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Tasmanian Anglican

February 2003

 

 

 

 

 

The Friday of the Western Church?

 

 

Gerard Kelly from the UK will be with us in Tasmania at the end of July.

A published poet and author and Director of Spring Harvest, Europe's largest Christian teaching conference, Gerard speaks on issues of culture, communication and creativity. He has worked as a fuel station attendant, pizza chef, personnel manager and college lecturer, but for the past 17 years has worked in Christian ministry with extensive experience of youth work, Bible teaching, conference speaking, training and mission activities.

In 1995 Gerard and his wife Chrissie founded Café-net: 'a bridge to transform the lives of people in Europe by empowering Christians through prayer, personal creativity, strategic partnerships and service of others'. Café-net is active in France, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

Passion and creativity

Gerard's writing is widely published in newspapers and magazines in the UK. He has written nine books, including Get a Grip on the Future (published in the US as Retrofuture) and Breakfast with God 2.

Those who are asked to describe Gerard in the briefest possible terms inevitably speak of passion and creativity. Raised as a Catholic, he became an evangelical Christian at the age of 13, and has always pursued a broad and eclectic spirituality. Gerard loves nothing more than to bring the ancient truths of Christianity alive in a contemporary context.

From Gerard's book Retrofuture comes the following extract.

I Kings 19 tells of the prophet Elijah when he has reached the end of his tether. Battle-bruised and war-weary, he has held on to his God in a hostile culture, facing persecution and opposition. God's man slouches under a tree and asks to die. Far from raising his glass at the after-show party, he is considering a call to The Samaritans. Falling into a sleep from which he half-hopes never to wake, he is twice disturbed by God's angel, who says 'get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.'

Just as Elijah believes he has 'hit the buffers', God invites him to travel further. Elijah assesses his life and ministry in terms of death. God, by contrast, is in the business of resurrection. This is Elijah's Friday - but God's Sunday is coming.

Staggering

This is a compelling picture for the churches of the Western world at the dawn of the 21st Century. Many within the Western church sense it is at the end of its tether, worn down by battling the hostility of a culture turned against us. Bankrupt, we are aware only of our scant resources in the face of an overwhelming task. Some within the Church have prayed for a quiet death - others wait patiently to be whisked away to Glory on a cloud. The churches of Europe have seen a net loss of young adult disciples in the late Twentieth Century that is staggering in its scale. If a human body lost that much blood it would be dead. Has God given up on the Western church? Does a post-industrial, post-modern and probably post-Christian culture simply have no place for the Gospel we own and proclaim? If the God we worship is no longer Elijah's God, then only the grave awaits us. If this is the Friday of the Western church, is God's Sunday on its way to us?

Paradigms of church

I believe that it is. God is sending angels to wake us. There is a whisper of God to be heard in our culture. Many of our paradigms of church may need to change, just as they did for Elijah. It may be that we will only see the things God wants us to see when we stop looking for the things we were expecting. Far from giving up on Western culture, God is inviting us to run into the deserts of the 21st Century, sustained by the food of angels. 'Get up and eat, Western Church, there is a journey to be undertaken.'

copyright © Gerard Kelly (adapted with permission from his book Retrofuture published in 1999 by IVP)