A Gospel in every Sydney home!

[Stephen Brown]

Just saw an extract in the TMA about the Sydney Diocese recently having a "live feed" church service into over 200 churches and school halls across the region.  It was estimated that over 50,000 people attended church and saw this.  Wow...that's huge!  They plan to then go out and give every home a Gospel of Luke in the entire Sydney Diocese region.  

Can I say, that's impressive, positive, and encouragingly outward.  Can anyone fill me in more on this event and the obvious followup plan they have ready to go?

[Bogong]

Sorry, distributing scripture is well intentioned, but it's evidence of them :

a ) Having more money than sense.
b ) Having no idea about adult converts

If mass distribution of scripture was an effective method of evangelism, then why didn't the Gideons Bibles that used to be in most cheap and mid range hotel rooms have any effect? And why do most hotels eschew having Bibles in their rooms now? Because Christianity is at best seen as a quaint anachronism by most members of society and at worst it is seen as judgmental and intolerant.

Most of the Christians I know were either brought up by parents with faith or discovered Christ's message in adolescence, between their mid teens and early 20's. But it's entirely different for grown ups. As a yuppie "mature age" convert (I was 39), I found so much in Church doctrine that clashed with "secular morality" and which was exceptionally difficult to accept without faith because it contradicted so many things I had been taught about proper behaviour in our society.

But to find faith as an adult, one has to be prepared to abandon one's previous life, lay bare one's soul and beliefs and pray. The vicar that tutored me before my first communion commented that converts from my demographic were exceptionally rare. Put simply, almost no adults will convert unless they know active and practicing Christians. I was curious about Christianity for at least five years before I went near a church, but no one I knew had "come out" as a Christian, so there was no one I knew that I could ask about their faith.

If they want to convert people, they should mix more with ordinary secular society and understand the way that the 95% of the population who aren't Christians think and live their lives. One example of this insularity is the very inward looking Christian muso festivals where people preach (or in this case play) to the converted, rather than play in ordinary bands to non Christian audiences.

If people actively socially mix with non Christians and join groups without religious themes, they will be able to understand how and why some of the more purist interpretations of scripture alienate people who might otherwise embrace Christ's message. Just as importantly, if they quietly admit their faith (say by putting it on their Facebook page), they will be surprised be the number of curious questions they will receive. I certainly have been and I think at least one person I know is now undertaking their own search for faith.

[Jereth]

Sorry friend, I just can't help but ask: what exactly do you mean by-

"some of the more purist interpretations of scripture alienate people"

(emphases mine)

[I do agree with you, btw, that just handing out Bibles isn't the most effective form of evangelism. However I notice that Steve did also mention that the Sydney strategy includes live feed to venues which I presume includes exposition and personal contact with people.]

Thanks.
Jereth

[Bogong]

Well Jereth, it was a quickly written post (I should know better on this forum, as every word will be analysed). I was just about to rewrite much of it, but you beat me to it. I should have said "more selective interpretations of scripture" meaning taking one passage as a stand alone statement without looking at it in the context of the whole Bible and of the context it was written in and who it was written for.

I guess I was talking about many of the dilemmas faced by adult converts (i.e. over 25 years old) after living what they think is a reasonably "moral" life in secular society. Christian faith requires a lot of jumps and U-turns in many aspects of ones approach to living a "good" life. Many people struggle with these as they may seem contrary to the morality that is prevalent amongst the 95% of society that does not share our faith. I'm saying that Christians are a very small minority and if we are to evangelise, we should accept that before doing anything.

I'll go with an easy example. In most areas the Bible essentially preaches moderation and avoidance of self indulgence in living our everyday lives. Paul's suggests having a little wine with your dinner to aid digestion, while he frequently and eloquently rants against drunkenness. Likewise scripture accepts that consummating true and committed love is a permissible form of sexuality, but sternly warns against sexual perversion, fornication, etc. (depending on the translation). Again the message of moderation and avoiding self indulgence shines through and most potential converts will find it agreeable.

Despite these messages, various Christian influenced groups such as the Encratites and modern groups inspired by their ideas have argued for a total avoidance of sex, while Christian 'Total Abstinence Leagues' have argued that all consumption of alcohol is sinful and vigourously campaigned against any consumption of alcohol. (Look up the activities of the Revd W. H. "Wowser" Judkins and friends in Melbourne in the early 20th century.) This sort of selective (not purist as I wrote earlier) interpretation of scripture does as much to put back the cause of evangelism as does Richard Dawkins' equally selective use of scripture to argue that Christianity is a bad influence on the world which spreads intolerance rather than love.

Preaching a message of avoiding self indulgence and promoting moderation sits well with the sort of contemplative agnostics that may be drawn towards Christianity by well targeted evangelistic activities. But selective use of particular lines in isolation can be very, very damaging to the cause of spreading Christ's message of love for all people.