In recent weeks, churches throughout the UK have been asked to pray for Christian converts in Muslim countries who are suffering oppression as a result of their decision. Fine, I have absolutely no problem with that. I applaud the sentiment and marvel at their bravery. The grace those of us in predominantly Christian countries stand in so freely isn't to be taken lightly. Now, the majority of Christians would probably leave it there, accept it and think no more about it.

However, it greatly worried me for some reason and I couldn't work out why. It's been gnawing at my mind for a couple of weeks and I've finally figured it. Please bear with me and be prepared to disagree if you like. I am open to persuasion because my conclusions are a little negative and I don't believe a Christian should be.

It has to do with a previous post of mine to this site - namely poor church attendance. In it, I pointed out that 76% of the UK were still prepared to admit that they were Christian - so where were they all on a Sunday? In actual fact, only about 6% of the UK are regular churchgoers - that's a heck of a difference, isn't it? Now, as a Christian, I'm worried about this but sometimes a different view provides insights and this was the cause of my worry. I suddenly realised that I was thinking about the prayer request as a businessman instead of a Christian.

Now, as a manager, my first instinct is to prioritise - i.e. I know that the Church has a mission but only has limited funds with which to carry it out. If your business only had limited funds, how do you prioritise? You look for the opportunity to provide maximum returns from the resources available. Now the population of the UK is in the region of 60 million souls, which means that over 45 million of those people are Christians. But only 2.7 million of those nominal Christians attend church. So that's over 42 million so-called Christians in the UK whose souls are in peril. Yes I am aware that I'm generalising and that you don't have to go to church to have a relationship with Jesus, but with figures this high, it's neither here nor there.

Now look at the Christian converts in each Muslim country whose conversion has been the result of UK church money. I don't know how many there are, but I just bet it's nowhere near 42 million. So are we, the church, targeting our resources correctly? The answer is that I don't know. My argument is very black and white and I know life’s not really like that.

Now let's look at it from an even more unusual perspective. If the cash came from Government instead of the church, how would it be viewed by Christians?

There is an old political expression. "When a Government is in trouble at home, then it needs a foreign adventure". History has proved this time and again. In trouble at home - then have a good war to pull the population back behind you. People forget just how unpopular the Thatcher Government was in the UK before the 1982 Falklands War. She was heading for a defeat of such catastrophic proportions that it is feasible that the Conservative Party would never have been voted into power again. But she continued to be Prime Minister for the remainder of the 1980's.

Now, that begs the question "Is the Church in trouble at home?" Well - continued bad publicity about gay bishops, women vicars, bad investments, child molestation, etc continue to spring up on a regular basis, but is that enough to launch a 'foreign adventure'? My reply to that is 'NO' but only because I don't believe the church is organised enough to think that way. However, I think that there is a particular 'Christian mindset' which believes that we still need to 'convert the heathens' in the same way that the Victorians did. Well, I've got news for ya, the Victorians did a great job, there are more Christians in Africa than there are in Europe. Times have changed - we have to move with them! I keep looking back up at that original figure - 42 MILLION SOULS In peril in a predominantly Christian country. Where have we gone wrong?

Conx

"Why stay with your arms crossed when the most powerful Man of the universe died with his arms open?"

• Topic: Good Steward

• Printer Friendly Page
• Send to a Friend