Where is the faith community today? It's in a crisis; that's where it is today. That is the essential problem, both in the church and in the community. If 94 per cent of ministers surveyed said that they rarely received anything personally from reading scripture, then does that not tell us volumes? We are on the wrong track, we have lost our way.
The tail is wagging the dog; the secular world is the authority today in all matters. God if not dead is effectively ignored. Ministers are not getting the message to the congregation. It is simple as that. If the church had it right it would be the secular world that would be in depression and those of the faith in Christ Risen in full health expressing it. We must rescind from the notion that somehow science has a fuller idea as to the nature of reality than a believer's reasoned faith in the mysteries of the Christ. The modern believer, if we can call him that, takes the position of silence when science speaks out against religion, for fear of ridicule. He has too much doubt in him and thus loses ground. He has not thought it through.
The financial cost for congregations is high and will get higher because we are going in the wrong direction.
Leaders in the business community are essentially interested in the bottom line. They can of necessity only be interested in mental health to the degree that the business is being affected. We must see the wood from the trees when we start to discuss business as it impinges on the church. The structure of business is not the structure of the church. The church's message is far more important than what a business with its vested interests has to say.
I am not attempting to decry business per se it's just that we are not in the same ball park.
There is no question of any equivalence of views when it comes to what needs to be done. The church must come first,if there is to be any hope of its survival,in a meaningful dialogue with a materialistic age.
The statistics which you give do not surprise me when consideration is given to the multiple inroads of secularism to an insipid Christianity. The battle should be turned round, the assault should be on the secular world not the preachers of the word; you would then witness a great improvement in the health of the clergy.
Has the church the courage for the task? Forget about economic problems we have a moral crisis in our hands and the solution is, as it always was: Christ Risen.
Is this somehow too much for Christians to take?
Undermined by the secular world it begins to look like the Devil is in the driving seat and God is along for the ride.
Our whole approach is wrongly slanted. We are trying to deal with worldly issues the way the world deals with them, with all the social niceties but with no heart.
Let us put it bluntly. The conquering of death has been effectively ignored, by passed and played down. We have become a new social organization; it will not do. It speaks out against everything that the Christ stands for; we have backtracked far enough, a stand will have to be made.
