Since the beginning of European settlement in Australia in 1788, the church has played a major part in Australian life and culture. Church services began as soon as the First Fleet arrived and gradually churches grew including the provision of a wide range of welfare and education services such as schools, hospitals and orphanages.
Today much has changed. While the church is still heavily involved in providing services, its influence on Australian culture is declining, along with the numbers of people regularly attending church. Hardly a week goes by without the media making some mention of this decline. In fact there are many who predict the ultimate demise and disappearance of the church in Australia. It is certainly true there are critical issues the church needs to face, and the “good old days” of the 1950’s or 60’s will never return, but does that really signal the church’s death? I suspect not.
The challenge we face in Australia today is reflected across the Western world, not only in countries such as Canada, the UK and the US, but also right across Europe. Yet, this trend is not observed in the rest of the world. In fact, elsewhere Christianity is booming. Across many Asian countries, central and southern Africa and Latin America, the church continues to grow. Christianity is far from being on its death bed.
In fact, even in Australia there is a quiet openness to spirituality. As our population gets older, so the questions about life after death and eternity begin to take on a new urgency. People are not suddenly pouring back into our churches, but they are open.
We can go to them
In such a climate there is much the church can do to engage with this rising interest. And while people may not come to us, we can go to them and meet them in the community and dialogue about spiritual issues.
Let me encourage you, if you have opportunity to engage with your local community you will find it an extremely worthwhile experience.
Stephen L Baxter
I have been quite impressed with the Baptist church in Tasmania and it’s efforts to reach community. I have a number of friends who took part in the rest point at the show and my wife, children and I came across it ourselves and found it a refreshing change to have a friendly face come up and say hello! The other great thing of recent years has been the Claremont Baptist church and the Carols on the green at Claremont, whilst being rained out last year it had a successful previous year giving the community around the Northern Suburbs a carols service to attend that had a true Christian focus and fantastic activities for families. I am part of the Anglican church and whilst having many traditions that the denomination holds on to, I hope we can reach the community more and more. We have installed a coffee machine, started providing computers for kids on a Sunday, we have a church fair and other outreaches during the year and a shop on the main road in Claremont… but I am sure we can do more to reach the community! Thanks for the encouragement 🙂
Yes, times have changed haven’t they? Once we could rely on people turning up at Church every so often…but no more. There are many creative and exciting ways to engage with others – all the best with your coffee and computers! Stephen