Churchless Christian

Last night I attended a lecture at Massey University (Albany campus) by Professor Peter Lineham. Peter is a Christian who has combined his faith with academic analysis of trends in religion and church in New Zealand society over a long period of time. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~plineham/ A lot of what he showed in graphs and surveys and studies has some relevance to those who are now living more organically in the way we express our Christianity. Here are some of the more relevant notes I took below.

Ø The large majority of New Zealand Christians do not want to be members of a denomination.

Ø There have been far larger changes in N.Z worship patterns over the last 50 years than in Australia. In 2001, 46% of N.Zers did not acknowledge a religious connection compared to Australia where only 27% did not.

Ø 29.7% of N.Zers acknowledge that they used to belong to a religious group. Lineham says that there has been no proper academic study or analysis about what has happened and is happening with this sizeable group!

Ø The only sizeable denomination growing in N.Z is the Catholic Church but compared to 50 years ago when half attended mass every week only 20% do so now.

Ø In the statistics for the Pentecostal stream of churches growth appears to be static neither going up or down (I think, I found it hard to follow that graph!)

Ø Statistically speaking the Pentecostal church is phenomenally successful in reaching 14 to 25 year olds. The rates of attendance are far higher then the national geographical age spread. Basically the Pentecostal church is seeing incredible harvest with youth.

Ø BUT from the age of 30 the statistics for the Pentecostal church basically collapse and mainline along the bottom of the graph. It is the worst stream for the retention of members and attendees in every age group over 30. This has been shown over the last 20 years. So basically between 25 and 30 something happens to this harvest of youth either moving to non Pentecostal churches or leaving the church all together are the likely two options (my guess here).

Ø In the 1971 census the New Zealand Church became very feminised (far more Females than Males). This statistic has become worse with each preceding Census.

Ø Of interest Lineham said that there are currently 88 congregations with over 500 in membership in New Zealand meaning at least 50 000 N.Zers go to big churches. This seems neat and amazing but when questioned further Lineham said of these 88 churches, 22 were ethnic / cultural churches. A further 31 of them were Catholic Churches who because of the lack of Priests have consolidated there parishes. Also because the Mormon Church was being included, my guess it's that another 3 or so would be Mormon Churches. So from 88 congregations there are actually only 32 Protestant Churches with membership over 500 (not attendance remember) in the whole of New Zealand who are reaching mainstream (not ethnic minorities) New Zealand. So on average you have one of these churches of 500 for every 125 000 N.Zers. I am not sure if this is good or bad. (Remember this is my theory here not Lineham's, he just provided the stats at the top of this comment).

I wrote these thoughts from some notes I took on the night, so may not
be accurate.

The Good News or the Gospel. What is it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_news_%28religion%29 As a Christian is it obvious to us? Did Jesus clearly articulate and live out this obvious 'Gospel'? I wonder if this gospel is more blurred then the usual brick evangelical admits or has even considered. I Really enjoy Church History, and it never ceases to amaze me how the church over the centuries has considered and worked out 'the Gospel', much of it radically and diametrically opposed to some of the assumptions Evangelicals declare as obvious today.
For me I am wrestling not so much with what the content of the Gospel is but who it is for and how we outwork it. Today we have so individualised the Gospel message, yet when we consider the new Testement and church history so many have taken it as a message for families, tribes and for the majority of history the salvation of Nation States and salvation through a National church that is established. Perhaps the New Zealand Church is moving back to this. All N.Z Christians are being called to vote for the right wing, ushering a National lead Government into power, who will proclaim righteousness and peace and will establish Don Brash (double Adulterer) to oversee the salvation of the nation. I really can't wait for this, Salvation is at hand!

A summary of the Good News by C. H. Dodd

1. The Age of Fulfillment has dawned, the "latter days" foretold by the prophets. Acts 3:18-26

2. This has taken place through the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:22-31

3. By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has been exalted at the right hand of God as Messianic head of the new Israel. Acts 2:32-36

4. The Holy Spirit in the church is the sign of Christ's present power and glory. Acts 10:44-48

5. The Messianic Age will reach its consummation in the return of Christ. Acts 3:20-21

6. An appeal is made for repentance with the offer of forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and salvation.Acts 2:37-41

Andrew P posted a comment on my posting 'Creative Gatherings', I thought I would post it below, as it raises some good thoughts
I just thought I'd reintroduce some thoughts here about 'Creative gatherings', I made mention in a previous comment that the Brethren had some strengths that may be relevant to your interests. Some of the problems you have mentioned (ie: catering, lack of preparation, length of service etc...) I believe can be addressed by building a fellowship 'culture'. I will talk a little about that later.

Just as a closing thought about the need to be countercultural in the world we live in. Gardens need careful preparation before planting, and they also need lots of tending. Whilst I believe in the 'organic' church, it doesn't just 'happen' out of nothing, we have to remember that any organic practices in gardening require preparation and lots of 'extra' work. However (as organic church members) we also choose not to lean upon the poisoning synthetic chemicals ('additions' to the gospel message from our church 'backgrounds') to 'maintain control' of our (spiritual) gardens. Be encouraged however that over the long term those organic practices we have chosen to use, will bring about a healthier crop of spiritual fruit, and therefore 'organic house church' I believe is ultimately the better way for the body of Christ to go. (even more importantly as we head towards the last days before Christs return).

It was the day that a host of BBC executives and star presenters admitted what critics have been telling them for years: the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=411846&in_page_id=1770

I poached the knowledge of this article from www.tallskinnykiwi.com

Had Patrick over tonight. We yacked God, theology, the future, prayed etc etc. There is something powerful when guys come together in unity.

Sam the Mountain Biker

Had the big man to man talk with Sam today and then did some bonding at the Mountain bikeing track at Woodville Forest www.bikepark.co.nz
Hmmmm, perhaps its time to start a man-o-man mountain bikers church? Beards will of course be part of the doctrinal statement. Lucky we had the chat in the car before hand as he left me in his dust on the trail.

When we started on gathering in homes, it seemed so cool and radical to break out of the 1.5 hour service. It seemed so cool to take 3 or 4 hours, sharing, praying and eating. And the food, the meals, unbelivable, out of this world! Going to a service in a church seemed so gray and lifeless alongside what we experianceing. But After two years, what was a positive can also be a negative at times.

1. Because of the length of the gatherings, people are put off coming so regularaly and also put off loseing a whole Sunday when they have to host it.

2. It's been great to be participatry and we never want to lose it, but the problem is that alot of the time with everyone sharing it can drift, be shallow because of a lack of preperation and thought.

3. For the women (sounds sexist!) getting something decent prepared for the gathering has become a stress and a hassle, having to do it every Sunday.

I think one of the key answers is that 'Variety is the Spice of Life'. Anything no matter how amazing gets boring and stale without change and variety. In the end this happens when people show leadership, inititive and effort. If people stay on automatic pilot then the same thing happens week after week. In the end it takes inititive, planning, forward thinking and dare I say it some organisation to continually reinvent and bring creativity into this. Other then that I don't have answers at this time to these issues.

What a crappy long weekend. I thought that God had broken his promise and that a flood such as Noah's was upon us! We have been down looking after the Shepherds menagere at Papakura for the weekend. Kim is carrying down the line to Te Puke for the week with some of the kids and I am back at home looking at the lake called my lawn. We have heard reports of three family members and friends who are heading towards the line between life and death possibly in the next week or so, so we are just getting organised to get back on the road again.

So who actually is the writer of this blog with the bad spelling? http://homechurch.org.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2

Anybody want to buy a car?  Being fairly typical of my life just as I am about to sell, the car market has basically collapsed in N.Z with prices dropping about 10% in the last 6 months alone.  I got my car valued about 3 months ago, but basically looking at www.trademe.co.nz I will have to sell it for half its valuation even though its a sweet little car with very low km's.

Nationwide Church Attendance Said To Be Less Than Half of Previous Estimates

Overall U.S. church attendance is calculated to be 20% (60 million) of the current population (300 million), virtually unchanged from 15 years ago, even though the U.S. population has grown by 52 million people -- mostly unchurched. The northeast U.S. is the only region where the church is growing faster than the population, and no state has seen a net increase in the percentage of church attendance in the last 5 years. Even in the southern states, the traditional Bible Belt, the population is growing faster than the church. These statistics are according to Dave Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, and director of the American Church Research Project. Olson addressed the Mission America Coalition annual conference on its closing day about the state of the American church. Instead of relying on limited survey data which is then extrapolated to the entire population (which has resulted in reporting the attendance figure to be 40% of the population), Olson has worked for years to build a database of actual recorded attendance in over 300,000 churches across America. His vision was to present a more accurate picture of what's really happening to the American church at both the national and local levels, and with information refined down to individual zip codes. "I'm not relying on what people say, I'm measuring their actual behavior," he says.... http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/ZCS/CLB/Surprising+Stats+in+Church+Research.htm

"My dear we live in an age of transition"  (Adam speaking to Eve)

Wow, I just realised that this week we achieved twenty five thousand page views for this blog.  This may not be alot for some, but I was hoping at the start to have one or two people to check it out monthly so the number is pretty stoking!

This is devotions boys not transcendental meditation.  Praying not levitating.  The boys have become addicts of the show Chad Vader over on youtube, I wonder if this is having a bad effect
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3CiW838wNiM

Found a really interesting site about Xenos which is not a weight loss or sex drug but is actually the name of a church with an amazing story.  It's beginnings especially are incrediably inspiring for non institutional Christians.  Read more here
http://www.xenos.org/aboutxenos/history.htm

I mentioned yesterday that it will be 28 months since we entered the desert (or as someone said a 'dry baptisim'). Before I leave the desert and get into the Jordon (metophorically speaking)I want to do as the Israelites did. I think two significant points for us as a family are

1. God gave the Israelites a new set of rules to live by (10 commandments). For us I think we need to clarify what our new set of values are as we leave the old wine skin and go into the new. I think we are nearly there and we have had some great talks about this over a few wines. To make it nice and symetrical I am aimming for 10 values of course. Then what ever decisions need to be made we can have confidance as long as they line up with what our top 10 are. I hope to have that finished by the end of the month. I think that will mean that we are going to have to make some radical changes to the way we live and work.

2. The other thing is that the israelites before they crossed over built a memorial before the Lord. I think that this is important to us as a family also. The only way I can think of is to give money to someone or something, which means a bit at the momment as we are not flush during this desert time. I don't know if there are other ways of doing a memorial in the 21st century, perhaps i need to be more creative (not my strength!)

I reflected back to that time we heard Wolfgang Simson speak about stopping and doing nothing before launching into the new.
That was such a radical thing to be told it was okay as a Christian to stop and get detoxified of all the religon out of your body and hear God again. To go into the desert and hear God and encounter him anew. To die to all your old desires and come out afresh. I think there has been no argument that we have been doing this 'nothing' bit very well. Wolfgang mentioned that you should take a month off for every year you have been a Christian and double that if you were clergy. I worked out that it would take me 28 months to do that. At the time I thought no way! Well, at the end of this month (October) it will be, yes you guessed it, 28 months since Wolfgang spoke! Interestingly everything including our finances are pointing towards a breaking, a parting of the waters, literally a new way of living, a new way of gathering, a new way of faith as we attempt to establish a foothold over the Jordan.

Larger gatherings with food require good team work.

Men aren’t attending church! This is the cry of panic among many organized church attenders. There has been a rapid decline in the number of men attending church services. This decline has caused many leaders within religious institutions to embark on a search for answers. They are desperate to find some kind of method they can apply or program they can start that will draw men back into their institutions. This endeavor to get men back into religious gatherings has been the subject matter of countless articles in popular Christian magazines, the theme of some recently released books, and the hot topic on numerous Christian on-line forums. http://familyroommedia.com/Articles8.html
by Loren Rosser

myth: people in the ec don't go to church.

reality: the church is the body of believers. it is not a building nor an event on sunday morning. thus, we don't "go" to church because we "are" the church. but, we do gather locally with other believers for fellowship and edification, but this may take many forms such as a dinner in someone's home, hanging out

http://i-wonder-as-i-wander.blogspot.com/2006/10/myths-about-emerging-church.html Is a site dealing with emergent church myths which is similar I think to Organic church.

I found it through going to www.tallskinnykiwi.com

I have been really interested latterly about finding out more about the origins of the Brethren Movement. The reason I am interested is that they did not believe in clergy and also they were and are very strong in private and small business. I personally think this is the way to go, to combine God's calling with being fruitful in the world. I am looking at some options myself as I would like to have a business that I can work at, but also frees me up to go out and do what God has called me to do.
In New Zealand the Brethren Movement has always been the biggest sponsor of missions because it does not tie up its money in clergy. It's sad that they seem to be moving away from these beliefs now.
The closed brethren have been in the public eye latterly in a negative way. But one cannot deny there influence is mush larger then there numbers because they have the resources and influence from all being involved in leading there own successful businesses and no clergy. So what you have are business savvy men, who are open to operating within the church and in business, and with loads of cash. Imagine if we could do this in a positive way? (sorry for the spelling)

I have been thinking about this in regards to the gathering I hang out with in 'the real world' and the discussion groups and forums I hang out with in cyber space. Hanging out with real people is great and fulfils a deep seated desire to be with others 'like us'. Also I think the New Testament does encourage us to meet regularly with others and to be interconnected as one body of Christ.

BUT! One thing with belonging to a group is that for the group to function reasonably effectively a middle road in everything has to be taken. From the food you bring to eat (which most people need to like!), to what you share, and even the prayer requests you bring are impacted by group conformity. No matter how non conformist a group is it is still very conforming. I don't think this is wrong, its just one of the building blocks of civilisation in the end (this is just my personal opinion). In the end a group must avoid as much as possible conflict or divergent thinking that is just reality if it wants to flow reasonably well. I think that to desire otherwise is just nirvana (unreality). I think sometimes we try and see the New testament through rose tinted spectacles, but there groups struggled with conformity just as much (if not more so) then we do today. For example people conforming to Jewish dietary law and circumcision would have been driven a lot by group conformity (the others in my network of believers are doing it, so should I)

The interesting thing about cyber space is that group conformity is not so relevant and therefore honesty and truth are more easily accessed, and conflict not so quickly avoided. I must admit I have never belonged to an online church etc, so I don't know how that works. Though I did attend `churchoffools' when it first opened two years ago. I decided I better leave when a young lady with blonde hair sat on my lap while I was sitting in the pew, to the hysterical laughter of my children!

I guess what I am saying is that I have found people more truthful about how they feel online, and they are more confidant to disagree. I also think it is a safer place to learn new things and even change your opinion. This is where I find blogging a really brilliant vehicle in regards to learning with the added bonus of hearing divergent reflections (which you do not get from reading a book). Being honest I have found this discussion groups conversation about the Bible more stimulating and effective then anything I have done in Church or gatherings so far. I learned, I was challenged, I had to think through what I believed, to coherently write down what I thought, I had to get a clear understanding of what I believed and why I believed it, brilliant! Really you can't get better then that.

With technology still rapidly moving in this direction as Christians `cyberspace' is going to become more and more part of our relational reality, which for me I think is exciting. Hopefully new technologies will overcome some of the shortcomings and blocks that are currently there to stopping real community.

Feel free to diverge!

THIS year marks the centenary of the birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - German pastor, peace activist and committed social democrat - who was hanged in April 1945 for his involvement in the armed forces' conspiracy against Adolf Hitler. http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/its-time-to-fight-for-the-true-christian-principle-of-compassion/2006/10/03/1159641321957.html by Kevin Rudd
Regrettably, much of this social justice tradition of Christianity has been drowned out by a new brand of political Christianity which is being systematically exploited in Republican America and John Howard's Australia (and New Zealand). It is a brand of Christianity that celebrates private morality and personal prosperity alone - to the virtual exclusion of equity, solidarity and compassion. It is also a brand of Christianity that carries with it the below-the-radar message that the National Party is the natural party of God.

Kids and Kim had a great time up at the farm these holidays. Milking time girls!

New Zealand's Christians are confused when they mix up being morally right wing with being economically right wing, they are not the same thing. In New Zealand today the most morally conservitive party is the Maori party. The most morally conservative area in New Zealand is South Auckland with its high Pacific Island poppulation and high Maori. Culturally they are very conservative about things such as family values, anti abortion, and against homosexuality yet it is the power block of the Labour party because they are economically left. See Tapu Misa's comments today on the New Zealand herald for more on this. www.nzherald.co.nz She also talks about the danger of churches getting involved in right wing politics.

"When we present Jesus as a pro-war, anti - enviroment, pro - nuclear weapons authority figure we are making a travesty of the portrait of Jesus we find in the Gospels." Brian D. Mclaren