Daily Archive for April 17th, 2007

Equal & Important?

Published
by
Graeme
on April 17, 2007
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Ruth Gledhill in her Times blog this morning said:

It is odd how, even in today’s globalised world, it can still seem more shocking when young people die random deaths in the US than when young children are blown to bits by bombs in Iraq.

I’m ashamed to say that yesterday as I watched the news unfold on BBC World my reaction was probably similar to this. This is not to detract in anyway from the sadness of the situation. The loss of any life under any circumstances is tragic, especially when it is such a violent death. However, we have to question media portrayal? They still portray people as being of different value depending on where they come from!

Why can’t we accept that each human life is of value? Everyone is loved by someone and their family and friends feel grief. Let’s see every human life as important, not just those who happen to have been born in the same country/hemisphere/side as us!

Give up giving up (part 2)

Published
by
Graeme
on April 17, 2007
in old uksalvationist posts
. 4 Comments

Two weeks ago I wrote about how I saw a disturbing tendency to strike out on our own into new expressions of church, than we are to try to bring about change from within our own communities. A good conversation ensued and since then I’ve read a number of other posts, most particularly one on Alan Hirsch’s site, about similar subjects.

The general consensus is that trying to revive a dead church is simply too big a waste of time. There are too many hurdles to try to clear and too much deadwood within the people holding the congregation back to make it a worthwhile experience. People suggest that the only result is burnout for those trying!

But this fills me with a righteous anger. It makes me look at the lives of those who are blighted by years of spiritual neglect at the hands of others; those who simply haven’t been taught the fullness of the Gospel through no fault of their own. It seems that the consensus is simply to write off these faithful, but unfulfilled, Christian lives as a form of collateral damage in the spiritual war because trying to heal them is simply too difficult.

Am I simply too naive? Is it really right to give up on whole groups of Christians simply because its easier to plant new congregations than it is to revive old ones?