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.
“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!
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
Our, now decades long, failure in meeting Jesus’ mandate to ‘make disciples’, will not be reversed until Christians and churches don’t just claim to be ‘bible believing’ but cease their use of the SBV, re-insert the word ALL into the Missionary Verse, and act on it.
‘Our shared morality, once the glue that held the social fabric together, is being torn apart’. Paul Kelly - 2nd March 2024․ *** Around a year ago I wrote this regarding our times; tragically it is even more relevant twelve months later – ‘In the West, we have arrived at Easter 2023 as a … Continue reading When the ‘Church’ Has Lost Its Way
While it should be remembered that no-one can be argued into the Kingdom of God, Christians need to be equipped to be able to say something about what is actually a quite limited number of issues that both Christians and non-Christian's wrestle with. ‘Barriers to Faith’ is intended to be some help when Christians need to respond to some of the main questions/challenges they may encounter in conversation with others.
The start of a new year is traditionally a time to reflect on the year ahead. To ask the question, what picture will we paint on this blank canvas of time that God has given us in the year of 2024? How does God want us to use the resources (paints) that he has given … Continue reading The ‘Good Thing’ or the ‘God Thing’ – That is the Question?
We live in rapidly changing times. A characteristic of this is western society's rejection of its moral operating system i.e. Biblical Christianity. This has allowed the return of what those who fought against Hitler's Nazis in WW2 thought they had defeated in western countries. i.e. antisemitism. Tragically this seems not to be the case.
For a quarter of a century at least, survey after survey, data release after data release, census after census, have shouted out the developing crisis in terms of the Church’s dismal missional effectiveness. Yet with a deafness (deliberate or otherwise) to the few voices calling out the nakedness of the missional Emperor, and a blindness to the reality of an ever-rotating kaleidoscope of cultural tribes undergoing tectonic change, we have continued along the same now decades-long road, strewn with ‘Square Wheel’ missional failures.
Even in the face of the well-documented chronic, decades long, serious decline of Christianity in Australia (the West) the experience has been that only a miniscule number of church members will take up opportunities for 'coal face'. local mission.
