'Then the preacher said the most provocative words that church congregations need to hear and act on today.
The most significant piece of 'furniture' or fitting in this building are:
the doors through which you will all leave at the end of this service and go out into the world.'
I ended with the above words in my last post.
I'm a bit crabby at the moment. Yes, I know, good Christians are not supposed to get irritable, fractious, fretful, cross, petulant, pettish, crabbed, crotchety, cantankerous, disagreeable, miserable, morose, peppery, edgy, impatient, querulous; etc but I am.
I think my crabbiness has to do with the fact that the visible, institutional church doesn't get it! But then I have to remember that for many years I didn't get it either until a rude, Dutchman woke me up out of my dogmatic slumber.
So I have nothing to boast about. None of us does. The church is in such a parlous condition in Australia that none of us has anything to brag about. Australia is also in such an alarming state and the Lord God is its only salvation but it fails to give Him the time of day.
So, what am I talking about? I'm talking about the church which fails to preach in such a way that every area of the WORK and LIFE of the congregation sitting being taught is addressed by the Word of God. Every area!
Let me give you an example. Tom leaves his church building and on Monday he is at work in a job he hates. It is boring and to him seemingly pointless. He goes to an enlightened church friend and talks about this problem.
His friend says, 'Maybe this boring job is where God wants you to be for the time being. How can you erect a small sign of God's Kingdom in this place? If you saw your boring job as Kingdom work, what would that do for the way you approach your work?'
Tom decided that he would come to work a quarter of an hour earlier each day and set that time aside to meet any others who were in early. Gradually with this change, he developed stronger relationships with his work colleagues which had all sorts of exciting consequences.
For example, the others found out he was a Christian which provoked conversations about the Faith; two of them separately asked him if he would pray for various situations in their lives.
This group of workers began then to think about their work practices and how their work situation could be improved. They approached their supervisor about forming a work practices committee to suggest improvements to the running of the business.
Tom asked his church to pray for him at his work. In fact, his Vicar's interest in Tom's request led him to say, 'Could I come to your workplace and see what you're doing?'.
Like music to my ears! The institutional church seeing that it's not all about it and its evangelism programs, or getting every church member to become an evangelist. God is the God of every legitimate part of human living.
The Australian community is not listening to the church because it is not doing its ministry in workplaces, neighbourhoods, mothering networks through its congregants, the little people. And by ministry, I don't just mean trying to get people to come to church! Ministry in these areas is more than that. And it's more than evangelism. Much more.
The most significant piece of 'furniture' or fitting in this building are:
the doors through which you will all leave at the end of this service and go out into the world.'I ended with the above words in my last post.
I'm a bit crabby at the moment. Yes, I know, good Christians are not supposed to get irritable, fractious, fretful, cross, petulant, pettish, crabbed, crotchety, cantankerous, disagreeable, miserable, morose, peppery, edgy, impatient, querulous; etc but I am.
I think my crabbiness has to do with the fact that the visible, institutional church doesn't get it! But then I have to remember that for many years I didn't get it either until a rude, Dutchman woke me up out of my dogmatic slumber.
So I have nothing to boast about. None of us does. The church is in such a parlous condition in Australia that none of us has anything to brag about. Australia is also in such an alarming state and the Lord God is its only salvation but it fails to give Him the time of day.
So, what am I talking about? I'm talking about the church which fails to preach in such a way that every area of the WORK and LIFE of the congregation sitting being taught is addressed by the Word of God. Every area!
His friend says, 'Maybe this boring job is where God wants you to be for the time being. How can you erect a small sign of God's Kingdom in this place? If you saw your boring job as Kingdom work, what would that do for the way you approach your work?'
Tom decided that he would come to work a quarter of an hour earlier each day and set that time aside to meet any others who were in early. Gradually with this change, he developed stronger relationships with his work colleagues which had all sorts of exciting consequences.
For example, the others found out he was a Christian which provoked conversations about the Faith; two of them separately asked him if he would pray for various situations in their lives.
This group of workers began then to think about their work practices and how their work situation could be improved. They approached their supervisor about forming a work practices committee to suggest improvements to the running of the business.
Tom asked his church to pray for him at his work. In fact, his Vicar's interest in Tom's request led him to say, 'Could I come to your workplace and see what you're doing?'.
Like music to my ears! The institutional church seeing that it's not all about it and its evangelism programs, or getting every church member to become an evangelist. God is the God of every legitimate part of human living.
The Australian community is not listening to the church because it is not doing its ministry in workplaces, neighbourhoods, mothering networks through its congregants, the little people. And by ministry, I don't just mean trying to get people to come to church! Ministry in these areas is more than that. And it's more than evangelism. Much more.
