Wow, Maybe Thirty Christians

  The building is magnificent. It is old, not fully earthquake proof according to today's current standards, brick and mortar and has been a worship centre for years and years. I counted the worshippers on Sunday last: thirty and that was stretching it a tad. How does a congregation of thirty support a projected budget with a deficit of several thousand dollars?

  We have been in negotiations with a sister congregation, and while they were enthusiastic, and committed that enthusiasm to paper, it has waned a bit lately. I put a fair bit of it down to a combination of age, an unenthusiastic faith, and primarily, I think, to a lack of vision.

  The median age would have to be in the late sixties. There is a great scarcity of children. Well there would be with that median age wouldn't there. Grand children? Saw a couple once.

  So why persist?

  Well a few can see that unless something is done, then 150 years of Christ in the main street will disappear. Perhaps that is what needs to happen. After all, thirty people hardly trumpet God's message.

I am told that in any mainline church congregation today about 75% of the congregation will be attending out of habit, because they enjoy meeting friends or that is their one social outing. Belief has little to do with attendance. Okay, there is one problem. Actually there is the whole problem.

  Today the mainline churches, and unfortunately it is creeping into the Pentecostal and other movements as well, have become largely social agencies. As such they do a great job for the Community, in which they exist, and the Government. Need food? Go and see the local Church or the local Foodbank run by the church. Need clothes? Need furniture? Go to the local church Op shop. Kids need looking after before and after school while you work? The local Government funded after-school and pre-school care centres are probably run by a Church.

  Yeah, Churches are great places to hang out, and there is the problem. There is nothing wrong with what the churches are doing as far as helping their neighbours is concerned. They are being 'Good Samaritans.' They love their neighbours. They are doing all the things Christians should do: but they are not doing it for God. They provide for the needy, but the accolades or acknowledgement goes to those doing the work, or the churches hosting the service. It should be going to God. It should be done for God's glory, not for the church's glory. It should also be done free. Being paid to do God's work rankles with me. Being a Minister or Pastor today is a career, not a calling. Tax returns are altered. Tax avoidance is practiced. Ministers are paid by Funeral Directors and by those getting married for conducting the relevant services. A majority of the Ministers I have known, accept that payment as a tax free payment and put it straight into their pockets as a 'perk.' I am not advocating that those preaching God's word should rely on gifts, I accept that these days a salary or similar is correct. It's the way that Church administration now consists of numerous management layers, all of whom have their nose in the Church trough that irks me. They are not doing that for the Glory of God. They are doing for the glory of their own pockets and lifestyles.

  However, enough of my soapbox rant.

  What to do about the thirty people grouped each Sunday in the lovely old heritage rated church building. $500,000 plus to bring it up to safety standards. Knock it down would be the best idea. Great, let's do that. Wait though. Before it can be knocked down there is the Council requirement for an engineers report. Only $10,000. We can handle that: with help. The Council will probably say the significance of the building is such that it cannot be demolished. They will also say it cannot be used. What happens? We put up a fence round it and walk away.

  Sounds good to me. That will also let us 'do our own thing' in a more suitable building. But what about the fact that God will disappear from the town's main street? I don't think he is there now. There is just a building catering for probably 10 to 15 of God's people in a largely secular community.

  Can God stay on the Main Street do you think? My answer? Yes, but only with prayer and giving God his due.  

Christianity is for Sale

My wife and I live on the New Zealand Superannuation. It is enough for us to survive on, and have the occasional cup of hot chocolate at a cafe.

From time to time, I have attended Church Home Groups, or Small groups, for bible study, or study to advance my theological knowledge etc. Without fail the studies have used a booklet, often called a study guide, written by some one with personal, or deduced knowledge, relating to the subject. Because of copyright restrictions, the study guides and personal study books cannot be photocopied, so each participant must purchase a booklet. Okay, so an average cost seems to be $8 - $10 each. Average small groups vary from six to twenty people. The publisher gets $60 to $200 per group.

Likewise, if you wish to catch up on what your favourite Pastor is writing, then you could be paying anything up to $50 per book. Have you checked out the price of a bible lately?

I can actually remember saying to my wife, prior to publishing anything, that I would write Christian literature because there was a captive market and I could make a fortune. Well that didn't go too well. I could not afford to pay an editor, cover person or spend time searching for a publisher or agent. I went for Smashwords because at the time they were the only people who could take my MS Word document and turn it into an EBook free.

I published Ripples, a book of stories with a Christian and moral theme for children, and Pastors, and a novel: The Begat Legacy. Some copies of Ripples were purchased, mainly, I suspect, by family, although they deny it. At $0.99c, I thought the price was reasonable. The Begat Legacy, an 800,000-word novel, aimed at the secular market, I priced at $2.99c. A few copies sold but not many. 

I got to thinking! Checking out Smashwords and Amazon free EBooks, I found that there are not many Christian Books available. There are a large number of pornographic and general available however. During 'Read an EBook week', I priced Ripples free and The Begat Legacy for $1.99. There were downloads of a couple of copies of Ripples but none for 'Begat'.

I then made both available free. There have been many downloads since then.

So what do I make of all this? From now on, I will make all my Christian EBooks available free. I do not class 'Begat' in that category as it is targeted at people who would not pick up an overtly Christian book. It is R18 and designed to open some minds to the fact that there is such a thing as Christianity. If only one person picks up a bible to check what I have written, I will be satisfied with it.

The big question left is; Why do Christian writers, particularly of study guides, apologetics and doctrine, put their books financially out of the reach of so many? They publish to a captive market, a market eager to purchase books that they can be assured are suitable for their tastes and beliefs. If we are to reach and teach, then should we not be publishing free? Did not Paul work for a living while he served?

Mm, interesting!

Would you die for a metaphor?

  The above sentence is the headline the editor placed above my letter to his publication. That publication is 'Touchstone,' a newspaper published by the Methodist Publishing Company in New Zealand, although it points out that the opinions included in it do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Methodist Church of New Zealand.
  One of the regular contributors is Ian Harris who contributes to the column headed 'Honest to God.' In his March 2013 column he wrote concerning some widely held views concerning the Gospels and their versions of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
  In reply I submitted the following opinion which was published in the April edition of Touchstone under the heading of 'Would you die for a metaphor.' I reprint that opinion:
  I take issue with a few of the things stated as authoritative by your correspondent Ian Harris in his column, Honest to God, in your March issue.
  Ian states that the gospels are filled with lessons and hope but not necessarily facts. I must confess to admiring Mr Harris. Over the years I have come across his columns and believe he comments as he does to stir up his readers to open their minds, I admire that.
  In the column I refer to, he comments negatively upon matters written 40 or 50 years after an event. Surely, there would still be people alive who had witnessed that event. There would also be those who had heard, first hand, from such witnesses. They would have to be a more authoritative voice than someone living 2000 years after the event.
  Likewise, up to 100 years after the event, one would think that the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders would have produced witnesses to refute what the Apostles and early Christians were saying.
  After all, here were groups of people claiming that they knew the Messiah and those groups were 'eating' into their faith. One would presume that given the chance, the Jewish authorities would have jumped quite decisively upon provable lies, but evidence of such is absent.
  Numerous critics of the physical resurrection, point to inconsistencies within the gospels when it comes to who saw who and what and when on Easter morning. As a former police detective, I and every lawyer I ever came across can tell you that if there are five witnesses to a single event then there will be five different versions.
  If you want to examine this matter in any detail I would suggest you read Lee Strobel's book The Case for Christ.
  I further believe that many of those people viewed Jesus as more than just 'a man among men.' After all, the early believers willingly died for their beliefs. If they were defending something that they knew to be a lie, do you think they would have died for it?
  As a Christian, if you believe that the resurrection was not physical, are you willing to die for it?

Weeds

  I have just returned from a month in Perth, Australia, to visit my daughter, her husband and my five grand kids. All that amounts to a huge backlog of 'stuff' that I can 'blog' about. Another day perhaps.
  Today I have been reintroduced to weeds. Not 'weed', that one that sends you into a haze or something, but the common old garden variety. The ones that grow out of little cracks in the concrete or where anything joins anything. The ones I have met today were introduced to me by a lady at my church. I had barely arrived back in Masterton from Perth when the telephone rang. The said lady, in a very nice way, said my attendance was required (would be appreciated) at the Church buildings the following day as there was work to be done. It would be beneficial, I was informed, if I brought a spade with me.
  I duly attended. Weeds had made their homes in a variety of places about the building and had to be removed. I had not really noticed them to be honest. I attend at the church and associated buildings regularly but my attention is always focused on what I am there to do or upon whom I am speaking with. I had never noticed the weeds. It turns out that previously, the weeds had been dealt to by a person who was no longer able to undertake the task. Nobody had replaced him. (How sad is that?) Not only that, it took another person to point the weeds out to me.
  The story of my life I reckon. Possibly yours too. How many weeds are growing in your life that you are not seeing? Perhaps you also need someone to point them out to you.