Month: September 2007

Categories
Present

Political Errors

BoatThe Australian economy is in excellent shape as the next Federal election approaches. Unemployment is at 33-year lows, the economy is growing at 4.3 percent, and consumer confidence is high. Most Australians credit the government for good financial management. However, the opinion polls indicate that the opposition is going to win the next election by a substantial majority. Why is this so?

A recent article in The Age by social researcher Professor Hugh Mackay gives a persuasive answer. Over the past seven or eight years the Australian public has been apathetic about the government’s actions with regard to the war in Iraq, the AWB scandal, the “children overboard” affair, and treatment of refugees. Now, however, the misdeeds of the past are coming home to haunt the government.

The majority of Australians probably do believe that Australia is likely to be a little less prosperous as a whole under a Labor government. However, that seems to be a sacrifice that most Australians are willing to take in order to “punish” the current government for its perceived harsh and unfair treatment of people (particularly non-whites) and its perceived inability to apologise for wrongs.

Categories
Past

Making Music for God

OrganistMany well-known composers have composed music with Christian titles or themes, but it is often hard to discern whether the work springs from a deeply-rooted personal faith or a mere compliance with the cultural expectations of the times. One famous composer who was undoubtedly a seriously committed Christian was Johann Sebastian Bach.

Sometimes referred to as the “Fifth Evangelist”, Bach was a theologian as well as a musician. His compositions were an expression of his faith in a musical form. Many were designed to preach the gospel in a form which was readily understandable to the listeners.

Whilst some people consider Bach to be the greatest composer in the history of western music, his most enduring music was written while he was employed as a church organist at Leipzig, where the people did not appreciate his music, considering it to be old-fashioned. 202 of the cantatas which he wrote in this setting have survived. It was not until 1829, almost 80 years after his death, that the quality of Bach’s work became widely recognised.

Categories
Faith

The survival of Christianity

ChristianityFor many years people have been predicting the demise of religion in general and Christianity in particular. Voltaire, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud all thought that Christianity would be dead and buried long before now. Christianity is on the decline in Europe and Australia. According to the census figures the number of people claiming allegiance to a Christian church is declining by around 43 people per day in Australia.

However, even allowing for places where faith is declining, the number of people claiming to be Christians globally is growing by over 70,000 people per day. According to sociologist Christian Smith in the latest issue of Sociology of Religion, “The very internal logic of doing Christianity persistently produces events, interactions, and feelings in and among people compelling enough to keep the tradition flourishing despite many countervailing forces.”

In other words, Christian faith is something that seems to “work”. This doesn’t prove that faith in Jesus is “true”, but it couldn’t be “true” if it didn’t “work”. That’s about as far as sociology can take us. A problem with sociology is that it looks at issues only in human terms, not taking into account the work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives.

Categories
Books

Wrestling with lions

LionIn the proud tradition of The Prayer of Jabez and other books which make much of obscure Old Testament references, comes In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, a book by National Community Church leader Mark Batterson. Mark is an extreme blogger, and he leads a remarkable church community meeting in cinemas and running Ebenezer’s Coffee House, the largest cafe on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

Using the story of Benaiah, one of King David’s mighty men, as a starting point, Mark’s book is an engaging and challenging exhortation for followers of Jesus to seize with great courage the opportunities which life presents. We are called not to run away from obstacles and challenges, but to use them as a source of opportunities, and take risks to reach for God’s best. The more we grow, the bigger God should get, and the smaller life’s problems become.

According to Mark, you have to be willing to look foolish in the world’s eyes. Spiritual maturity is about caring less and less what people think of you and more and more about what God thinks of you. Everybody ends up chasing something in life. Why settle for chasing something less, when God has created you to chase lions?

Categories
Poverty

Poverty and Mobile Phones

PhoneI have frequently been surprised to see people in Nairobi’s slums carrying mobile phones. It has always struck me as remarkable that people with an income so low that they are unable to afford an adequate diet should prioritise a technological gadget such as a phone over their own food and shelter.

Nonetheless, it seems that there is an important correlation between the use of mobile phones and increased economic prosperity. Better access to communications leads to “empowerment”, and a study has revealed that an increase of 10 mobile phones per 100 people could increase GDP growth by 0.6%.

According to a BBC news report, mobile phones will be made available to nearly half a million people living in rural poverty in Africa, in a move which is expected to boost the local economy and improve education and healthcare. Ericsson has donated the infrastructure and solar chargers for the phones.

Categories
Future

The future of poverty

DevelopmentAccording to the UNDP Human Development Trends report, around 19% of the world’s population was living in “poverty” in the year 2000, with an income below US$1 per day. According to current trends, the world is on track to meet Millennium Development Goal of reducing the precentage of people living in poverty to below 15% by 2015.

However, this improvement arises largely because of improvements in Asia. At present, the position is not improving in Africa. In 1970, 86% of the people living in poverty in the world were in Asia, 3% in Latin America, and 11% in Africa. In 2000, 60% of the people living in poverty were in Asia, 35% in Africa and 4% in Latin America. If current trends continue, by 2015, 68% of people living in poverty will be in Africa, 25% in Asia and 5% in Latin America.

One of the problems of the definition of “poverty” used by this analysis is that the bar has been set at a very low level. If the Australian poverty line was used as the basis for the analysis, then more than 85% of the people in the world would be living in poverty. Poverty isn’t something that will be “made history” anytime soon. It’s something that requires long-term systematic attention from those in the world who have an income significantly exceeding $1 per day.

Categories
Present

Celebrity Treatment

CelebrityRodney Olsen’s The Journey blog contains a recent post about how he received a surprising welcome when arriving in Delhi as part of a team of cyclists representing the Bible Society. I have encountered similar celebrity treatment when arriving at a school in Africa and finding the full ceremonial welcome prepared for me.

The problem stems in part from extreme differences in income and power. I don’t feel rich, but I have an above-average income for an Australian, and anyone in Australia who has an average income is in the wealthiest 2.5% of people in the world. When I meet with people who are in the poorest 10% of people in the world, it is hard to comprehend that my income is one thousand times as high as theirs. In their eyes this makes me a very “big man”.

I wish I could just do what most “wealthy” people do and ignore the situation, getting on with living my own life. But the problem is that I live in the same world as the poorest 10%, and now that I have met them it’s impossible for me to deny that they’re my neighbours. It is impossible for me to deny that God has trusted me with extensive resources, and my job is to invest those resources as effectively as I can.

Categories
Past

James Hudson Taylor

James Hudson TaylorJames Hudson Taylor committed himself to going to China as a missionary at the age of 17. Less than four years later, and before completing his medical studies, he set out for China, arriving in Shanghai in 1854, in the midst of a civil war. At first he encountered a poor reception for his preaching efforts, but things improved when he started wearing the same style of clothing as that worn by the Chinese. Taylor suffered a number of hardships, including losing all his medical supplies in a fire and being robbed of nearly everything he had. In 1858 he married the daughter of a London Missionary Society missionary, and in 1860 he returned to England on furlough.

While in England, Taylor worked on a translation of the New Testament into the Ningbo dialect and completed his medical studies. He travelled extensively around Britain promoting the needs of China. In 1865 he founded the China Inland Mission (now known as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship), and within one year 24 missionaries had been accepted for service. Like the London Missionary Society, the China Inland Mission was non-denominational. Taylor then returned to China is 1866 with the largest party of missionaries ever sent to China, all dressed in Chinese clothing, to the amusement of other foreigners in Shanghai.

Taylor served in China for 51 years. The work of the China Inland Mission was very extensive over that period of time, with the Mission bringing over 800 missionaries to China, 125 schools being founded, and 18,000 Chinese people becoming Christians before Taylor’s death at the age of 73.

Categories
Faith

I’m a Christian, so now what?

YouthRodney Olsen’s The Journey blog has an interesting post entitled, Is that all there is? It’s about a conversation between Bowden McElroy and a Christian teenager who is at a bit of a loss for words when asked what being a Christian means in the here and now. The best that he can come up with is, If you pray for things, you can get stuff.

The problem is, I think that a lot of churches don’t really provide adequate answers to the question of what being a Christian means in the here and now. A normal Christian is typically someone who goes to church each Sunday, puts some money in the plate, takes some minor voluntary role such as usher or car parking attendant to help keep the church wheels turning, offers an ongoing critique of the job the pastor was doing in running the church, and lives the rest of his or her life in pretty much the same manner as anyone who wasn’t a Christian.

There really are very few people out there who model what it means to be a fully committed follower of Jesus in an affluent society. How many Christian adults invest all of their money in kingdom work, rather than just giving God a 10% tip or less? How many Christian adults spend all of their time on kingdom work, rather than just giving God an hour or two in a week of self-obsessed pursuits?

Categories
Books

Adventures in Faith

Global ChristianMy new book, The Global Christian Adventure, is back from the printer. It tells some of my story, and it aims to give an overview of some important and often-overlooked aspects of following Jesus in the 21st Century. There are chapters on different cultures, how the gospel spreads, poverty, Islam, atheism, understanding and influencing our own culture, and the new global rules of engagement.

It seems to me that, in spite of the ready availability of virtually limitless information on the Internet, Christians who live in the West typically fail to understand and appreciate how the rest of the world lives. Ironically, as people become wealthier and more powerful, with more access to information, they tend to become more insular and more ignorant of the realities of the world.

The book is an attempt to address some of these blind spots, and to encourage followers of Jesus to seek radically different goals for their lives. The message of Jesus is hard to discover in a world of cheeseburgers and non-stop television. It’s much easier to discover when you understand that the vast majority of people in the world are very different from yourself, and that Jesus calls you to a dangerous life serving and befriending some of those people.