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It’s a crisis for for economists who have seen the sudden collapse of financial systems and institutions they thought were very strong. And it’s such a crisis that governments have been pumping billions of dollars into economies to prevent them from stalling.

And it’s also a crisis for retirees and those close to retirement who have suddenly seen their retirement savings disappear almost overnight, or their retirement plans placed on hold indefinitely.

For these people, their whole lives – their worldview – will have changed dramatically.

But for many others, it’s hasn’t really been very much of a crisis…

Oh sure, some of us may have been fearful of losing our jobs, or have even lost jobs. It’s a crisis on that level – but it’s not actually been a very great crisis in the end.

Because those of us who are still relatively young and marketable, we believe we still have a long time to build up our wealth – we are not really all that worried!

You see, our world really hasn’t changed very much. In reality, many of us will still trust in wealth! In a few years many of us will still be investing feverishly like we were before. In a few years many of us will still look eagerly for the stockmarket to again increase our wealth inexorably. Once we know our jobs are secure, many of us will get right back into looking for that next promotion to take us higher and further in our careers.

In the end, the Global Financial Crisis will not have shaken our same basic trust in wealth. Yes, it will have been an inconvenience – it may have put our plans on hold for a few years, and it will definitely mean higher taxation for many years to come!

But for most of us, the GFC won’t really have taught us that wealth is unreliable…

  10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
    whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
    This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV)

In the Sydney Morning Herald last week I read an article, titled Goodbye, deli: shops closing by the dozen. Here is part of it:

Glebe Point Road has become littered with empty shopfronts since the financial crisis hit, with at least 12 businesses shutting down. Signs in empty windows reveal that many have been locked out by landlords impatient for rental arrears.

An Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey yesterday showed small businesses experiencing the worst conditions in 13 years, with most pessimistic about economic growth in the year ahead. Falling demand from customers and difficulty obtaining credit from banks were the top impediments in the March quarter.

How do the different generations respond to the religion question on the ABS census? The following graph shows you how people represent themselves by age from the 2006 census (click graph for larger version stored at Photobucket).

The above graph is in terms of age of individuals. This next series of graphs shows you how generation groups as a whole tend to respond to the religion question.

Think Australia is reached? these graphs show just how far behind we really are – and also how we need to prepare ourselves for in evangelism.

Large sections of all generations still identify themselves as Catholics – believing that we are saved by faith plus works. And in Galatians Paul urgently wants people to know that such a gospel is a different gospel – one that is not a gospel at all (Gal 1:6-9).

Not only that, large segments of the younger generations identify themselves as ‘no religion’ (particularly Gen X, Y and the iGeneration).

And across the board, non Christian religions (eg. Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism) is actually quite a small percentage.

These graphs show that there is clearly a lot of work to do! And it also shows that in terms of preparing ourselves for outreach, it is still particularly important to sharpen ourselves to speak clearly about (a) Roman Catholicism, and (b) atheism/agnosticism. Though how we speak about these things might change because of generational differences…

[PS: any other observations you can make of these graphs? ]

In chapters 26-28 God addresses the nation of Tyre on the cost to the North of Jerusalem – and one of the interesting things about this section is what God has against Tyre. If you read those three chapters, it becomes clear that Tyre is a very cosmopolitan place. They are heavily engaged in international trade, and people from a whole catalogue of nations come to Tyre to do trade with her (eg. 27:12-23). Tyre is famous for its trade.

In chapter 28 the Lord God outlines why judgment will fall on Tyre – and it is primarily because of her pride (28:1-5). However there is also something else. Several times, God also condemns them for the way in which they conducted their trade. Here is verse 16, where he mentions the violence of their trade:

And verse 18, where God also condemns the unrighteousness of their trade:

The thing about commerce, business and finance type jobs is we figure they’re generally pretty upright. As long as you’re not doing anything illegal, the way you do business is a neutral thing in terms of Christianity.

However Ezekiel 28 warns us that this isn’t always so – in the case of Tyre at least, they conducted their trade in a way which God charaterises as violent and unrighteous. Perhaps it was the way in which they took advantage of people in their commerce. Or the way in which they leveraged their superior position for gain at the expense of others. We can’t really tell, but it is possible for the way we do business to be so violent as to incite God’s anger.

Might there be business practices today that would fall into this category? I would imagine so. I don’t know enough about the business world to say what they are, but this is probably something that Christians who work in the finance and business world need to consider carefully – instead of merely following the ways of the business world. Sure, that may be the way to maximise shareholder value and please your boss – but just because there are no laws against it doesn’t mean it is alright.

Would God consider your company’s business practices violent? or unjust? Would God consider what you do on a daily basis violent? or unjust?

You may not have come across a great deal of Christian critique of today’s financial systems and practices. But that doesn’t mean that Christians in the business world should be content with ignorance and uncertainty. Instead, you should be troubled that business practices could be seen as violent, or unjust in God’s eyes. And be all the more eager to think through God’s perspective of modern business practices.

[ PS: read any good Christian critiques on the business world? ]

One of these indices is the Power Distance Index – a measure of how close, or how distant a relationship superiors like to have with their subordinates, and that subordinates like to have with their superiors. My friend at Tsun-Am-I recently posted a link to a very useful website that shows you the PDI of various countries.

So a high PDI country is one where people prefer, or are used to having a large power distance between a teacher (say) and the students. These countries are Malaysia (104), China (80), Indonesia (78) and the Phillipines (94). And so the norm in such countries is for leaders to be highly respected, for people not to ask embarrasing questions, for students and subordinates to listen.

However low PDI countries are those which prefer, or are used to having a small power distance between the boss and the workers. These countries are Australia (36), New Zealand (22), Ireland (28) and the Austria (11). The norm here is for leaders to be accessible, to be at the same level as their subordinates, to be open to challenge and suggestions.

This is all about expectations, about what people are used to, what they have had modelled for them again and again during their formative years – and which they then take with them into their working life. And of course individuals will be different, but on the whole this gives you an insight into some of the conflict that can happen in a ministry training situation, or in a second-generation church.

Conflicts can happen when people who are born overseas (say Hong Kong with a PDI of 68, or Malaysia with a PDI of 104), starts to interact with those who are born or raised in Australia (with a PDI of 36). After a short while, those who are used to a higher PDI will find those who are used to a lower PDI to be disrespectful, disobedient, and to take an overy casual and relaxed approach to important things. However those who are used to a lower PDI will find those who are used to a higher PDI to be controlling, talking down to them, distant, making decisions for them without really consulting them.

One of the things that list of countries does is it immediately makes someone question the inherent rightness of their own culture. Are you really going to argue that a PDI of 68 is correct? what about 74, or 66? And are you really going to say that whole countries are wrong in their approach? Of course not. This is just our cultural preference. And what we, and in fact all cutlures need to do, is to submit our culture under the lordship of Christ. To allow our culture to be tested and transformed by the gospel – and love those from other cultures, whom God has also brought into his kingdom.

There are other differences between cultures that Hofstede has written about, which are really worth investigating for ministry (such as Individualism, with Australia at 90 and Hong Kong at 25). You can see them all from the link posted above!

[ PS: how close would you prefer your bosses / teachers to be with you? ]

But what should we do about terrorists – apart from protecting ourselves against them? Do we hate them back? hope the Americans deal with them?

In Matthew 5, Jesus tells his followers to love those who hate them, and pray for those who persecute them. Well, these terrorists certainly hate Christians. So do we love them? and how often do we really pray for them?

To that end, there is a relatively new website called Adopt a Terrorist for Prayer (www.atfp.org), which provides a database with profiles of over a hundred terrorists (all Islamic ‘extremists’). Some have been captured, while others are still at large. But all hate Christians, and are very far away from the gospel – at least, in human terms. The idea is that you or your Bible study group choose a terrorist, and pray for their conversion.

Sounds impossible? Then remember the apostle Paul, who was once a persecutor of Christians, breathing out murderous threats against them. And how Jesus appeared to him, and turned him into his apostle to the Gentiles… So why not Abd al-Aziz Awda, of the Islamic Jihad? or Khaled Mashal, chief of HAMAS’ Syrian branch?

It’s also been encouraging to see how Christians affected by terrorism – particularly US soldiers who have an active faith – have responded to the website. Often with deep humility and prayerfulness!

[ PS: hope you had a great holiday - our Bible study group had a picnic in a park! ]

This generation, for example, is the only one that cannot remember a time without the Internet influencing their information and relationships – and that has had a significant impact on them. This generation has also more wealth and options laid out before them than any previous generation before them.

What then are the features of Gen Ys? and how must our ministries adapt to reach this next generation for Jesus?

Here is a table I put together earlier this year for discussion with the pastoral team at our church.

The focus of this article is obviously Gen Y. In all of this I’m not assuming that Baby Boomers, or Gen Xers, have gotten it entirely right, or that Boomer or Gen X culture doesn’t need to be critiqued by the gospel. Not at all!

The gospel critiques all cultures – and calls on people of all generations to turn to him. And as they do so, the people of each successive generation will find different things they struggle with.

[ PS: can you think of other things you'd add to that table? ]

Well some members of the SCCCA English committee (and particularly Ernest Chiang) have updated that list and transported it across from Google Documents, into Google Maps. And here it is what it looks like (click on the map to go to a larger version stored at Photobucket):

There are now over 100 churches on the map, up from the 80 on the previous map. Notice how Ernest has colour-coded churches for the different regions. Please note also that this is a very broad classification of churches – it includes charismatic churches, health-wealth-prosperity churches, Vietnamese churches, Indonesian churches and even a Unichurch!

[ PS: can you see your church missing? ]

I thought to myself: "great, it must be some Bible teaching event, maybe a conference, and people are learning about following Jesus." Because that’s what you would imagine, with a name like that … right?

So I clicked the link (to here) – and discovered what "Walk with Christ" really means for Roman Catholics…

The way a devout Roman Catholic "Walks with Christ" is with a priest blessing a host (a wafer of bread), and placing that into an elaborate metal holder (called a monstrance, pictured in the promotional banner). And then the priest holds up the monstrance and carries it through the streets with people walking along with him, and others lining the route making the sign of the cross as the consecrated host passes by. That is what it means to "Walk with Christ."

"Walking with Christ" is not really about Christlike living at all – it’s actually about physically walking along with a wafer of bread, that they believe has changed (or transubstantiated) into the actual body of Christ. This is all part of the feast of the blessed sacrament, an annual procession through the streets of Sydney.

They have also put up a YouTube video here promoting the event – and it’s worth watching. Because the video shows up quite explicitly how different Roman Catholicism is from biblical Christianity.

The website explains that what is going on isn’t just people watching – the key verb is actually ‘adoration’. And according to the words of the previous Pope, you could also use the verb ‘worship’. That is what is actually going on at this event!

And if you think this event is merely a minor quirk of Roman Catholicism, think
again. At one point in the video, a voice explains how "this is the central belief
of our Catholic faith" (1:28).

Perhaps you might be fooled into thinking that Roman Catholics are
close to biblical Christianity – at least on a superficial level. They
are passionate about God, so are we. They sing similar songs to us.
They love Jesus, so do we. They stand against many of the same things we are. But here you begin to see how significantly
different Roman Catholicism is. How tradition has taken the language of biblical Christianity – and amazingly, unbelievably, brashly – given it their own, completely new meaning.

[ PS: some good analysis on World Youth Day and Will's blog here. ]

And they are really packing these houses in – observe how small the backyards are, and how tight the streets are! The reason is because these houses make the developers a lot of money – and the more high value housing they can stack on what used to be a paddock, the more money flowing into their pockets.

However you will notice that these new suburbs often don’t have any place for a church building. Sure, there will be a generic community centre built into the plans – but no real opportunity for a church to build a building on the land.

And the reason is because it doesn’t earn the developers as much money to do that.

Why set aside a double-sized block of land for a church, when you could build six executive apartments on it? There is simply no financial incentive for property developers to set aside land space for church buildings – particularly if their shareholders are expecting them to provide them with maximum value on their investment!

But this is where state and local governments can step in. Unless state and local governments require developers to set aside parcels of land and offer denominations the opportunity to decide whether they want to do a church plant in this new suburb, they will never get a foot into the door.

Sure, there are alternatives to building a church building – a church could set up inside a community centre, or in a local school. There are advantages to this model of church – for instance you don’t have as huge a capital investment up-front, and you don’t have to pay the upkeep of a building.

But let’s be honest that churches that rent halls will also have to compete with other groups wanting to
make use of that one community centre – a yoga group will want to use
the hall on Friday nights. A charismatic church will have gotten the
best Sunday booking first. A Buddhist group will also want to use the
school hall on Sunday nights. And let’s also be honest that there are advantages in having a building that is permanent and recognisable, where you can put up posters on the walls…

Yes, it’s good to have a non-church-like building that isn’t threatening to newcomers – but there are also heaps of good reasons in having a building that you control and can use any time or any way you like. And I have known people in ministry whose job it has been to set up a church in new suburb – and without a physical presence, they’ve found it really hard.

But consider this: why would state and local governments intervene on behalf of churches? Why would they bother to place such restrictions on property developers?

State and local governments would only do so if there are sufficient numbers of people on councils or in government who are aware of the issue and willing to take a stand on it.

This certainly means that first of all Christians should lobby their state and local representatives about these sorts of issues. Get them to make it a condition of rezoning that parcels of land (preferably a corner block) be set aside for churches to build a church building!

However we all know that when money is involved, lobbying will only go a certain distance realistically. Developers will still have the ear of state and local governments, and so this means that secondly, some Christians must be willing to stand for public office in state and local governments. Sure, we want to get on with the job of preaching and teaching the gospel, and standing for public office seems to be a tiresome distraction from that goal. However, unless some Christians are willing to give their time to stand for public office, then there will be no one to stop developers from filling every available area with expensive housing – and leaving no foothold for churches.

With these new suburbs, Sydney is spreading out. In fifty years’ time where will our churches be? Will they be concentrated in the old suburbs? Will we find ourselves with stunted opportunities in these new areas? Or will Christians in our day have realised what was at stake?

[ PS: back to Confucianism soon... ]