Bad Timing

I was sent on a course by my Principal today, with a colleague in the Maths faculty. He dropped me off at the site where I left my car this morning.

It was a training evening for my own college until 6:15, and having been out all day and arriving back at 4:30, I thought I might get off a bit earlier than the rest of the college....

... except that I arrived to get into my car just as the Principal was in the car park!

So I've gone to the training session after all :-( Didn't want to arrive in the middle of a session so thought I would write this.

Oh well, take away tonight then....

Consumer Society

Some people are always after the latest and best thing: a better paid job, a bigger house, a better image, a faster car etc. There is not very much wrong with many of these things in themselves; however, when it becomes a strong focus, it starts to become something that is demanding on the individual who is constantly striving for the bigger and the better.

This attitude can also invade the church. In the 1980s and 1990s, little secret was made of the fact that many of the Bible Weeks were simply an advertisement encouraging people to join a particular network, or support a ministry.

What is the long term effect of this? We now have a consumer led church. In my limited experience, I have seen many times churches grow, only to lose many of their congregation when a new ministry opens up in the town. Some towns I am aware of have a history of this happening in a repeating cycle. You don't like women elders? Try your local New Frontiers Church. Worship dull? Try Hillsongs. Bit too glitzy and want a more intimate, soaking feel? Partners in Harvest is for you then. If you don't like your church, don't try to work these things through: try a different one, or even start a new one yourself.

I've always been amazed by the flimsy reasons some people give for leaving a church. It's true that I have moved on myself a few times, but have always tried to work things out, and only as a last resort leave, but in good relationship with the ones I have left. This is not always easy, and at times when you want to speak a few home truths, it's often better to keep quiet: a friend of mine often says that if you go out of your way to seek vindication in a disagreement, God won't go out of His way to help you.

Sometimes you come across something that really hits the mark for you, and when you lose it you spend far too much time trying to rediscover it, when actually what we should be doing is applying what we have learned or experienced into the situations we now find ourselves in. Then maybe the church will learn to be relational and not the pleasure seeking, self-serving, need meeting, tradition bound dinosaur we are so often perceived as by outsiders.