Atheists who once were christians
14 Apr 2012 17 Comments
in Culture Tags: Atheism, behaviour, christianity, christians, churches, reason, religion, western society
We can read the statistics which show that, in most western countries, church attendance has fallen in the last century. In some cases it is still falling, though in others it has levelled out. The ‘leavers’ are not necessarily giving up all belief in God – many list themselves as ‘not committed’ – but some are choosing to be atheists.
But this is all statistics. There is also a human face to these changes.
Is your church heading in the right direction?
09 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: Change the church, christianity, churches, doctrine, Leadership, making disciples, mission
Churches have been going through a remarkable revolution this past 50 years. Denominational barriers are much lower and less important. The Holy Spirit is more welcome. Christians are much more open to new ideas. But there is much more to come (I believe)!
One of the very positive influences on world christianity is the ‘simple church’ movement, and Felicity Dale (a sometime commenter on this blog) and her website Simply Church blog is one face of this movement. I subscribe to her blog and gain a lot of insight from it. And one brief recent post summed a lot of things up for me.
Training disciples to stand
03 Feb 2012 5 Comments
in Making disciples Tags: Belief, christians, churches, making disciples
I have been looking at the problem of christians losing faith and turning away from following Jesus (see Making disciples is a new game these days, Why do some christians give up belief?, and Do christians believe for irrational reasons?).
So what should we do about it?
How do we help young christians to be prepared for attacks on their faith, to be able to grow through doubt and questioning, and after all, to stand (Ephesians 6:13)?
Books: make your church a better place
10 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: Books, Change the church, christianity, churches, Leadership, making disciples, western society
Over the years I’ve read a lot of books about changing the church. Probably out of desperation, I think. Things really must change, and they are, but too slowly. I’ve read a lot of good books in that time, and bypassed a few that didn’t look so good.
But here’s four books I can recommend wholeheartedly. If you read them and take notice, they can hardly fail to challenge you and lead to your church being at least a little more effective in carrying out the mission Jesus left for us.
Barriers to belief: Exclusivity
30 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, christianity, christians, churches, doctrine, western society
A recent survey in Australia identified common barriers that made it more difficult for people to believe in Jesus or attend church. I think it is important that we christians consider these barriers, and do what we can to remove them. I have addressed one, Church abuse, and now I want to look at exclusivity.
Christian leadership
25 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, christians, churches, doctrine, Leadership, making disciples
Leadership is an important matter for christians. A fundamental aspect of being a christian is meeting with other believers in churches and other groupings. How these groups are led – that is, make decisions, form attitudes, gain knowledge and encourage each other – will have an enormous impact on our success in carrying out the mission entrusted to us.
What if we have got it badly wrong?
Barriers to belief: church abuse
22 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in Apologetics, Behaviour Tags: apologetics, behaviour, christianity, churches, ethics, mission
In Barriers to belief I reported that the biggest barrier to non-believers was the many much-publicised cases of sexual abuse within the church. How should christians respond to this?
Barriers to belief
16 Nov 2011 3 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, christianity, churches, God, Jesus, mission
Unlike America, christianity has never been very strong in Australia. Something like 70% believe in a god, and about 50% identify with a religion (40% christian, 10% other), but only around 10% attend church regularly. Most Aussies are not very interested in church. (This is perhaps understandable, with many good options available on Sundays: sport, the beach, barbecues, picnics or just relaxing, or even mowing the lawn.)
But an interesting new survey has studied the barriers to belief.
Burned at the stake?
10 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Doctrine Tags: christianity, churches, doctrine, religion
The stories keep on appearing – there’s definitely something happening here.
This time it’s the story of a keen mission-minded christian who was condemned by the ‘doctrine police’ for questioning a few of the less important doctrines of some sections of the church. So he left the church, to serve God in other ways.
Read Jeremy’s story at Till He Comes.
Sunday services vs discipleship
08 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, making disciples, mission
If you thought I was exaggerating in yesterday’s post when I criticised church plants and said “a maintenance church may resist change that will further the mission”, you should read this story of a successful pastor who tried to ‘go missional’, in Stories from the Revolution.
Plant a mission, not a church
07 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, Jesus, making disciples, mission
Jesus left us a big task (Matthew 28:19-20):
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The church in most western countries is not doing all that well on this task these days. I have argued that we are approaching things the wrong way, and that our present way of doing church is probably providing comfort more than obeying Jesus’ command. And I have suggested some ways the church might change to do better.
In this post I want to look at some better ways.
The church and God’s plan
04 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, Good news, making disciples, mission
I have discussed the decline in church attendance in western countries, asked why go to church? and looked at why sermons are a poor way of making disciples. So can we rescue the church from ineffectiveness and irrelevance? What might improve things?
Attracting people to church
11 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, making disciples, western society
If you attend a church, here is an interesting exercise. Think about your church’s regular services and its “outreach” activities. Do you try to make your services attractive to outsiders? Are the “outreach” activities held on church property? How many activities (whether evangelism or community service) are located in the community?
I want to suggest to you that your answers to these questions may give some clues as to why church attendances have generally fallen in recent years.
Why go to church anyway?
08 Sep 2011 5 Comments
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, New Testament
The church in the western world is losing numbers and influence. Should we christians be worried?
Is church as we know it important? And if so, why?
The future of the church
01 Sep 2011 4 Comments
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, God, western society
The church as an institution is losing ground in the western world. Most of us are pretty familiar with that. But what is its future? And what is the future of belief in God?
There are some interesting statistics on all this.
God without religion?
13 Aug 2011 4 Comments
in Doctrine Tags: christianity, churches, Old Testament, religion
A friend of mine (G’day T!) sent me this link to a new book called God Without Religion by Andrew Farley (he’s pastor of a church in Lubbock, Buddy Holly’s home town). I think it’s worth a look. Here are some quotes from the article:
Sermons and effective learning
30 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: churches, making disciples
After my last post on Why sermons?, Felicity Dale from Simply Church offered more evidence on effective learning. It merits repeating.
Why sermons?
27 Jul 2011 2 Comments
in Church Tags: christianity, churches
The sermon is generally the most important element of Protestant church services, but there are serious doubts about its effectiveness and Biblical basis.
Recent comments