I had felt for quite a while that Australian churches weren’t really impacting Australia, like we could or should.. like what happened in the Bible. I couldn’t see the blokes at high school coming along to youth group (though ironically some of the tougher guys did And I was frustrated with the lack of progress I was experiencing with the guys at work.

There was no way that the blokes there would come along to church or home-group!

In fact, I wasn’t even interested in getting them to church. Most of the blokes I dealt with had a low view of Christians and Pastors and churches. And church attendance wasn’t exactly in their diary.

That’s not to say I don’t think they didn’t entertain the idea of a biblical God existing. Nor have an appreciation of those who gave selflessly to help those in need. But they did have a problem with …

• Hypocritical Christians
• Preachers telling them what to do when they themselves had big expensive churches, flash cars, asking for money and getting caught in compromising scandals.. and that they were telling others what not to do … all when there are starving kids and people who need help.
• The paedophilia scandals
• Religions causing wars/terrorism
• Evolutionary and other belief systems and lifestyles, that were largely God-gospel resistant
• Christians’ lack of tolerance for alternate belief systems, and other lifestyles
• Bad experiences with a Christian
• Judgmentalism
• And why God would let innocent children suffer

[note : I am referring to perception, without addressing the validity of the perceptions]

You’ll have to forgive me, but back then I was kind-of a long way off considering church planting when it seemed to me that the average un/pre-churched Aussie had such a low opinion of Christians and the church.

To be honest, I would have killed just to see a slight change in people’s underlying negative perceptions of Christians, the Church and … ultimately our Creator. That being said, I can guarantee you that the average Aussie can pick the ‘real thing’ faster than you can say, “Can I tell you about Jesus..” and has a finely tuned ‘bulldust filter.’

Part of our problem is that they can see through us better than we can see ourselves.

But when the then Training Director brought some Pines students to help our local church at Kawana, I said to myself… ‘Here is a group of (young) people who could change the world.’

 And to me, they were dynamic and different to the young denominationally-trained pastors I had come across. I thought the young pastors I had met were awesome and committed Godly people and effective at what they were trained for.

But I saw these Pines students as people that could relate to and impact normal average Aussies (perhaps a bit like school chappys were doing). From where I sat, they were down to earth, full of life and love .. and had something different. And I figured that something good must have been going on, up the hill at The Pines.

And I wanted to get some of whatever they had, into me … 

If there was one aspect of The Pines’ training that I found most helpful, it was the cross cultural ministry training that I received. (Indigenous Theology, Ministry relevant to Australians, and Cross Cultural  Ministry).

The trainers explained how we could integrate and gain acceptance into different cultures and then transplant ‘the gospel’ … and allow the gospel to transform ‘their culture.’ (Hopefully not us transferring ‘gospel + our culture.’) But this required us to bridge the cultural barriers and challenges, which is hard work.

Then I began to realise the cultural divide between average Aussie culture … and our Australian Church culture. And every time we ask someone into our church culture, we are expecting them to bridge the cultural gaps.. and for them to become like us. We don’t realise how crazy we are

Hence, Jesus’ command to …‘Go!!’ ..and make disciples. Not… ‘tell them to ‘come,’ and be discipled.’… (though I’m not going to argue if they do).

I’ve learnt that there is a spiritual dynamic at work, and that when I jump on the train .. or go to a community, that I need to acknowledge that God is above every power and authority, and that it is ‘His’ work .. not mine. If I can get away from my distractions, and do this .. I have found it amazing how He brings things up and generates Godly instances, that I couldn’t concoct.

And I have had a revelation of God’s desire to extend his ‘grace and peace’ to us, and through us .. to the world.

I realise that we (.. or maybe just ‘me’…) are perhaps better at putting our laws and values and expectations on the world… and ultimately our judgements … rather than extending His Grace. If a person gets more acceptance and appreciation and love at the local bowls club or rave dance club or bikie gang … than the church they walk into, we have a big problem.

If they receive Grace there, and judgement and exclusion in our churches because they haven’t met our cultural norms, then we have a problem. And we’ve got heaps of norms for them to navigate, haven’t we?

I now view the sporting clubs and my workplace as a foreign tribe, that I need to integrate with … learn their cultures and ways … and then look for God-created opportunities that allow the things of God to be transplanted into that culture. I apply cross cultural and missionary principles to the Aussie communities I am a part of.

Have I seen any conversions? … No. Well, actually I have … but they are micro-conversions, of hearts and minds and perceptions and attitudes. One could say that they are small increments on the evangelism scale.

To me, we simply have to ‘Go’ … and just ‘hang-out with them.’ We might have to risk compromising our holiness (ha ha! Go and do their stuff with them, in their environment. For me, that meant going to a ‘buck’s party’. For me, that means riding a motorbike, risking death and painful injuries… crazy stuff.

An outward gospel.

We need to ‘wrestle’ with them … on their turf, and gain their respect somehow. We need to find out what tends to open doors in that culture, and what closes the door in that culture. To become one of them, that we might win them… whilst somehow remembering that we are an ambassador for Christ.. representing Him, and His kingdom. 

 Jesus lowered himself and hung-out in a sinful grotty world that really grated against Him… and literally killed Him. And in doing so, He won that world for His father. I suspect that we need to do that, in the cultural microcosms that we interact with.

I believe there was a subtle theological shift in our country that has had a tremendous impact upon us and I think this happened almost without being noticed.

I remember it now because I was preparing for ministry at the time. I was at Bible College.

Here’s my theory.

The shift away from a sound theology of the Kingdom of God occurred in Australia, I think, somewhere between 1976 and 1981. It wasn’t sudden, but that was the point when I believe it became discernible.

There were two major factors. The first was the popularity of the mega-church model and the belief that the local church was the hope of the world. There is some truth to this latter idea of course, but there is a theological shift here that I think is unhealthy.

The other major factor I discerned was the false confidence born out of the Church Growth Movement. I don’t blame the movement leaders for this and I hasten to add that there were a lot of good things to come out of this movement. But in the hands of many practitioners, it birthed a false confidence in the church itself and a subtle shift away from the Kingdom.

It had an effect on the content of the Gospel we preached as well as the ideas that inspired us as believers.

What happened was that our ecclesiology became the lens through which we understood and interpreted the Kingdom.

We didn’t reject the idea of the Kingdom – this was a subtle shift and not a dangerous doctrinal plunge into oblivion!

But the effects, slow and small at first, have now become a problem of mammoth proportions.

What were these effects? Well first there was a lowering of conversion rates across the board in our local churches. Have a look at conversion rates now – it’s not a healthy picture. Then, there was a slowing in the rate of young catalytic leaders (both men and women) signing up for fulltime mission or ministry and finally, the issue closest to my heart, a slowing or even stopping in some places, to church planting and even evangelism generally.

Now I acknowledge there were additional issues arising out of post modernity, but I still think my theory holds.

Now we find the tide turning again.

Now, everywhere I go, I am aware of concern for the Kingdom of God and with this theological shift I am praying for a return in conversion rates; in the re-mobilisation of our catalytic leaders and in church planting. 

I hope it will happen like this, but I’m concerned that it won’t because so much cultural and western philosophy has to be stripped away from our notions of the Kingdom to get ourselves anywhere near the point of renewal.

But it’s worth a fight. Let’s think through our theology of the Kingdom again. It’s time!

I discovered (no pun intended) that until recently no one has really tried to measure the increasing difficulty of discovery. The name given to this new type of research is called ‘scientometrics’.

Once upon a time, it seems like discovering brand new things/theories/places was really simple. Article after article was published by brainy people across a broad range of fields containing discoveries that were breath taking and, in many cases, awe inspiring (how to travel faster than the speed of sound, the invention of the cochlear implant, VOIP technology). The reality was it only took creativity, some time and the ability to ask the right questions to come up with a new discovery. For example, the author of the Boston Globe article reminds us that Galileo rolled objects down hills. Robert Hooke played with a spring to learn about elasticity. Isaac Newton poked around his eye with a darning needle to understand colour perception (and yes, you did read that right).

Now days it would seem this is a thing of the past. No simple rubber band game on a Monday afternoon. We need a massive team numbering in the thousands and an atom smasher which costs more than GDP of many smaller countries on this earth.

You can see why governments and large companies are keen to learn as much as possible about ‘scientometrics’ even if it is just to see the best (and by best I mean most economical) way of making scientific discoveries.

Surprisingly, even in the early days of discoveries the very beginnings of ‘scientometrics’ can be seen. People recorded the number of yearly articles published about insights. Some study regarding monetary grants has shown the average age of scientists who receive grants from the National Institutes of Health has increased and the younger scientists have been given less. The young guns are missing out!

Mmmm… perhaps we should employ some ‘scientometrics’ to Christendom. Do we really give the ‘kiddies’ a chance? When was the last time churches really risked a LOT (including money) on someone who perhaps was not yet proven? I’m not suggesting we forget the character of a person. But I am suggesting that we show some trust in who the person could become.

My denomination has introduced a new scheme for Professional Personal Development. Something which I support… Something I am even willing to pay for… But here is the thing. The process grates. For example, the default position is that those who have been in ministry for more years than you can count MUST get with the program. Seriously, if you have been in ministry for so long and you aren’t involved in some sort of professional personal development, then I would suggest you stopped being a good leader many years ago.

However, those experienced leaders who have been around for some time and who not only value professional personal development but have themselves been dedicated to helping others develop must now take time out of their schedule and get with the program. What a waste of time! And worse still, it’s a bit of a slap in the face. It tells them “we don’t care what you have been doing, we don’t value it. You must do what we say.”

They’re the good guys. I think what may happen with the “not-so-good” guys might be even more scary. The rumblings have it that men who have been in ministry for a certain number of years will be matched up with young leaders to mentor them. Hmmmm. It’s ok if the older leaders are good mentors, good leaders and whole-hearted followers of Christ, but what if they’re not?

If, regardless of leadership ability or character, the older leaders mentor the young leaders because,  ‘We have been in ministry for such a long period of time, we have the answers, we can, no we should, mentor all the newbies’, we should shoot this horse now.

Perhaps for the future of the denomination we should match some of those kind of older leaders up with some of the young guns – not so the young fellas can learn from them, but rather, that they could follow the young leaders around for some time, walk with them and see what they can teach their elders!

I know that sounds egotistical, but the truth is that I am not a young guy anymore nor am I an experienced older leader…I’m a bit in-between J

Now moving on… hobby horse has been shot… In ‘scientometrics’  a term has been identified as the ‘exponential decay’. The exponential decay is a curve that illustrates the ease or lack thereof of each discovery every year.

 Interestingly, the curve shows the ease of discovery doesn’t stop by the same amount every year, but rather it declines by the same fraction each year. For example the discovered asteroids get 2.5 percent smaller each year. What this shows is that while the ease of discovery drops off quickly as early researchers pick the more obvious discoveries, it can continue to ‘decay’ for a long period of time. It gradually gets harder without anything actually becoming impossible.

In other words, while discovery can become extremely difficult, it does not mean that it stops. But the key thing is it does reveal what kind of resources we may need to continue to discover things.

To counteract the force of exponential decay and maintain discovery at the current pace, researchers will need effort that meets an exponential increase. So as we discover smaller and smaller particles, or slightly heavier chemical elements, you can’t just expend a bit more effort. Sometimes you have to expend much, much more.

How many of us have experienced the same sort of ‘exponential decay’ with churches?

I am reminded of a chapter from a book by Erwin McManus regarding a condition known as atrophy… a wasting away from lack of use. I have seen some real keen evangelists have tremendous success within churches, leading people who have been church goers for years to Christ. Most of these evangelists have been our more traditional ‘proclaimers’. God bless these people! They devote themselves to the cause. And as a result they pay a price… a price many of us are not willing to pay. Some of those proclaimers have lost to a degree the ability to reach an increasingly isolated-from-the-church and cynical Aussie.

In recent years a new breed of evangelist has emerged who has discovered a “new” way of influencing people and making culture different. This group of people has little regard for the atrophy suffered in the local church and devote themselves to ministry largely outside the established status quo. These people have very little desire to be part of anything that focuses on the needs and wants of the “saved” over the needs and wants of those still outside the Kingdom.

In my mind these people are the ones we need to be spending our time and money on. We should not only be spending time and money of them, but we need to expand our resources in order of magnitude to counter the exponential decay. Scientometrics in the church. Who would have thought?!

 As an Australian I am envious. Why can’t this happen in my land? Garrison and Ed Stetzer write that two significant barriers are our requirement to have professional pastors and expensive plant for every Church.  I admit that these two factors can be significant obstacles to Church planting but I suspect that we should look at a deeper level into our own cultural environment.

 Why? In the story Jesus told about the Sower the two common denominators were the seed and the Sower himself. The aspect that most impacted on the result of the sowing of each seed was the condition of the soil!

So why is the Australian “soil” not conducive to the rapid acceptance and spread of the Gospel of Jesus?

 Of course, my question contains at least two assumptions that I am testing.  The first assumption is that there is such a thing as one Australian cultural identity to which all Aussies adhere. The second is that Australians in general are more resistant to the Gospel than people in non-Western countries where thousands are coming to Christ regularly.

 In regard to the first assumption, I want to briefly say that whilst there may be a broad cultural Aussie umbrella under which we all generally fit, we are better described as a multi-ethnic people. Think about how many teams Aussies cheer for in the World cup!

 In regard to the second assumption, I thank God that in my ministry (over 40 years) I have had the great privilege of leading people to Christ from many different Aussie cultural backgrounds – farmers, uni students, business people, nuclear physicists; boat people from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia; Latin Americans, Chinese,  Egyptians and Lebanese.  So I know that there are people in each of these Aussie ethnic groups who have been receptive to the Gospel.  But the reality is that many are not interested! Some of my evangelist friends now spend much time preaching overseas with great benefit. But they have few opportunities here. Is this an indicator of resistance or irrelevance?  My son and his wife lead a Church plant team.  They are winning some people from the community  through the slow process of building life long relationships with neighbours and friends who do not know the Gospel. Another young guy who is a Pines graduate leads teams of young people to do what we used to call “street fishing” every Friday night. They ask permission to share the Good news with people on the streets in a few minutes.  There is no relationship, but they are successfully winning young people to Christ and discipling them.  These are two different forms of evangelism but they are both working.  Do they indicate receptiveness?

 The bigger question is, are there discrete groups of Aussies who are coming to Christ in significant numbers?  Ten years ago, the most rapidly growing Australian Churches were those planted among the Chinese people.  Is this still true? If so, what can the rest of us learn from this experience?

 I think we should be seriously researching the Australian “soil” and methods of “harvesting and sowing” that are proving to be effective.  I would like to hear from you about effective evangelism and people that you have found to be open to the Gospel. Let’s learn from each other.  Can you help me?

[podcast]http://www.pinestraining.com.au/podcasts/05-life-questions.mp3[/podcast]