 |
Welcome |
 |
More about us |
 |
Diary & Information |
 |
Community Café |
|
Clubs |
|
Contact Us |
|
Movie pages |
BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004A few questions... I have been asked by a KBCTC student to answer a couple of questions as part of his research for his final major assignment. I thought I would post the answers in case you are interested. Tell me if I am making no sense... "Frank Hope the following is something like you had in mind... Que 1: What is the purpose of my local church [what are my objectives]? The purpose of my local church is to embody the reality of the gospel for the sake of the world. This is achieved by being a community of Jesus' followers, living out the realities of kingdom living in every day life. The disciples are called both individually and corporately to live intentionally missional lives - living out the gospel for the sake of others. This mission can be summed up by: Reaching in love, non-preferentially and unconditionally, and including in openness and invitation. The 6 purposes of the local church I have summed up as follows: Live lives of worship; Create community; make disciples; reach in love; include in openness and invitation; reproduce. Each of these function as 'church' challenges and as 'missional' challenges, i.e. an authentic Christian life is a missional life. Que 2: What do you perceive to be the needs of the local community? This question can be taken at a number of levels - felt needs, perceived needs, spiritual needs, physical needs, emotional needs etc. Most people I think would put their basic need as 'how can I be happy', 'where can I get my next buzz from'. This is a 'perceived' need that the church needs to be aware of, but probably not meet head-on. Maybe that all hides an underlying emptiness and dissatisfaction. I think one of the biggest issues there is one of loneliness and isolation. Communities are breaking down; technology reduces real people contact and makes communication less personal and shallow, even if more frequent. Most people complain of the 'busyness' of life and increasing stress. It is hard to say what any one direct cause might be of that - but it is there across the social spectrum it seems to me. People would benefit from church creating community and creating 'Space for life'. Que 3: How do you think that changes in culture have affected the approach that your church connects with the community? Cultural changes: post-christendom - most people are aware of Christianity, even if their own contact with it was very minimal or non-existent, and they think they know what it is all about, and don't like it very much. Church has to change from being a meeting that people visit to being a community that people encounter in their streets and workplaces. It must be action based not talk based. Christianity must be presented as something that transforms life and equips people to live wisely. Commitment changes - people don't commit to big organizations much any more [across the board]. Church needs to be a community of people who value each other and where each person makes a difference. Relativism - in a tolerant society the only thing that is not tolerated is intolerance. Christianity is seen as intolerant, Christianity has to move from being judgmental and on its high horse to making real differences in people's lives. In a relativist society the winner is the one that produces the results ["results" - that really needs to be unpacked...]. Post-modern - increasingly society is not dominated by 'reason' but by 'what works for me', what feels right/makes me happy and by reality defined by community. Much more could be said here. Church needs to be a place that allows exploration in a safe community context, not that seeks get people to believe some reasoned truth statements, but that allows people to encounter the Truth - Jesus and experience his transforming and empowering work in their lives. That'll do for now. Frank, hope that helps. A few random thoughts really. Could expand on them if you want. Mark" Posted by: Mark | 3:40 pm |
|
