I like what you have said at the end there Rore, ‘separate in order to bless’ – the nations I assume.

2 distinctions to make then:
- the primary function of the meeting-church is to build itself up
- the function of the church not-meeting is to bless the world

Could it be that resourcing this building up of the meeting-church’s self is so labour intensive (time, money, effort, love, care, and brainspace, etc) that there is little left of the resources just mentioned to bless the world with?

Perhaps this is another case of misguided resources?

I know that I’m skint on time, effort, money, etc to bless friends with after I’m done with serving in the church for the week.

Thanks for the interaction.

I think that in general Christians can hold their heads high for the role they play in Australian Society. If every Christian and Christian organization decided to not do what it/they did for a week, literally thousands (millions?) of people would be worse off. Soup kitchens, refugees, Op-shops, employment services, schools, counsellors, Aid organizations, medical facilities etc etc. Christians are normally ridiculed in Australia, but actually do many wonderful things for this county.

Ditto Unichurch individuals. In heaps of ways. All over the place. And I agree with Jon, that it’s the service and witness of Christians that really matters.

But (with Brian I guess) I do also think that we need to reflect on our corporate identity as well. It is worth asking how Unichurch lodges itself into its context. And I guess I’m trying to think out loud about where our resources go. And how we position ourselves generally in our context. The two extremes are to be:

1. Compromised and lack distinction (ie we’re at Clubba getting drunk and being sleazy too). No different.

2. Sectarian and critical (we’d never go to Clubba because it’s full of sleazy drunks)

But I guess the biblical alternative is (3) “separate in order to bless.”

What would that look like? I don’t know. Maybe running a Red Frog/Water and Taxi stall near Clubba to help people? Being the skipper for your mates? Stuff like that, I guess.

It seems to me that God is keen to work through an institution though. (as much as I wish he wasn’t) I don’t think its really enough to say that UC is where people come to know Jesus, and are trained and discipled and taught and led to serve him and love him better, and in doing so are individually a blessing to those around them. I think God is keen for his church to have a name in the world, and for his church to be loved and looked to and respected and missed if it was gone. And I don’t really see our churches being that. And I’m not helping. (read; not currently helping, not opposed to helping)

Its so hard to know what to do though, we come from the centre of the most individualistic society the world has ever known. We know not how to help, because we have never desired help.

While church-organised activities do help people to think about serving the community I think it’s only part of the picture.

I think the real challenge is not so much what extra activity can I do to bless the community, but how can I serve God and love people in what I do day in day out at work and uni? How can I be different as a doctor/nurse/teacher/lawyer/engineer/whatever to show God’s love for people? And how can I show that the difference is Jesus?

If you took away Unichurch as an institution maybe people wouldn’t notice, but I don’t think that that matters. If you took away Unichurch – the people; would the community be worse off?

We do see individuals blessing their friends, of course. And that’s great.

And there are many brilliant, quiet examples, of individuals getting on with being a blessing to needy people outside our church.

And people are (I trust) blessed when then come into our community.

But where do we (=Unichurch as a whole) make a different to our community?

What I think we do see is noble pioneers in this regard. Think of Ash and Dave who go every Monday night to the Men’s Hostel in Northbridge. They really do bless those guys, at cost to themselves. And the soup kitchen of last year. And the guys who do Red Frogs. And the tutors at the residential Colleges (like Jennie). They to me are classic and brilliant examples of places where we would be missed. (And of course, the wider St Matt’s family has many examples: Refugee ministry, Playgroup, English Second Language etc)

The point is that we need more of that. More of our church actively making its host community a better place. A neat little goal would be, just as we aim to have everyone in a Hub group, to aim to have everyone involved in some sort of community-blessing exercise.

Your job is to: 1) suggest good activities and 2) get involved in them and 3) get others involved in them.

I’m off to a prayer meeting with the Claremont guys in 20 minutes where we are praying about exactly this thing. Looking forward to it!

Would we really be missed? I doubt it.