Month: April 2011

Church can be relevant and alive


There is a current stream of discussions concerning the decline of evangelicalism. A number of factors have brought the steady flow to a head. Recent missteps by prominent evangelical leaders, political leaders’ alignments with evangelical groups and the increasing disconnect of the twenty-something generation from evangelical churches have all conspired to paint a stodgy, out of touch and irrelevant and even hypocritical image of the evangelical church.

I have colleagues here in our very own Melbourne who when they start a family and want to return to church, look to orthodox churches instead of evangelical ones. These are couples in their late twenties to early thirties, educated and bright and have the world at their feet. They will soon be leaders of society. Young people in evangelical churches have also voiced their frustrations with too many instances of church leaders, pastors and teachers who don’t provide a good grasp of the bible and theology and have sought orthodoxy as a solution. So while the discussions may be taking place mainly in America, the experience and phenomenon that is the crossroads of evangelical churches is a real issue here in Australia too.

The evangelical churches of today are not attracting young people and the young who grew up in these churches are leaving – either for other (orthodox churches) or the church altogether. They would deny that they have left Christianity – they still profess the faith and still have deep connections with that part of their lives which seek to have a relationship with God, and it is the institution of the evangelical church which they are turning away from. One can convincingly argue that such apparent connection is flawed as a real relationship would compel fellowship thus church attendance but the disconnect experienced by this group is very real. They would probably want – long for – fellowship with other believers but would probably loathe association with any element of the institutional church.

One therefore is often confronted with groups of young people who don’t like anything which smells of large church. They would be happy to be meeting in small groups in homes or small school halls or anywhere informal. They don’t like the building, the boards, the governance structure, the legal and financial baggage, the governing theology, tradition and creeds and all the ensuing rules and regulations which come with this stodgy sounding components.

I think it is the duty of those who have been trained, not to discard these components but to unpack them in a way which is honest, vigorous, relevant and applicable to them. The gospel of the saving grace of God is and will always be relevant because it is real, it is necessary and it is entirely within the plan and purpose of God.

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Grinding On


It has been a tiring slog of a weekend in terms of hard graft working at my studies. It really is hard, being at the wrong side of forties, to resume formal studies after a long lay-off. My two subjects this semester are stretching me and I feel like I am never on top of things. I’m in the middle of an essay now which I’m struggling a bit with. The next one after that is due a month later (after the due date of the first one) and I have barely done any reading for that one. While I enjoy the knowledge building process, the work required to put all that learning together to form your own position and deliver it in a coherent and interesting and persuasive way is something else altogether.

So there I was in the library at about 9.30 on Saturday morning, after dropping off my dry cleaning and having coffee and breakfast with Tress. Last Saturday it was Kathy’s (the campus librarian) turn on duty and she was the military precision type when it came to closing time and at precisely 5 minutes to twelve she started turning off the lights and I had to gather all my stuff – laptop with cable, pencils and pens and highlighters, bits and pieces of papers and a couple of books I was borrowing – while sending off the first draft I had put together the past couple of hours, in an email so that I could work on it some more on the iPad at anytime.

It is bad enough that the library is only open on 2 weeknights and 3 hours on Sat morning, which means I could at best, spend no more than say 9 hours a week – the strict closing time often means I had to rush and basically had less than even the minimal hours already on hand. At least with the other alternating librarian/staff on Saturday (Yen) she wasn’t so strict and you could sort of just gather your stuff together just after the official closing time. I know Katie probably has a life on Sat afternoons that she has to go to, good on her really – I just need to be more disciplined and keep time better I guess.

I guess discipline is the key. Last night for example as I was finishing up, I went past the lounge for a refill of my tea in the kitchen. I turned on the television as I waited for the kettle to boil and SBS had a documentary on Margaret Thatcher’s last days. Guys like Kenneth Clarke, Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkin, Nigel Lamont and even Michael Heseltine were being interviewed (amongst others, including people whose names did not register but had close and intimate knowledge of the events which unfolded). They even had footage of her first public appearance/interview 6 months after leaving 10 Downing Street, which included close up’s of her in tears. She was one of the greatest British PM ever and the documentary was telling the incredible story of her last days when she was being dumped.

So needless to say I stayed glued and forgot all about the Jesus’ deliberate acts of messianic implications I was reading and writing about, until pretty late. Discipline – I don’t have it, at least not yet, to properly accomplish my studies in a worthy manner. I hope (and think I will) get by and finish the course (a Dip Grad) and hopefully go on to do a Masters but I had harboured hopes of excelling in it. Until I learn to ignore even gems like that Margaret Thatcher documentary however, I am unlikely to get anywhere near the sort of scholarship I dream of.

Anyway, that was the weekend I had – just plain and hard slog in that sense.

We did have a very pleasant distraction of having Jermel over on Sat night however – Alex and Li Har had a full moon dinner and asked if we could look after him. He was very easy and even fun to look after. He spent most of the time on his “Little Einstein” DVD series and  his dad’s iPad (how does a 1.5 year old know what to do with an iPad?) but I also enjoyed playing with him in the backyard with the little black jedi, as well as play his gigantic lego building blocks with him. They came for him around 10pm, we conveniently forgot to remind them about end of daylight saving, and I waited around for the Man Utd game against West Ham. To my horror however, I think Foxtel had the schedule wrong because when I turned it on at 11.30 the second half had just started and the score was 2-0 in the Hammers’ favour. I was near distraught but thought I’d watch anyway (of course) to see what happens. What a turnaround by Rooney and gang. His hattrick and Chicharito’s sliding connection with Giggsy’s low cross completed a 2-4 overhaul. Chelsea and Arsenal’s unexpected draws made that even sweeter. It was a very positive step towards overtaking the Fools in total league titles won.

We had to be in church early the next day, as Tress was on creche duty.

We had a really good church service. The speaker probably didn’t think so and I feel we may have short-change him in the sense that we ended up giving him only a less than 30 minutes for his sermon. Pastor had taken some time with sharing some needs of a few members and had people break up into small groups for prayer. It wasn’t an extensive sort of detour – just a quick “turn around and pray with your neighbour” sort of thing. But it did take up some time.  Thankfully, the speaker we had – TT Quah – was the adaptable and quick footed type who was on cue straight away and played along.

After the fantastic service, it was my turn to lead the basic lesson series – something I have also had to spend time preparing for this past week and put aside a few hours on Sat to review, more hard graft.  Like United’s victory over the weekend, my weekend was also hard graft but satisfying.

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Mental challenge for the young


I have always thought we underestimate our youth if we say theology and exegetical biblical teachings are too dry or hard for them. As a young person, I cared a lot for knowledge and truth.  I don’t think young people today are any different in that regard. The only difference is the breadth of information available today but there has to be careful instructions to think through all that information process it and apply it in a manner which gels and clicks in the light of what they hear and see in communities like churches and family circles.

As a young teen I craved for knowledge and truth. This made me look for books constantly and living in a town where the closest public library is a 30-minute bicycle ride away through hot, dusty and crowded cowboy-driver infested roads, I had to limit my visits. In any case, the books available in that library were very limited so I had to rely on old books, magazines and newspapers lying around in my school library.

I think my love for Manchester United was borne out of (partly) that reliance. I remember going to the local grocery shops and newsagents to read outdated editions of “Shoot!” magazines in the mid-70’s and catching up on game reports and commentaries, interviews and fan feedbacks which were several weeks old. It was the days of Tommy Docherty and the Greenhoff brothers. I would pick up the latest available editions and pick out articles on guys like Lou Macari, Sammy McIlroy and Joe Jordan. By the time I could afford to actually buy a copy to take home with me, the Ron Atkinson era had begun and heroes like Frank Stapleton, Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes, Remi Moses, Paul McGrath et al had started to deliver those false starts before Fergie came around in 1986. Anyway, I digress – that detour to crass sports journalism of that era was a result of my hunt for books and other material.

That hunt has been made much easier today. Instead of hopping onto a bicycle to ride to the nearest library the search can easily commence in the comfort of one’s home. You can even do it in bed. It isn’t just that the process is so easy today, the breadth of information is also breathless. You can type “Rob Bell and universalism” for example and you’d probably have scores if not hundreds of source material to read and digest. The trick is the manner in which the wide ranging information is selected, processed, digested and applied. This is where communities like the local church must come in and provide leadership. There is no excuse for the church today to not provide solid theological and exegetical grounding for young people today.

The below blog entry by Timothy Tennent from Asbury touches on this.

http://timothytennent.com/2011/03/robust-christianity/

Robust Christianity

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

In reflecting on the responses to my blog the last four days, I thought it might be helpful for me to share a few of my own reactions.  My overwhelming response is gratefulness to God, to our students, various other responders and yes, indeed, to Rob Bell as well for stimulating such a healthy conversation.  Part of what made the Reformation such an amazing time in the history of the church is that it brought so many more people to the actual text of Scripture.  Today the collapse of Christendom coupled with the rise of the Majority World church is having the same effect.  New questions are being posed to the text in fresh ways.  If Rob Bell’s Love Wins forces us to become better readers of the Bible in order to articulate a cogent response, then the whole church benefits.

I am also reminded of the ongoing importance of theology in the church today.  Serious theological reflection has fallen on hard times in the world of twitter where everything must be reduced to 140 characters, simple slogans, sound bites, etc…  In a recent, very helpful  article in Christianity Today entitled The Leavers, Drew Dyck explored why young adults in their twenties are leaving the faith at “five to six times the historic rate.”  One of the themes Dyck discovered in his interviews with the children of evangelicals who had left the faith is how many young people who had serious questions about Christianity were met with youth leaders, pastors and parents who either did not know the answer or gave them some trite, shallow reply which sounded ridiculously forced and mechanical rather than thoughtful and persuasive.  Some parents and pastors even tried to hush up the questions or doubts completely.  Young people found that it was wrong to question, they were exhorted to “simply believe.”  Is it any wonder that many of those who left the faith departed because Christianity seemed to lack the kind of robust vitality they were searching for?  All of this genuine searching coincided with a massive movement across the country to invite kids to youth groups and give them pizza and movies, but was fairly light weight when it came to exploring the great truths of the Christian faith.

These are the days when Christians in the West have to recognize that we have largely propagated a domesticated caricature of Christianity rather than the real thing.  We need serious theological reflection, a keen knowledge of the Scripture, a profound engagement with the world, a willingness to really listen to the doubts and questions of those around us, and sacrificial acts of service and witness in every arena of life.   The day of entertainment driven, attractional models of Christian witness must give room to deeply missional discipleship models.   My favorite blog response was a lay person who wrote in and declared “don’t underestimate the laity.”   Brothers and sisters, one of the most profound mistakes we have made is the assumption that we must dumb down to this culture because all they are interested in is simplistic solutions and easy answers.  What an insult to this generation!  What I have found is a generation crying out for a deeper call to a genuine, robust, Apostolic Christianity.   The believing mind and heart must find an expression that is appropriate to the nature of revelation.   Think about it.

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Another year


Another year another daylight saving and another title run-in for United. Really happy for another come from behind win, this time against the Hammers