Myth – Christian faith is declining in numbers

There has been the thinking for some time that through the industrial revolution and through the advance of technology humankind would soon loose their need of God to help them in their troubles. This is what is termed “secularization thesis” (Peter L. Berger). Well here we are at the end of the first decade of the twenty first century and the facts tell otherwise. Virtually all religions are growing in numbers of adherents. Christianity is growing in explosive ways in what is termed the developing world. Timothy Keller in his book The reason for God, refers to Philip Jenkin’s book The next Christendom and highlights that there are six times more Anglicans in Nigeria alone than there are in all of the United States. There are more Presbyterians in Ghana than in the United States and Scotland combined. Korea has gone from 1 percent to 40 percent Christian in a hundred years, and experts believe the same thing is going to happen in China. So, if there are half a billion Chinese Christian’s fifty years from now, that will change the course of human history.

No matter how hard anti-religious groups, governments, regimes etc. try to eradicate humankind’s faith it just doesn’t work. It would seem that the search for divine meaning and significance will continue to burn deep in our souls for centuries to come.

The Reason for God
The Next Christendom

'Companions in Christ' - A winner programme

We have run the first part of this programme in three of our Fellowship Groups so far.
It is a wonderful experiential way of engaging the Christian faith in a small group. The content is excellent, the methodology is taken from years of Christian history and the theology is particularly Wesleyan. The group in the picture just finished sharing their life journey through the eyes of prevenient, justifying and sanctifying grace. They also looked at the life journey's of people like St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Mother Theresa and Evelyn Underhill as examples of different ways we experience the grace of God.

It was a privilege to hear the narratives of each persons spiritual journey and to listen to the pain and hardship many had faced. let me close by quoting from the preface of a book I have just started reading, "Man's search for meaning" by Viktor Frankl:

"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and in dying."

If God is a sending God then to whom are we sent?

This Sunday we are doing things a little different from the normal. We have had a month of sermons focused around the theology that the Trinitarian God is a missionary God. This Sunday we are looking at the Church as a missionary agent sent into the local neighbourhood. We will summarize where we have been over the last Sundays and then we will get the Sunday worshipers into a discussion as to where we feel God is sending us. If God is a sending God then to whom are we sent?

If you have any thoughts about this it would be great to have your comments on this blog and I can weave them into our discussion on Sunday.

This kind of conversation may often end up in generalizations like, “We are sent to the lost” or “We are sent to those in need”. What I think is important is to clearly define whom these people are and what their actual needs are. It would also be important to acknowledge that God is already with the people we are sent to and thus we approach with caution and humility. The other facet to this discussion is the realization that we approach the lost because we were once lost and were found, not because we are any better than them. For those not at Hilton Methodist please keep us in your prayers this coming Sunday.

Amped Society Stewards for God's sake

Last evening the Society Stewards and I spent some quality time discussing the hospitality of our little church. We each have a copy of Robert Schnase’s book ‘Five practices of fruitful congregations’ and we were engaging with the first chapter on radical hospitality. It is always a joy to be a part of a group that is generative in nature and exudes life beyond itself. It is a group that is not settled in perpetuating a habitual Christian faith but is impressed by the Spirit to challenge the norm and grow in grace and knowledge. Conflict is and will remain a necessary part of a generative group dynamic but it will be as Tim Keller says, done with ‘graceful disagreement.’ May we continue to work with purpose and with love to make this church a place that welcomes all but most importantly the stranger.

A memorial service for change

“People do not fear change as much as they fear loss, the letting go of comfortable and familiar patterns, behaviours, and attitudes.” Robert Schnase

We often go on about the pains of change and transformation and I have never really considered the pain of loss in all of this. The truth of the matter is that we don’t like to say goodbye to things that keep us in equilibrium. We have an organic instinct to create environments of stability, ‘homeostasis’ if I remember from school days studying biology and chemistry. I suppose as we help people embrace the new things we ought to be having memorial services for those things that are passing away.

Radical hospitality witnessed

It was sighted above Hilton around five o’clock yesterday afternoon and faded almost exactly at nine thirty in the evening. On the side of the metallic hull were the letters RH and the warm glow of the engines was felt by the humans gathered below. It is alien to see hospitality that goes out of its way to connect with strangers but it was happening before our eyes. The junior youth were gathering to play volleyball and the coals of the braais (barbeques) were glowing as church leaders mingled with nervous parents unaccustomed to the church grounds. Later on that very evening another crowd gathered around multi coloured desserts and cups of coffee to welcome new members to the church whilst their riotous children played outside. The warmth of this mother ship Radical Hospitality is welcome anytime and if its captain can hear me, please come back another time.

Moving toward greater things

“We simply must come to a place in our lives where we agree to give up old securities which bind us, or painful memories which harm us, or dashed dreams which discourage us, or heartaching wounds which prevent us from discovering new dreams and from coming into fuller life.” Joyce Rupp

Letting go and moving on is the most difficult thing for many of us to do. I don’t believe there is ever a time in our lives when we ought not be moving away from something and moving into something greater. It might be my Methodist root system at work here, the belief that God calls us towards Christian perfection. There are always stagnant, dead, decaying, ungrateful, self-absorbed quagmires within us, and the church that need new skies, new country to leap around in.

“A walloping great congregation is fine, and fun but what most communities really need is a couple of saints” Martin Thornton

We might have bought into the mediocre when it comes to our Christian walk. It looks even better when there are a whole lot of us doing the mediocre thing. It kind of justifies it. Saints are harder to find, they are not doing things to be seen or noticed. They are not concerned if the minister is away that Sunday or if it be ‘Hymn’ or ‘Gospel Gold.’ They are usually found at the funerals of the unnoticed, giving lifts to the house bound and many other ‘unnecessary’ things.

Shoal of Christ

Thoughts have swum around in isolated fashion each flashing a side of light and brilliance. The vision is the shoal of fast moving collective thoughts, this way and that. Watching them twitch together is miraculous as if they are all connected with one string. The shoal bursts to the left and then to the right, the last and first in symphony. A synergy that defies logical determinism. A run that shines glorious when hearts in worship talk mission. The shoal of Christ in unison.

Small & Strong

I am busy reading Kennon L. Callahan's book titled "Small Strong Congregations." I am finding it a very interesting read. It helps the smaller church loose its guilt of not being able to accomplish all things but to rather focus itself within its strength areas. You will no doubt hear more about it in the next few days. It is a joy to move away from the mega-church mentality that keeps placing the emphasis on bigger is better. No, bigger is bigger not necessarily better. If anybody has read this book, I would love your comments.

Family Growth

Family - a model for Church growth. Amongst all the other ways we acknowledge we can do Church, the fundamental building blocks in a Church are the relationships that comprise the whole. It is better to strengthen relationships than it is to strengthen programmes. The family growth model could be the answer in creating a paradigm that continually puts the focus back onto the Church as family whose role is to equip each other to fulfill their part in the greater picture of things. When Melluish speaks about building the family unit he speaks about being a team, having family time, setting family jobs, create family traditions, being together. The translation into Church growth dynamics is obvious. When Church members work as a team, spend family time together, differentiate their Godly chores, establish traditions that bring family identity the roots of that Church would be strong and long lasting. The young would grow from that Church with a sense that it is family. They would be sad to leave its precincts and they would return each holiday to share their good and bad news. Family is family for life.