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7/31/2007 Church leadership - reformation styleThese people are listened to because they have created large churches and have bold, exciting visions for their ministries. And they have some good things to say, don't get me wrong. But consider that the leadership achievements of modern-day leadership gurus actually shrink when you start to look backwards through church history - and see what has gone on beforehand.
Consider Athanasius (293-373), bishop of Alexandria, who was practically the lone voice against a heresy overtaking the whole of the Christian church. Arianism was a popular heresy that said Jesus was an exalted being, but not actually divine. For his biblical stance he was exiled several times - but continued to teach and argue, until he finally won the day for biblical Christianity. Want to learn about church leadership? Well here is someone who turned around the whole of the Christian world from the brink of heresy!
Consider Martin Luther (1483-1546), the German monk who launched the Continental Reformation. His strong and courageous stand against the excesses and false teachings of Medieval Roman Catholicism threatened his own life. Yet his bold personal example set a fire in Wittenberg that blazed across Europe. Want to learn about church leadership? Here is someone whose theology led to a bold and uncompromising life!
Consider John Calvin (1509-1564), the second generation reformer, whose quiet ministry in Geneva gave the Reformation a rigorous theological backbone, and a portability that meant that the Reformation spread from Geneva to England, Scotland and the Netherlands. And Calvin's writings are still being read today. Want to learn about church leadership? Here was someone whose ministry had a truly international reach!
People like Athanasius, Luther and Calvin didn't really write books on "church leadership" per se. I'm sure there's a book to be written about what we can learn from the giants in church history, on leadership and church growth. If you're in awe of Hybels, Warren and Maxwell, be aware that there have been even greater giants in the past!
[ PS: there are of course other great leaders from church history - who else can you think of? ] 7/28/2007 The Roman Catholic line on ProtestantsBut in the last month news has been that the Roman Catholic Church has pronounced Protestant churches to be not true churches at all - and so it's now very obvious what they think of us. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has sought to clarify their doctrine church (see it here), and in so doing they write the following:
The stance of the Roman Catholic Church was made very clear after the Reformation at the Council of Trent (1545-63), where Catholic doctrine was clearly defined, and Protestant beliefs were clearly condemned. It was only in 1962-65 that the Vatican II council took a softer stance and proclaimed Protestants (and even Jews and Muslims) to be joined to the church. But for those short 50 years of liberalism, the Roman Catholic Church has maintained, and now has reiterated, its hard-line Tridentine stance.
In the attached commentary (see it here) they elaborate:
For Roman Catholics, Christian unity involves Protestants rejoining themselves with the body of Christ - by which is meant the Roman Catholic church, with its apostolic succession. Until we do that, we aren't really considerd to be part of the true church...
Some people have reacted with horror, saying that it has set back the ecumenical cause (ecumenism being the movement that tries to bring together all the different Christian religions). However the problem with ecumenism is that it puts organisational unity first - and doctrinal faithfulness much further down on the priorities.
Christians sometimes say, "but Catholics are Christians too ... aren't they?" Officially they actually believe a different gospel. That has always been the case - and that has been clear as far back as the Council of Trent. The recent pronouncement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has only restated that stance - and making it obvious that they really do believe in a different gospel.
[ PS: what reaction have you noticed from grass-roots Roman Catholics? ] 7/25/2007 Operation World - onlineFilled with statistics about the state of the gospel in every country, and prayer points for pray-ers, it has informed and guided the prayers of a generation of Christians.
But did you know there is an Operation World website? However it allows you to get online information from the book/CD-ROM for only a few countries (eg. countries in the news, and today's country).
While the amount and detail of information in Operation World can be a little overwhelming for a regular person, the 24-7prayer.com version is much more manageable, making it a great resource for your Bible study group or youth group.
Use these two websites to inform your prayers, and the prayers of your group!
[ PS: our Wednesday night leader's meetings recommence tonight! ] 7/24/2007 Asians at Moore CollegeIn late August SCCCA English is hosting a dinner for Asian theological students and senior ministers from Chinese churches.
This is a very exciting event - the idea here is that theologs can meet senior ministers and discover how great is the need for gospel workers in Chinese churches, to actually meet the people who are doing front-line ministries, and to find out the plans that these senior ministers have for the future. And it's also for the senior ministers to meet theological students and know the concerns that they have about working in Chinese churches.
We hope that this will be a strategic event in facilitating networking and awareness of the need for many more people to serve in Chinese churches! More information from the SCCCA English website here.
I went in to Moore College earlier to put invites for this dinner into the pigeon holes of the students. I printed off what I thought was plenty - but in the mail room I discovered that I had severely underestimated the number of Asian students at Moore College... I had to go back and print off some more invites!
In 2007, there are over 50 theological students at Moore College who have Asian names. The following graph shows you the distribution across the four years.
Some will go overseas, others will end up serving in 'vanilla' church ministries. But hopefully a large proportion of these 50-odd students will find themselves serving long-term in Chinese church ministries on graduation. Chinese church ministry is a hard road - but it really is the best way for the 292,338 Chinese in Sydney to hear the gospel and be established in the faith!
[ PS: the dinner will be held on 27th August and we hope it'll become an annual event! ] 7/15/2007 One year to World Youth DayWorld Youth Day runs from 15th to 20th July 2008, and will involve thousands of young, passionate Roman Catholics flooding into our city - maybe even 500,000. Attendance at previous World Youth Days have numbered in the millions - 1.2 million at 2005's WYD in Cologne, 2 million at 2000's WYD in Rome, and 10 million at 1995's WYD in Manila!
One year out from the 2008 WYD and it's already in the news - you might have heard about the arrival of the WYD cross and statue of Mary, which is now making its way around Australia. As the 2008 WYD approaches, you can expect that public interest and media attention will only increase - particularly given that, as part of the WYD festivities, Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Sydney on 17th July 2008.
Other things in the WYD schedule involve teaching sessions, stations of the cross, a pilgrimage walk, an evening vigil, a sleep-out under the stars, and concerts. With this international event happening in our city next year, we can expect it to have a major impact on our city. The young Roman Catholics who will be coming into our city will be energetic, excited, and motivated.
The hype surrounding this event will probably lead many non Christians to become interested in Roman Catholicism. And Christians who don't have a solid understanding of the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism may find themselves either attracted to this youthful expression of Roman Catholicism, or unable to answer the arguments of well-trained, motivated Roman Catholics.
Geoff Folland writes that, "the threat for evangelical churches is that many of our members, especially our youth, are ignorant of the substantial differences that lie at the heart of the matter." He warns that "WYD theatens our churches both because the teaching has the potential to shipwreck the faith of some believers, and because the hype of such an event (including the almost celebrity-style attnetion the Pope's visit will receive) will attract many who do not think theologically."
There are a number of things that Christian churches can do - expect to hear more about that in months to come.
But for yourself, the most important thing is to have a good grasp of sound doctrine. Make sure you understand the gospel - and understand it well enough to defend it. Enrol in something like Moore College's Doctrine 1 PTC course, or their Reformation Church History PTC course. Learn about the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism - and why it is we believe the things we do.
And not only will this protect your faith, you'll also prepare yourself to reach out to your Roman Catholic friends.
[ PS: stay tuned for more about Roman Catholicism... ] 7/9/2007 Immigration stats 2005-2006The last short while we've been looking at some stats from the ABS. But that's not the only place where you can get stats. And for those of us involved in Chinese church ministry, another gold-edged source of information is the Department of Immigration website here. They put all kinds of valuable statistics on immigration here - and right now you can see stats for the 2005-2006 financial year.
The following bar graph shows you the different levels of immigration according to different countries of birth. The different colours represent different categories of immigration - red for settlers, green for long term residents returning to Australia, and blue for long term visitors arriving.
Australia received the most number of settlers from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and India. However you can also see that once you take long term visitors into account, China leaps to the forefront.
I did a similar graph last year, from the Department of Immigration's '04-05 immigration data (though it only showed settlers, see previous post). The numbers of settlers from China have dropped a little in the '05-06 period, but they are still considerable: there were 10,581 settlers who arrived from China (down from 11,095 in '04-05), and 34,345 long term visitors from China. By comparison, the number of arrivals from Hong Kong is tiny - only 1,031 settlers were born in Hong Kong.
So for Chinese churches, there's lots more work ahead of us each year! [ PS: the big green bar on the far left is Australian born residents returning to Australia... ] 7/7/2007 Make your own statsSo maybe you've found these stats interesting, but some of them don't relate to your church situation. Perhaps your church isn't in the Epping-Marsfield-Eastwood area - or isn't even in Sydney! How do you go about getting your own stats?
In this post I'll walk you through the relatively painless process of getting some basic stats from the ABS 2006 census data.
There is a wealth of information in the ABS 2006 census data - mine it for yourself!
[ PS: note that stats go out of date if you wait too long - make use of the data now! ] 7/5/2007 Non-English languages in SydneySo Mandarin is a fast growing language (see previous post). But how does it stack up against the other non-English languages in Sydney - such as Arabic? and Hindi?
The following is a graph of the changing numbers of Sydney residents who speak other languages, over the last three ABS census periods.
You can see that Arabic is currently the largest non-English language in Sydney. They make up a significant minority group in our fair city. But after Arabic comes Cantonese and Mandarin - dialects which, when added together, overshadow Arabic entirely! The total number of people speaking Chinese dialects is 234,769 people!
However you can see that while the Cantonese graph is growing over time, it's not growing as fast as the Arabic graph. And that again is not growing as fast as the Mandarin graph. This is highlighted in the following graph, which shows the percentage change from 1996 to 2006 of all the non-English languages.
And from this you can see that Mandarin is in fact the fastest growing non-English language in Sydney, growing at 148.1% over ten years, followed by Aboriginal languages (121.3%), Hindi (94.1%) and Thai (85.4%). By comparison, Arabic only grew by 31.4%, and Cantonese by 22.4% over the same period.
Here are some observations about the data.
Firstly, we do need ministries in Sydney that specifically target Arabic speakers. It's a hard ministry, but there is a tremendous need for it. Unfortunately, there's not a great deal of Arabic speaking ministry currently going on. Pray for labourers to work in this important yet neglected harvest field! And consider if your church has the ability to present a compelling witness among the Arabic speaking community.
But secondly, for Chinese churches such as ourselves, we are very well placed to reach Mandarin speakers, by reason of our similarity in culture and appearance. And there are a lot of Mandarin speakers in Sydney - 96,703 in Sydney at the 2006 census. But by current growth rates, the Mandarin-speaking population of Sydney would have hit the 100,000 mark on the 6th of December last year (if my calculations are correct). Everyday churches will struggle to reach Mandarin speakers - it's up to Chinese churches to take on this challenge.
[ PS: here's a maths problem for you: at current growth rates, what will the Mandarin speaking population of Sydney be today? ] 7/3/2007 Chinese languages in SydneyYesterday I shared some of the graphs you've seen with the rest of our pastoral team. During the discussion, Richard our newest Cantonese pastor asked an intersting question: "can we find out how many people speak Mandarin in the area?"
Good question. And, as it turns out, we can find out from the ABS census. The following graph shows you what the 1996, 2001 and 2006 ABS census reveal about how many people in Sydney speak the various Chinese dialects.
While there are currently 125,292 Cantonese speakers in Sydney, the number of Mandarin speakers is steadily gaining - there are now 96,703 Mandarin speakers in Sydney. That's a huge increase from the 38,974 Mandarin speakers at the 1996 census ten years ago!
The next graph shows you the change in the number of speakers of various Chinese dialects, as a percentage, over the last three census periods.
You can see that Cantonese speakers are growing a bit (13.7% in 1996-2001, and 7.7% in 2001-2006). However the growth of Cantonese speakers is dwarfed by the phenomenal growth in Mandarin speakers (63.5% in 1996-2001, and 51.8% in 2001-2006)!
Over this period, other Chinese dialects have been in decline, and the general population of Sydney has only grown 6.6% in 1996-2001, and 4.0% in 2001-2006. Compared to that, the growth in Mandarin speakers is enormous!
This next graph shows you the figures for Chinese language speakers in the suburbs around NDCCCS.
In Epping/North Epping, there are 6,568 Cantonese speakers, but also 4,320 Mandarin speakers.
And that's where things stand at the moment. But the thing is, these figures are currently changing: while the number of Cantonese speakers have grown by 15.5% from 2001 to 2006, the number of Mandarin speakers has actually increased by an enormous 111.8%. But in Eastwood the growth in Mandarin speakers is an even greater 121.5%, and in Marsfield it's at 173.4%! You see this in the next graph.
What observations can we make from this data?
Firstly, Mandarin is the fastest growing language in Sydney, growing at over 50% over the last two census periods. In fact, over the last ten years Mandarin has actually grown faster than any other language in Sydney! And if you look at the trajectory of the first graph, Mandarin looks like it will match, if not actually overtake Cantonese in Sydney at the next census.
Secondly, in Epping, Cantonese is currently the majority Chinese dialect, and in Eastwood and Marsfield it's roughly equal to Mandarin. But Mandarin is growing at over 100% in these three suburbs, while Cantonese is only growing at under 25%. In fact, in our area Mandarin is growing faster than it is in Sydney as a whole (51.8%). Mandarin will most likely overtake Cantonese in every one of these three suburbs at the next census.
Thirdly, the Chinese speaking population in our local area is increasing faster than the general population (in Marsfield, 54.6% for Chinese speakers, compared 3.2% for the suburb as a whole). However the overwhelming majority of that growth in Chinese spekaers is actually from Mandarin speaking people - not Cantonese speakers!
So in order to reach a significant minority of Chinese who are currently in our local area, and in order to reach the majority of those who are now coming into our local area, Mandarin ministry is vital. And I'm sure this holds true in other areas of Sydney as well...
[ PS: ND is holding Mandarin classes on Saturday mornings in preparation for Mandarin ministry - have you signed up yet? ] 7/1/2007 Religious belief in AustraliaThe ABS website also also has interesting data about the religious beliefs of Australians, from the 2006 ABS census. The following graph shows you a breakup of how Australians in different age groups describe their religious beliefs.
But not only that - you can also see how things have changed over time, by looking at previous national census data. Notice that the age groups are in blocks of ten years - and that the census is conducted every five years. This means that we can compare the data from 1996 census with the data from the 2006 census. The people in the 25-34 age bracket in 1996 are the same people who are now in the 35-44 age bracket in 2006. This means we can track what has happened with essentially the same group of people over a ten year period, and see how people have shifted in their religious beliefs!
So what I did was look at the raw figures from 1996 and 2006, then the difference between the two sets. Then converted them to percentages. However, there is also normal changes to figures due to deaths etc. If you factor in that normal change in, you can discover what the real changes are.
I'm not going to type out the figures, and you probably won't read them anyway, so I took a screen grab of the spreadsheet figures.
So once you adjust the figures for the normal change in age groups, you get the actual percentage change in religons per age group. Plotted as a line graph, this is what you see.
The age groups in the graph above (and below) correlate to the age groups in the first graph right at the top. So how does Christianity fare? When you isolate the Christianity line, this is what you see.
What can we make of all this data? Here are a few observations.
[ PS: are there other things you notice about the data? ] |
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