Mark Broadbent
So many people I've met have told me that there's a reason we are not experiencing evangelistic success in Australia: 'Australians are just too hard to reach'. I certainly agree that we are not the most spiritual nation on Earth, but I just can't buy into their argument.
HERE'S WHY:
We've given Australians every reason to walk away from Christianity...
1. Catholic priests committing pedophilia
2. TV evangelists asking for money
3. Boring Chapel Services at Private High Schools
4. Boring Church Services :)
5. Ned Flanders (I love the Simpsons, but Ned is not helping our cause)
(If you're not sure you agree, just watch an episode of The Chasers. They regularly find reasons to pay out Christians).
Yet the stats tell us that quite a lot of unchurched Australians are at least somewhat open to Christianity...
o 68% of unchurched Australians believe in God, while 28% of unchurched Australians believe in Jesus' divinity.
o 63% of unchurched Australians identify themselves with a Christian denomination.
o 25% of unchurched Australians attend church at least once a year.
o 24% of unchurched Australians claim to have significant confidence in churches.
o 17% of unchurched Australians claim to be sympathetic to churches.
o 12% of unchurched Australians claim that they are at least somewhat likely to become a more frequent church attender, while another 14% claimed that they were unsure.
o 1 in 6 six unchurched Australians claim that they would come to church if a friend invited them, while a further 2 in 6 are unsure.
(Australian Community Survey, 1998)
Can we really argue that Australians are not open to the gospel?
Reply
We've given Australians every reason to walk away from Christianity...
1. Catholic priests committing pedophilia
---I don't think it has been US as most-all of the pedophillia that was going on was happening in the overseas catholic churches like in England etc.
2. TV evangelists asking for money
---If you say that tv evalgelists asking for money is an excuse for making Australins walk away from Christianity, then aren't you also saying that Sunday morning church services asking for money (i.e. offerings) is also making Australians walk away from Christianity?
3. Boring Chapel Services at Private High Schools
---Unfortunatly these services are only seen as boring as most kids themselves are not Christians, and prefer to do their own thing. However, at my high school we have a service every term, called Lifetime. The chaplincy organises guest speakers and bands to come in and play. They perform 4 times in the day, once for every grade up till yr 10 then the fourth time for yr 11 and 12. This is not boring, and I know from a fact that the last one we had, God was moving in it, as I could feel his presence really strongly. So I wouldn't say all services are boring...
4. Boring Church Services :)
---I don't find this one that funny...i think that the only reason church services are considered 'boring' is because the person is too busy focussing on their own adgendas at the time of the service, and is not satisfied because its not what THEY expected or they are too focused on THEMSELVES to care about the service, so they miss the first half of the service, getting distracted by their thoughts, then tone back in for the last half and have no clue what is being said cause they missed the first bit...sad but true sometimes..
5. Ned Flanders (I love the Simpsons, but Ned is not helping our cause)
---Yes Ned Flanders is put into the Simpsons as a mockery character of Christianity. He is the guy that is 'Christian' and alsways gets teased, mocked, abused etc. He even gets killed in one episode.
This to me is a bad thing, especially since he is the devil in all the horror Simpsons films.
Yhis is putting across a bad message to the young people, as at my school I heard a (he calls himself an athiest) talking about the Simpsons and was saying its funny how Ned is a Christian and yet he is also the Devil and he was making some comments about this...