Upbeat or half empty - how do you see it?

I like musings to be positive and upbeat rather than grim and half empty. You might see this reflection either way.Lots of great things are happening right now around me: wonderful pastoral care, spiritual growth, people on the cusp of faith decisions, a chock-full women's retreat, some brilliant personal outreach, terrific energising study groups and James' exploration and soon launching of new mission adventures. Really good news.At the same time as the good news above, some folks are really struggling. This juxtaposition of good news with bad news is normal in the spirit realm. It feels like a battle is going on. As God's covenant people, we have everything in Christ but it sure doesn't look like it from a worldly view point.For me this week, there was a sense that the bad news battle stepped up to a whole new level. It started with my non-church bike buddies asking me first up Tuesday morning whether I'd found any bracelets recently? It rolled on with conversation after conversation that implied that, if not me personally, then certainly the organisation I represent, is ‘on the nose’!This all culminated with me picking up the Eternity newspaper, only to read on the front, "Christians have come to be seen no longer as merely irrelevant but are seen as a threat to the culture. People are not just bored with us, they are angry at us" (Moore College Principal, Mark Thompson, on the world that the new generation of ministers face).Now this could shut Christians up for good or, at the very least, damp down spirits. But what I see is a great new opportunity for good news to invade bad news. The question for us as Christians is, "Forget church. What is good news about the life I live with Jesus?"We recently studied Paul's letter to Titus. It's message is: Be good news people who do good news things! But that character and conduct isn't uniquely Christian, it's just good! The good we are and the good we do is just the context for the salt who is Jesus. Goodness is not the message but it’s essential to carry the message. Failure to do good is bad news. The institution we represent has become bad news. It doesn't matter if the world's judgement is fair or not. This is just what we face.So, what does this mean? It means that increasingly the only context through which people will see Jesus is through you and the quality of your life. You are the medium who, by your good deeds, earn the privilege of sharing God's message. There is no other. The institutional church is now a major obstacle to God's message of love, salvation, reconciliation and hope.So, depending how you see things, that's either really bad news or it presents a whole raft of creative good news possibilities.  Worth discussing over morning tea, methinks!Blessings, Malcolm