Have we lost our confidence in the Gospel?

By Neil Perry

A little while back I was talking to the pastor of one of our churches about global missions when he made the statement; “You know Neil, the problem is that half the members of my church are not Christians”. As you can imagine I was a little surprised by this statement! However as we talked further I began to understand that what he was meaning was that many of the people in his church, didn’t have a living understanding of the message of the Good News of Jesus that expressed itself in the way they lived their lives! He went on to talk about the “sub Christian” attitudes and behaviour of some of the members of his church and their lack of interest in mission, both local and overseas.

I’ve been thinking about how this could be possible and so far I’ve come up with two possible answers:

1. Maybe these people have an inadequate understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus because they weren’t ever told. I recall at the Gathering last year, Merrilyn Withers making the statement; “What we win people with is what we win them to”. If we flip that statement around and look at what we have “won them to” (as in what they have become), then maybe what we “won them with” (the message and perhaps the methodology), may have been flawed or inadequate.
2. Or maybe these people have become disillusioned with and lost confidence in the Gospel, and maybe even with God, to the point that they no longer have a “practicing” belief in the Gospel. Can I suggest that this may have happened for one of two reasons: 1. They may have tried their best to live a Christian life and to reach out to others but have become tired of constant set-backs and their perceived inability to change their patterns of behaviour let allow see others changed with by the Gospel. Or 2. They have in a sense of having become “punch drunk” from the constant barrage of messages from our society which tell us that “Christianity is not relevant to a modern society”, or “no thinking person would believe that stuff”; and they have withdrawn into themselves and that which is “safe”.

So have we in our personal lives and as the Church lost confidence in the Gospel or perhaps even in God?