Month: January 2009

The Urgency Of The Church’s Input To Our City’s Future

The City and Nation will Change Dramatically in the Next 5 Years? 

The Christian Faith is the Founcation and Hope of our Society.

Crises NOW in our city and nation include the effect of broken families, binge drinking, homelessnesses, increase of poverty in Australia, gambling losses, suicide, potential collapse of health services, water shortage, rise in fuel, food prices and other effects of global warming, road congestion, “peak oil” situation, secularism, consumerism and the loss of morality and potential of terrorism etc.

Who will decide the Future of Melbourne? Will the Church Claim the Future? Or continue as it is?

The Effect of Broken Families  (Ave marriage lasts 8.8yrs)
60,000 Australian children affected by abuse and neglect  (Fed. Gov. report 25/5/08)
10,000 children & youth (10-14 yrs) arrested for violence, rape & shoplifting (blamed on the web)
Domestic violence BY children against parents 23% increase in Victoria from 2002 to 2006.
Sexualising of children and youth leading to broken relationships, loss of morality and trust
Broken relationships- Loneliness – Major increase in single occupancy housing
By 2030 48% households expected to be Single person occupancy  (“Melbourne 2030” Report)

Binge Drinking 
33% 18 to 24 yrs classify themselves as binge drinkers (37% of young women)
Forty-one per cent have passed out at least once through excessive drinking, 25% do so regularly
Assaults in Melbourne CBD increased by 17.5% in 2007 – mainly the result of excessive drinking.
Alcohol poisoning kills 10 Australians/ day. Estimated economic impact of alcohol abuse is $7.6 billion pa.

Homelessness:  100,000 homeless in Australia –incl. increasing divorced mature age working men
Critical shortage of rental accommodation (increasing because of mortgage default, property speculation)

Increase of Poverty in Australia
Interest rate increases,  and the highest level of personal debt in the world
Housing and rental costs, major increase in Petrol prices leading to food price increases
Global warming leading to major increase in power costs

Gambling Losses in Vic. In last 6mths was a record of more than $1.3-billion on poker machines (a $55 million jump). In 2004-05 Australians overall gambled $142 billion – much of this is stolen money.  One bank manager in WA stole and gambled $19 million from his own branch over 4 years

Suicide: 2,683 people took their own lives in Australia during 1998, an average of seven suicides a day. (For every completed suicide over 30 attempts, ie 210 people a day attempting suicide)
45% increase in young girls self-harming in 10 years

Impact on Business: Decline in morality, honesty, integrity at work
Shoplifting cost Australian retailers $4 billion a year

Potential Collapse of health services: 52% obese, 100,000 new cases of Diabetes pa nationally, Aging
    population,  3,000,000 have arthritis,  50,000 have osteoporosis in Aust., Effects of smoking, drinking, etc
Water shortage, rise in fuel, food prices and other effects of global warming
Road congestion and public transport overload (extra 1.1 million  cars by 2030 – up by 30%)
Outer urban developments: Little social support / Loneliness/ cost of commuting/ lack of transport
“Peak oil” situation – Potential decline/ end of oil supplies
Secularism, consumerism and the loss of morality
Potential of terrorism

INCREASING PRESSURE TO RESTRICT CHURCH FREEDOM & Reject Christian Values
Increasing pressure from Multiculturalism : All faiths (incl witchcraft) accepted as equal to Christianity
Intentional claiming of influence by Islam, secular humanism and homosexual lobby

Population of Melbourne increasing 100,000 a year – accentuating current crises

God through the Body of Christ holds the key to the future of the City & Nation. Only a spiritual awakening across our city will transform these trends.

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Research Vision

The Research Vision is a detailed picture of the size, location and vitality of all churches across the City with the demographics of Greater Melbourne, to resource and inspire the whole Church towards a common vision and coordinated strategies for ministry and intentional mission to our city.

How can the Great Commission be fulfilled in Melbourne? Is anyone fulfilling the Great Commission?

With over 3.8 million people in Melbourne, it is unlikely that more than 500,000 are active members of local churches or Christian communities.

• How can “The Church” reach out to the other 3.3 million?
• Who are these 3.3 million?  What areas and what people groups have little or no contact with the Church or opportunity to hear the Gospel?
• Where is the Church strong and where is it ineffective, dying or non-existent?
• How many “churches” are there?  What about “ethnic” churches?

IS ANYONE FULFILLING THE GREAT COMMISSION?

There is a general belief in local churches and denominations that by doing a whole range of ministries, services, programmes, etc that somehow we are “fulfilling the Great Commission”.  But it seems that rarely is there serious thought given to what this would mean.

Any meaningful understanding of the Great Commission in a local community or across Melbourne calls us to reach out to (in fact to make disciples of) ALL people.

Clearly no one congregation or denomination can do this for the whole of Melbourne, no matter how big or active.  There are few if any with a vision and strategy to reach out to all the people even in their local community.

To obey Jesus’ call to take His mission to all people, we must at least ask “Who are All these people outside the Kingdom?”, “where are they?” and “what would it take to reach out to them?”. 

This mission is so vast, it is clearly a job for the Whole Church working together.
So then we must ask “What and where is the Body of Christ?”, “What is the Church doing already?”, “What are its strengths and weaknesses?”.  We also need to ask “Where the Church is NOT”.

Only when we have identified the “MISSION FIELD” and the ‘MISSION FORCE” is it possible to be intentional about the Great Commission.  It allows us to ask “What would it take to reach all these people?”, “How will we work together to get it done?” and “How long will it take?”.  These are the bones or any strategy to fulfil the Great Commission.  

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Uniqueness of the Project & Its Value

The project is unique and nothing like this has ever been done in Melbourne. It is valuable in that it provides information and inspiration for Greater Melbourne, each of the 31 Local Government Areas, as well as the whole Body of Christ.

The Uniqueness And Value Of This Project To the Church is as follows:

THE UNIQUENESS: 
• It is the first ever research of the Whole Body of Christ in Melbourne
• It includes information from the 2006 National Church Life Survey, with data from most denominations being put together for the first time.
• It includes detailed surveys of non-NCLS churches, independent and ethnic churches, as well as emerging and house churches,
• It will give the number, distribution and “health” of churches in Melbourne including digital maps
• Church data will be overlaid with demographics from the 2006 National Census
• It will show the areas in Melbourne with no churches, or minimal Christian presence or ministry
• It will reveal the unique level of support for communities provided by local churches
• It will list churches/ denominations active in planting churches and where new churches are being planted
• It will show the nationalities and locations of ethnic churches in relation to ethnic populations
• It will identify nature, size and distribution of major un-reached people groups in Melbourne
• It will include a major Directory of Christian ministries, organisations and networks(see below)
• Reports will give this picture for Greater Melbourne AND for each of the 31 local government areas. 

IT WILL BE:
• A major resource for the whole Church in its mission to our whole City
• An invaluable document for any part of the Church considering effective outreach
• An inspiring statement of the wonder and riches of the Body of Christ in Melbourne
• Valued by: Denominations, Citywide Ministries, Congregations and Church Networks in Local Communities, Bible Colleges and Libraries, Social Welfare Organisations, Municipal Councils and  other community groups as a reference for the next 5 years and beyond

 

 

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