Trinity Mount Barker

This week I spent some time in Melbourne taking part in a church planting conference.  The Geneva Push is an Australia-wide network seeking to see, under God, hundreds of churches evangelised into existence across the country and the National In The Chute conference brings together church leaders and members from all different parts of the country to hear the Bible taught and to learn from each others’ ideas and experiences.

My role in the conference was to speak about our experiences in church planting, what we’ve learned and what we’ve seen God do amongst us in the 21 months since Trinity Mount Barker began.  I got to answer lots of great questions about our church and explain the ways we do different things.  It was great to see so many churches and Christian people trying to work out how to take the gospel of Jesus forward in their regions.

One of the highlights of the conference for me was being presented with a whole lot of recent research about Australians’ attitudes to church and to the Christian faith.  At one level, it seems that the idea of the completely secular Australian is a myth being perpetuated by some (perhaps some in the media?) for their own ends. 

For example, 22% of Australians surveyed visited an art gallery in the previous 12 months, 44% attended a sporting event, 62% went to the cinema, but 71% attended a special church service (ie Christmas or other celebration).  According to the same research, 74% of Australians believe in God, and a staggering 43% believe in Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead!  Interestingly, these figures have hardly changed in the last 50 years.

The reason I was particularly challenged by this information about our neighbours and friends, besides that fact that it’s always good to understand our culture, was that I found it a great encouragement in inviting people to Carols by Glowstick.  This is exactly the sort of special church service that nearly three quarters of our community attend more than once a year!  

Our teams and band have been working hard for months to make this the kind of event that our friends and family will enjoy and benefit from.  Can I encourage you, with less than two weeks to go, to keep praying for and inviting your friends.  You may be surprised at the response!