We watched the video tonight.

It was a movie you ‘feel’ more than you think about.

I’m still working out what I’m feeling, but I know it tapped into some of the reality of what it means to be human – search for meaning, the desire for redemption, the blurred lines between good and evil and the confusion that is so often this crazy life we live.

Were the characters good or bad or just ‘human’?

Its pretty raw.

Suggestion – Don’t watch it with your mother in law 🙂

No its not me.

An Aussie friend of mine who has been living in the US for the last 7 years and is hooked up with the same mob as Justin is returning to Oz shortly as a missionary/church planter.

He is looking to raise some support in the US before arriving – a good plan indeed. But he needs some info on the state of religion in Australia and Perth specifically. He asked for stats and I have pointed him to the lovely Rachael Barr at NCLS, but I have offered my observations about the state of play in Perth and probably reflected all round Oz.

What I’d like you to do is add to my observations (or correct them if you think they are wrong) in the comments.

– almost complete absence of church planting among conservative evangelical denominations – other than us Baptists haven’t planted a church for 7 years. I know C of C are very similar but both denoms are just getting a little more serious about this issue. There is plenty of ‘talk’ at the moment.

– almost complete absence of young leaders wanting to plant churches. Most want to hit a career path and get a full time salary asap. Church planting perceived as real hard work and little kudos

– the money factor is a big one for many people – don’t want to either raise support or be tentmakers

– Stanley Hauerwas described Aus as the most secular country he has ever been to. (Somewhere on http://gocn.org )

– huge awareness that churches aren’t cutting it

– those coming to faith tend to be of the ‘lapsed catholic’ variety, those with some background, migrants with spiritual awareness eg Africans, but penetrating the core of middle Australia with the gospel is still a mammoth task. Few are taking this on with any seriousness and longevity. Its easier just to ‘grow a church’ than be missionaries.

– Pentecostalism was the great hope, but its wave has broken and now they are struggling too.

– anyone doing mission and church in Oz needs to know how to think like a missionary as it is a state of pure pluralism and pragmatism ‘anything goes if it works for you’.

So…

Help Glenn out and add to these if you are able

Thanks

I went shopping today to get a new pair of jeans as my wife has retired the last pair due to a 30cm rip right next to the bum crack. (pretty fussy I reckon)

So I’ve just tossed a pair out and gone shopping for something better and it seems that every pair of jeans I come across has been ‘pre-ripped’. I must be getting old cause it seems really really dumb to fork out money for a pair of jeans that look like they’ve been dragged backwards thru a barbed wire fence.

This is another post in the interests of helping people see simple reproducible spiritual practices that can be used in a church setting.

– 3 Psalms – choose your own – (I used 13, 19 and 100 – all a different vibe)

– read the Psalms aloud right thru while people listen or follow along

– each person chooses which Psalm they identify with most closely

– journal some thoughts about why

– meditation/reflective exercise looking back over the last few days observing activities, feelings, high points, low points, God moments, etc

– journal what you are thinking / feeling as a result and observe any connections between Psalm and your experience

– split into three groups based on Psalm

– talk about what you felt, experienced, sensed God may be saying

– pray

That’s it.

Its not rocket science, anyone can do it and it relies on people connecting with the spirit to make it valuable.

FWIW…

We had planned to hire a bus and head out to the annual wine and food festival ‘Spring in the Valley’. It looked like a great idea – everyone said ‘great idea!’

But when it came time to make it happen it became much trickier.

You see for couples to go it requires a whole day of baby-sitting. Most people we know have few friends up here they know well enough or they live a long way from family so the kid factor became our undoing.

We cancelled the bus last week and managed to recoup our deposit, but sadly we will not be going. Maybe next year with a bit more planning we can pull it off.

The kid factor is actually a very real issue in isolated suburbia.

Many people do not venture out at night because their kids don’t sleep in other people’s houses. Many people don’t know anyone well enough to baby-sit their kids. I realised this the first time we had 3 other famiies round for dinner and the house was empty at 8.00. What happened? Bed time…

Its not insurmountable, but for any group like us that attempts to get people together on an evening it is quite a challenge.

We have been doing Sunday brunch and Sunday early dinner (4.00pm) with friends to spend time with other families but nights are pretty much a write off.

I wonder if ‘kids who sleep anywhere’ is another aspect of church culture that we have taken for granted. Is there anyone else whose kids come with them everywhere and sleep on the floor on other beds, etc? Is that a church thing because we have become used to going out on so many evenings?