state of spiritual desiccation is now so far advanced that most don’t even know there has been a theft!
‘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?
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
The sun’s rim dips, the stars rush out, At one stride comes the dark’
“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!
