As kids growing up, one of the games we used to play was blowing Dandelion seeds from the Dandelion stalk and seeing how the wind took them. Great fun we thought but not Dad who had just dug half a dozen Dandelion weed plants out of his treasured lawn. However, that blowing in the wind game, where we do not know where the wind will take the seed or which will take root and grow, can I think act as a metaphor for how God transmits the gospel.
The cultural principle needed for our 21st century mission to local communities can be summed up with this slogan – ‘Their place, Their style, Their language, Their time’
As we celebrate receiving the benefits of the exquisite love-borne agony of the Cross, we should remember that the reception of that gift requires signing up as a ‘Soldier of Christ’, and soldiers must fight!
The Road to Heaven is Strewn with Missional Roadblocks
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.
‘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.’
‘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?
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!
