Four Needs for Now
Have we reached a "kairos" time as Tasmanian Baptists? Scripturally the word implies a critical time of God-opportunity, a "tipping-point" period in relation to God's kingdom among us. God wants to break into our lives and churches in a fresh way. Whether we bunker down in yesterday's patterns of church life, or open ourselves to the challenge of Kingdom change, is up to us. As I see it, there are four urgent needs for our churches:
To Meet Jesus afresh as the church's Lord.
This means deliberately getting to grips with the missionary call of Jesus and letting this radically re-shape the way we do things. It won't be comfortable. But it is crucial if we are to move beyond seemingly secure, yet often out-moded patterns of church life, into today's challenging new era of Gospel opportunity. We now live in a mission-field which is both global and local.
We can't afford to let internal bickering, power-plays or preoccupation with inward-looking agendas make congregations unattractive to seekers or dissipate energies need fo priority outreach. It's time to refocus on our Lord as head of the church. Let his missionary passion grip us again, re-crafting and re-energizing our ways of being church in today's world.
To live lives of prayerful attention.
Prayer has to be more than something to which we pay lip-service. Our mission activity needs.......
To view the complete article written by the General Superintendent, Rev. Garry Billing, for the June 'Advance', please click here to download