I love your final sentences. I do hope and pray the church will regain its confidence in its own message - the whole message of the God breathed Scriptures. I’ve booked into a SOLAS event in Kiltarlity lead by Andy Bannister. SOLAS talks a lot about the confident Christian, one having a clear grasp of the message entrusted to us that speaks so powerfully on origins, meaning, purpose and destiny. It is a positive message of hope and should be presented as such, in contemporary language and with compassion, to a world that doesn’t know where it is going to and has good cause to be gloomy on a number of fronts, not least global warming. This means Christians feeling confident to get involved in contemporary politics and community groups to work as salt and light in the messy structures that exist.

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your reply. I agree with what you say but remember the situation we find ourselves in. The Church has not exactly covered itself in glory over the centuries and even today. We have an “image” problem.  Rightly or wrongly we are seen as judgmental, lacking grace and love and being on the wrong end of many perceived moral issues. 1914 was a watershed moment when so called Christian Europe entered the horror of WW1 and its fateful aftermath. The only saving grace here is that Christendom is dead but the Gospel still “lives” with all its saving power. The problem is that few want to listen to us!
Unfortunately, there are two further problems. First, the perceived (and I would say real) problem of anti-intellectualism within Protestant Fundamentalism, in particular, although not exclusively, in regard to science. Secondly, the wholesale sell out of Protestant Liberalism to the agenda of “Athens” whilst “Jerusalem” is in ruins.
Do you agree, at least in part with this and more to the point do you have any thoughts about how we go about rectifying this? I’m thinking here in both general terms but also in relation to the work of GTN.

Hi Russell

I agree with what you say.  Yesterday I heard Ravi Zacharias suggest that persecution of Christians can open up opportunities for the Christian message. That was the case with the persecution of Jewish believers after Pentecost. Indeed, the Bible seems to portray a God who turns disaster into triumph. The cross being the clearest example. In today’s secular/superstitious climate UCCF are finding many students more open to listening to the gospel that their parents were. We are now the underdogs in society and that can be liberating.
My own conviction is that we have a coherent, rational story that gives hope and meaning to life and we should spend more time trying to get that out into the open. There are many things happening that quite rightly grieve and shock us but always responding to them keeps us in the negative, defensive mode. As you point out that just confirms our image as judgmental and narrow minded.

I suppose it was always challenging delivering the message: not exactly easy for Jesus, or for Paul, or for the other apostles, so many of whom apparently, were martyred. Society has moved a long way from the Christendom in which I grew up, let alone the Early Church, and now the Faith, which was once so influential, is thought of in the same category as voodoo or UFOs. The Church in Scotland at the moment is not exactly the dawn rising behind the horizon. I see no signs of it ‘regaining its confidence’. One thing is that history does not stand still and events may well overtake us. If they do and there is financial collapse, or war, or totalitarianism, or something; if society fails significantly and life becomes unbearable, then people may look for other options.’ If not now..?’  - well, it may take some time.

Hi Tony

Thanks for your honest and real assessment of where we are at present re Church and Society. We have both witnessed the ebb flow of the optimism and expectation we had as ministerial candidates back in the early 80’s and the dramatic decline of the church in the face of a rapidly changing world. The years since then have seen Christians approach each decade with a rubric for action (e.g. decade of Evangelism – remember that one!) all of which didn’t even get as far as spluttering out but actually never really got off the ground! But of course, hope springs eternal in the human breast especially a Christ-centred one. That said your caveats are perhaps timely and necessary and reminded me of the ending of David Bentley Hart’s magisterial “Atheists Delusions” where he seems to suggest that revival may be far off and this is a time for honesty, realism and humility: a time to retreat to the “desert” (as the church as done before) to renew ourselves spiritually and inwardly. Perhaps without that purifying period all our apologetics and evangelism will just be clever words, argumentation and programmatic endeavours lacking power and conviction just like many of our atheist and secular counterparts. You have given me an idea for my next blog post so keep watching and responding. 

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