Exploring Exile

I have been a "quiet" blogger on Secret Women's Business, but have had my blogging focus directed to "Exiles":

The institutional church in the Western World has been in a long period of decline... judged by church attendance at least.

The reasons for this decline are many and complex. I have a particular interest in the rise of "non-institutional" expressions of church life... house churches, workplace churches, and the like.

I also have a pastoral heart for those who have left churches for reasons that have been painful for them... conflict, clashes, spiritual abuse, inappropriate pastoral care, a failure to address serious and legitimate questions and needs.

In response, I've been experimenting with the idea of a website that explores the multitude of reasons people drift from "institutional" churches. If you know of anyone who might find this conversation interesting, maybe you could let them know!

It's not all dire news for the world-wide church. At the same time that the church has appeared to decline in the Western World (less so in the United States) there has been massive growth of the church in Asia, Africa, South America and various islands (eg Papua New Guinea). I also suspect God just might be up to something new in a period of cultural transition in the West... He has a habit of popping up in unexpected ways and places. I'd be interested in any insights you have as to what God is up to in this point of global history.

Comments

AbiSomeone said…
Have you taken a look at the work Brad Sargent has done over at his FuturistGuy blog?

http://futuristguy.wordpress.com/

You may remember him from those early days at TFW... Anyway, his stuff is intense but amazing....

Blessings...
13 May 2010 at 12:40
Janet Woodlock said…
How DO you know when I write when I write so infrequently? Is there some trick I don't know about?

I will have a look... better do some other things I'm multi-tasking on first!!!!
13 May 2010 at 12:44
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kylie Orr Blog - Part One

I've been participating this week in one of the Age online blogs. Kylie Orr wrote an article questioning whether specific religion should be taught in public schools . As one might anticipate, the twin emotive topics of the education of our children plus religion lead to an explosion on the comments thread. For the most part, respondents were civil and a robust and healthy dialogue broke forth into cyberspace. I have found myself feeling quite sympathetic to many of the “anti CRE camp”, in that (in NSW at least) there appears to be no accredited curriculum and it seems that anyone of any faith can teach children anything for half an hour a week. It seems to me if you’re going to teach about religion in schools I’d prefer it not done at all than that it be done badly. That is not meant to be critical of the many CRE volunteers doing wonderful creative teaching, but because I was made aware there are horror stories out there emerging from an unregulated system. However, I’d like to m...
Read more

The Moral Minefield

Exodus 21: 22 "When there's a fight and in the fight a pregnant woman is hit so that she miscarries but is not otherwise hurt, the one responsible has to pay whatever the husband demands in compensation.” (The Message) I must confess I’m one of those odd Christians who reads the Old Testament. Actually, I’m one of those really odd Christians who likes to read through the bible. All of it (except maybe for some of those genealogies... that’s a bit of a stretch. I don’t think skimming over those bits should be regarded as cheating). I have been reminded of this passage over the past couple of days as debate has raged over the U.S. election on Alan Hirsch’s blog, a fascinating glimpse into the passionate and divisive world of American politics. I’ve been reminded of this passage because it is the closest thing to an abortion in the biblical record. (ripping babies out of the wombs of mothers would cause the death of mothers in a world without surgery or antibiotics, so I don’t th...
Read more