Hard Words for the Australian Church
As part of the "Christianity in Australia" synchroblog, Hamo from Backyard Missionary makes some pretty blunt comments on the state of the Aussie church.
The unfortunate thing is ... I think, for the most part at least, he's on the money.
Here's a snippet of what he has to say;
Have a read of the rest HERE - then check out the links to the other participants in the same synchroblog.
I’m so tired of hearing preachers rant about ‘taking our city for God’, or taking the nation’. For one thing I don’t think people like being ‘taken’, and for another I don’t think anyone really wants to do it. Sure you might get a few wild eyed young people fired up and nutso the day after a Planetshakers conference, but talk to them in 6 months about their plans for ‘taking the city’ and chances are (if they are still in church) that they won’t even remember the whole thing.
4 comments:
welcome back mate :)
Thanks! We'll see how long it lasts this time :)
Andrew ~ Welcome back to the blog world! There are remnants of that same mentality in the U.S. I wonder if it is of God. Does he want us to take a city or nation for him? It almost sounds like the Crusades! I think we come up with these grand and gimmicky plans because taking the city, as in running some sort of program, is easier than loving our neighbor.
Hi Glenn - I think it's empire thinking (as opposed to kingdom thinking) and the crusades are a great analogy and probably also represent the fruit of this kind of thinking.
There is something comforting about speaking in this way - it implies action and advance and results. It kind of reminds of the first century Jew's attitude toward Jesus or at least toward their expectations of the Messiah. They wanted a Messiah that was going to come and "take" their city back from the Romans.
Maybe the church, in perpetuating this kind of thinking is looking for the same kind of Messiah?
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