What Now? What next?

"What Now?" is our post Easter question. What do I do next? What does this new opportunity hold? Where to with this? Where the heck am I ? These are all "what now?" questions.Down in the church foyer a pile of Christian newspapers turned up a week or so ago with "Eternity" as their title. That famous piece of graffiti that began in Sydney when Arthur Stace, a reformed alcoholic, became a christian and spread his gospel by writing "Eternity" on Sydney footpaths for over 30 years.

When I saw those papers I thought, "What now?". Well, have  a read. On page five is an article by Alan Nichols. Cheryl and I lived in Alan's old house when we first moved to Melbourne from the bush. What next?

Alan writes about the thousands of good Christian people who can no longer be bothered going to church. "The reality  in 2010 is that more believers don't go to church regularly than those who do", he says. But why? Reasons vary according to Nichols; abuses of power and trust; fussy liturgy; no respect for women; church being non participative; sermons that are irrelevant to life; no passion for justice; church life is boring and more.

"The nexus between believing and belonging is broken", says Nichols. He quotes Tom Frame (Retired bishop to the Australian Defence Force) as arguing that while 70% of Aussies believe this doesn't necessarily translate to belonging.

I frequently meet delightful 40 and 50 somethings who profess their christian faith and assure me that I seem like a very nice chap for a Vicar and that they have no intention of coming anywhere near my church, thanks very much! Interestingly, these folk are not infrequently people who have been Christian leaders in times past.

On the weekend of 12/13th June we are having a church camp. It's a conversation about the future, our future, in light of our past and a changing landscape, for Christians as much as anyone else. What now? -seems a pretty fair question. It's a weekend that anyone can come to both church attendees and those who don't attend. It will be a lot of fun and, I hope and pray, thoroughly intriguing.

If we are to endure well into the future maybe we need to be more like Alan Stace whose gospel message reached well beyond himself to almost become a slogan for the city of Sydney - how come? It was intriguing and left people wondering what now?

I commend the Eternity newspaper to you.

In Jesus' Adventure

Malcolm