According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian population is growing at the rate of 1.5% per year, whereas church attendance is in significant decline. It is true that in some areas (e.g. the Anglican Diocese of Sydney) attendance is so far keeping pace with population growth, however, this is mostly due to what … Continue reading Multiplication is a Many Splendoured Thing
The Dead Hand of Apathy
A few years ago, 2008 to be precise, as part of a paper I was writing at the time, I carried out a small survey in regard to the level of passion in congregations in regard to reaching the community with the gospel. The format was that I asked a number of Senior Ministers to … Continue reading The Dead Hand of Apathy
The Problem With ‘All’
Sometimes when I’m thinking about the general missional unfruitfulness of Australian churches I wonder how much it is due to the prevalent use of the HDV bible. The HDV (Humpty Dumpty Version) has I believe had a seriously deleterious effect on our missional activities. Just to remind us, Humpty Dumpty is a character who … Continue reading The Problem With ‘All’
A Dangerous Delusion
I have written previously of the fact that I believe in the church we have a Crisis. I use this word in the sense that we are at a point in the life of the church in Australia when we will go one of two ways, continued decline or revival, in the same way as … Continue reading A Dangerous Delusion
The Closing Window
Up to some point in the SS Titanic’s fatal journey towards the notorious iceberg there remained a window of opportunity during which decisive action could have been taken that would have avoided the disaster that ultimately took place. We know of course that such action was not taken, at least before it was too late, … Continue reading The Closing Window
Square Wheels Aren’t Funny
A while ago I watched a portion of one of the now ancient “Carry On” comedy movies. It must have been a very bad night on TV! Which one of the series I cannot remember but in the bit I saw a caveman had come up with a new invention, namely the “Square Wheel”. However, … Continue reading Square Wheels Aren’t Funny
Never on a Sunday
Recently I accidently tuned into a radio station playing the song ‘Never On A Sunday’. As I listened I heard couple of the lines which went- “Never on a Sunday when the church is full of people And the bells are ringing in the steeple” And I thought –well that doesn’t work anymore! There are … Continue reading Never on a Sunday
There Are A Lot of Us ‘In the Box’
Much of the time I tend to operate in my own world, too busy to ‘look over the parapet’ and see much of what other denominations are doing. However now and again I get an opportunity to do so. One such opportunity occurred a while ago when I was invited to a meeting on the … Continue reading There Are A Lot of Us ‘In the Box’
The Beast Devouring Mission
One of the aims of the designers of cars, trucks and planes is to make them lighter. This makes them more efficient because less energy, that is fuel, is needed just to propel the vehicle itself and more is available for either more speed, acceleration or a bigger payload. This can serve as an analogy … Continue reading The Beast Devouring Mission
The Pruning Shears or The Axe
Sometimes church leaders are accused of running the church like a business and being too concerned about ‘numbers’, that is too focussed on attendance figures and not enough people. Together with this they may well also be accused of relying too much on strategies, programs, human ingenuity etc to make a ‘profit’, which in church … Continue reading The Pruning Shears or The Axe
unbounded church 