Church in Europe, following or leading?

Another interesting post on the blogsphere from Krish Kandiah at What's Next.

Good question, Krish.

The state of the church in Europe is not encouraging. But, is this post-Christian situation one that all churches, whatever their present situation, will in time have to go through? Often we reflect on the growth of the church in Asia, South America and Africa and ask what lessons do we need to learn for ourselves in Europe. (Often, but not often enough or seriously enough I think!)

But what if this post-Christian cultural context is an natural cultural development flowing from a strong Christian church with deep roots in a culture?
If this is the case then we in Europe should not be seeking to 'return' to church situations we presently see modelled in other contexts, but we should follow Jesus and press through into the glorious future he has for his church.

Preaching re-imagined

There's a great post from my friend Albert on his blog, read it here.

Albert is responding to a post by Krish Kandiah on preaching as part of the biblefresh initiative, read that post here. I'll get to commenting of Krish's post soon.

I think Albert is right, we need to see preaching more intimately connected to the life of the congregation and the Christian than it often can be at present.
We need to encourage and affirm those hearing sermons to respond with questions and comments.
We need to create opportunities for this to happen in a safe environment, i.e. one where the preacher does not feel 'got at'.

This is a real challenge to us as preacher, and a significant change in engagement with preaching for those who listen. But I think it is worth it.

Krish Kandiah has a new book Just Politics, well worth a look. He has posted this excert from his book on his blog, check the post here.

Krish encourages sharing so here are his ten reasons why Christians should go out and vote at the General Election on 6 May.