Thursday, March 22, 2007

Readers, sit up and read this . . . . .

This would have to be one of the most controversial and important blogs for the church and people to read. Have a look.
Scotts Blog

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, speaks a lot doesn't it.

In reading the blog a tv advert and song came into my head. It goes "All you have wanted is this, All you have wanted is this" It continues along that line throughout the advert showing images of fun, excitement, fashion, lifestyle etc etc. I'm sure you have experienced the advert before. It is an advert promoting a local large church in Adelaide South Australia.

From a marketing point of view, its a good concept. Realising who the target market is. And creating an advert to appeal to their self interests. Thus making it attractive for them to seek out this church and attended.

Lets attract people seeking a lifestyle (be it a christian lifestyle) rather than reaching out to people with the Good News of our Lord Jesus.

As the blog points out, its the wrong way of thinking.

Anonymous said...

I've been spending some time getting involved in youth activities at my church of late.

Sitting around having breakfast with a few friends one morning we reflected how good it was when we were young (not that todays society would call me old now) how good it was hanging out on a friday evening in a social enviroment.

From this reflection we decide, hey lasts hang out again like that on fridays, and if people want to join us thats great. So this created the start of what I will call Friday Night Socials, open to anyone who wants to get together, share socially with each other and build relationship.

Sounds great......though I quickly come to realise, we haven't started a casual socially environment to enjoy each others company. We have actually started a youth group, and along with a youth group comes the potential relately of needing to develop a youth program to cater for all the needs of people in attendence.

I am also realising you can't be involved within a youth group with a youth program without being a youth leader.

So for me, from the simple desire of wanting to hang out in a social enviroment and invite others to join. I have become, as required, a youth leader.

Thus its appears hard to just have relationship, without the rest coming with it also

T said...

Thanks for pointing us to that very worthwhile read..

Personally, I can remember the 'Power Team' coming to Adelaide something like fifteen years ago, so this is no new trick. It's definitely the kind of event where you would feel embarassed or even ashamed at the end of it if you had an unsaved friend sitting next to you. I did.

Like so many Christian endeavours, it has the potential to reach a couple, and isolate thousands. How do we feel when someone rings up on saturday morning telling us we've won a free phone and all we have to do is make the monthly payments? I find it just as morally offensive.

It also tends to promote the Christian life in a way that could generate unrealistic expectations, especially for younger audiences. We all want to be powerful, lots of us would like to be able to bend steel bars and all that pish. The fact remains that signing up for Christ might not achieve those results in your life. You might in fact be signing up for a life of self-less suffering and hardship. It's just not that honest, is it..?

Anonymous said...

Hi! Just read that very interesting blog - and all the replies! (also a good procrastination tool from uni work)Wow! Its cool to have so many people debating this issue - can only know that God will use EVERYTHING for His good, and sounds like some good will come out of it for the church in Perth.
Craig - re. the youth group stuff - its so true! How do you 'do church (or a youth group)' without the pretty accessories....pretty accessories that take up SO MUCH time and energy. How do you create a social group, a 'youth' group without being a 'youth leader', being a 'youth leader' requires police checks, training, leadership etc, etc. And if we do it without all of these things are we being responsible in serving the youth that it is set up for? How do we simply just 'build relationsip'? And why is it so hard????

Glenn Globber said...

Good q's, I reckon to be pondering esp what Craig and Michelle are saying.
Why is building relationships so hard specifically to a certain age group eg young people.
I have a feeling it has to do with the institutional framework of the local church. Maybe it's too difficult to work around, maybe not, it's good to discuss though.
Personally i think I've seen ministry such as a 'youth group' start with great intentions only to find it swallowed up by politics and institutional structure when all it needed to be was Jesus with skin on. Somehow there needs to be a freedom to release people into their giftedness without having to come under some hindrances of structure and politics. I think we as a 'Churched' people also need to see that ministry can take place through the relationships we already have and that these relationships can be cross-generational. I'd like to walk through this one a bit more.