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?

This year Danelle and I have set aside 5 days as ‘prayer retreats’, days when we simply leave the kids with mum and dad and head off to spend a day in prayer and reflection.

A luxury?

So some have said to me.

I prefer to think of it as a necessity – a part of my ‘job’ even. If we aren’t taking time out to listen to God and to engage with him (however it looks for you) then chances are we are running on our own steam an doing our own thing.

I’m not feeling that much like it today what with cold rainy weather and all, but no doubt it’ll still be worthwhile.

We had tried to set it up with some friends, but the nature of work committments and kid committments has meant we have done this on our own more often than not.

Last Sunday it was father’s day so we went to my parent’s church where they were having communion.

I began thinking that as Ellie has told us many times she loves Jesus, it seems like the right thing to do to let her take it with us. Obviously Danelle was thinking the same because as they started the distribution of bread and wine, she began explaining to Ellie what it was all about.

She was listening intently and it was a very significant moment to watch my little girl take communion for the first time, knowing that as much as she understands, she ‘loves Jesus’.

I felt proud, excited, just really good about it all.

Until a few seconds later when I heard this little voice say ‘Mum – I’m still hungry’

Gotta love kids hey!?

Steve Addison download balls of fury online suggests this pic may be a metaphor for where the church finds itself today.

The church, which was built in the early 1880s, had no-one inside when it was destroyed by the run-away prime-mover. The truck’s trailer held up the roof of the building while the truck cabin was perched on the edge of a drop into Lake Nagambie.

Great pic!

If Paul was a tent-maker then I wonder when he did it.

I was chatting with a good mate today about this. We concluded he obviously didn’t have a 9-5 job. He was able to flit around the country side getting whipped beaten and stoned while he preached the gospel, so he couldn’t have held down a regular job.

Maybe he just did it when he had to? ‘Seasonal’ work?

Maybe he owned a tent-making ‘company’ and he left them to it?

Maybe he created Tentway and developed a network marketing system where he lived off a passive income produced by the poor suckers who were his downlines (Sorry – I detest network marketing)

Maybe it ws one of those skills which you could put to work in any town. So if he was in Ephesus for a while he could pick up a bit of work and then move on?

What do you think?