On Thursday 10th of August 2023, Dr Gordon Stanger spoke on how we can recover the missing generation in our churches.
Many of the churches across the ‘western world’ are in crisis. Their congregations are ageing, and in some cases, they are vanishing to zero. Entire denominations are well on the way to extinction. This is most obvious in the age structure of congregations. There is an entire missing generation comprising teens, twenties and young families. In many cases children were brought up in a Christian environment, went to Sunday school, and were prayed for by their parents, but then fell off a demographic cliff, never to be seen in church again. We will look at who they are, the reasons why they left, and possible approaches to bringing them back.
Then there is the rise of ‘nones’, who are those who have never had any religious affiliation or interest of any kind. Their view of Christianity is woeful. Most have never had any spiritual conversation in their entire life! The passive easy-going feel-good church has failed these ‘nones’, and failed to seriously ‘go fishing’ as Jesus repeatedly taught his disciples. Jude so graphically put it:
“Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire”.
The ‘missing generation’ is our mission field. Many of these missing youngsters were driven away by the church itself, whose attitudes, false preoccupations and blunders have sometimes been less than Christ-like! Today’s missing generation has grown into a culture which is dramatically different from those of their parents. They have moved on, but the church has not (with few laudable exceptions). This crisis in Western Christianity MUST be addressed as a matter of great urgency. It is the first call upon the 21st century church. It will be hard for those traditionalists who are much older; and probably impossible for those locked into extremes of either liberalism or inflexible fundamentalism. We need love, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to find the way forward.
Dr Gordon Stanger is a geologist, hydrologist, water resources specialist, and a climate-change impact analyst. He is an RFA committee member and is semi-retired.
,apologetics,philosophy,science,x_Kd8kW0-Qk,UCIhfOJlwarFO8rPrdktOHyA, Religion,Society, channel_UCIhfOJlwarFO8rPrdktOHyA, video_x_Kd8kW0-Qk,This presentation describes eye-witness accounts of numerous healing and other miiracles that took place in Bungoma in Kenya, as investigated by Gordon Stanger. Here is his summary:
Some doubt the authenticity of Mark 16:17, 18:
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
However, for those who act upon these words with child-like faith, this text is validated; these, and other miracles do occur. Some extraordinary miracles occurred in a Christian children’s ministry in a remote part of Kenya, as reported in a book by Jennifer Toledo. These included practical deliverance from the evils of witchcraft, which sound bizarre from our cultural perspective. Gordon happened to be working in that part of Africa, so he made a detour to check out the reality of these miracles, the results of which are reported here. We also discuss the purpose of such miracles.
God’s extraordinary miracles aren’t confined to places ‘far away’ in different cultures. Raf has been walking close to the Lord for many years, here in Australia as well as overseas. He relates some personal testimonies of remarkable healing, words of knowledge, and other modern-day miracles.
Dr Gordon Stanger is a geologist, hydrologist, water resources specialist, and a climate-change impact analyst. He also spent significant time in Africa, where he came in contact with many people who received miraculous healing or who had other experiences of the miraculous. He is an RFA committee member and is semi-retired.
,1,At the Global Christian Forum in Accra, Ghana, 16-20 April 2024, Dr. Gina Zurlo, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, pointed to the surprising statistic that today 44% of Protestant Christians reside in Africa:
“The Pentecostal Charismatic Movement, originating in the early 20th century, has become a hallmark of Global South faith, encompassing diverse manifestations within classical Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Movement, and other charismatic movements. Wherever Christianity spread, and in the 20th century, the Pentecostal charismatic movement spread with it. It appears that the future of global Christianity seems to be Pentecostal."
The Pentecostal Charismatic movement hails back to the founding of the church on the Jewish Harvest Festival Feast of Weeks, 50 days after Passover (7 weeks or 50 days Pentecostal in Greek) when Jesus died and rose again. From that time many miracles were performed by the Apostles and other members of the church. The first one was speaking the gospel in languages understood by Jews from other parts of the world gathered for the festival.
In St Paul's first recorded letter to the Corinthian church, about 55AD, he lists the charismatic gifts and places some restrictions on how they should be used in orderly church meetings.
After the completion of the recognized New Testament books recordings of miraculous signs seemed to lapse until just over 100 years ago when they burst out at the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles in 1906.
Since then, the Pentecostal Charismatic movement has spread widely particularly in Africa and Latin America, as well as in Australia and the USA.
R.T. Kendall, former minister at Westminster Chapel in London, has said that the Word Churches and Spirit Churches have much to learn from each other, and both recent Popes have encouraged their flock to encourage the Charismatic movement in the Catholic church.
,1,Biblical prophecy demonstrates a truth about God and the future. It reveals that God is not defined or limited by time as we know it.
God said to Isaiah that he would declare “the end” from “the beginning”. Many biblical prophets were not welcomed by the populace in their lifetime, but their writings are found in the Scriptures because their truth was vindicated.
Trevor will discuss the following questions:
What does it mean that “The Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus”? (Rev 19:10)
What is the evidence and probability that these prophecies were fulfilled?
How many OT prophecies are found in the NT?
Why is there a swell in interest in modern times for prophetic topics?
Why are some people describing recent events as “end times”?
,1,Ken Samples, from Reasons to Believe (RTB), addressed Reasonable Faith Adelide on the 22nd November 2023 on the big world view questions. This presentation addressed the following questions:
1. What in the world is a worldview?
2. What does the Bible say about worldviews?
3. What are the four prevalent worldviews today?
4. How do we test worldviews for truth?
5. What makes the Christian worldview unique?
6. Are we experiencing a clash of worldviews today?
This is based "A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test" (Baker Books, 2007) by Kenneth Richard Samples.
Kenneth Richard Samples earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy and social science from Concordia University and his M.A. in theological studies from Talbot School of Theology. He is a senior research scholar at Reasons To Believe (RTB). He uses his knowledge to help others find the answers to life's questions and encourages believers to develop a logically defensible faith and challenges sceptics to engage Christianity at a philosophical level.
,1,Scientism and scientific naturalism by Tom Daly
On the 9th November 2023, Reasonable Faith Adelaide hosted a presentation on 'Scientism and scientific naturalism' by Tom Daly.
Scientism and scientific naturalism are two ideas that shape how many people view the world around us and what we consider as knowledge, and yet they are often more assumed than examined. Scientism basically says that if you can't prove it scientifically, it doesn't count. Meanwhile, scientific naturalism takes it a step further, claiming that everything that exists is part of the natural world and there's no room for the supernatural. “You have faith, but I have reason” is the common refrain from the secular world and yet, when we compare scientism and scientific naturalism with the Christian faith, a far richer picture quickly emerges. Tom Daly examines some of the background and implications of these 2 beliefs.
Tom’s slides contain several hyperlinks as follows:
Why I believe in God | Dr. John Lennox interviewed by Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnOkOAqyTYE.
Ricky Gervais And Stephen Go Head-To-Head On Religion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ZOwNK6n9U.
What Is Science and Scientism? | Ian Hutchinson at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mCT-My1_ViA.
Definition of Methodological naturalism at https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Methodological_naturalism.
Straw Dogs Quotes at https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/223467-straw-dogs-thoughts-on-humans-and-other-animals.
Mind & Cosmos Quotes at https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/19311137-mind-cosmos-why-the-materialist-neo-darwinian-conception-of-nature-is.
Does science prove everything? At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxJQe_FefxY.
Why No One Has Measured The Speed Of Light at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k.
Is There Meaning to Life? | William Lane Craig, Rebecca Goldstein, Jordan Peterson - Toronto 2018 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV4oIqnaxlg.
Tom Daly is a member of our committee and is an IT professional who has worked in hi-tech for nearly 40 years.
,1,On Thursday 10th of August 2023, Dr Gordon Stanger spoke on how we can recover the missing generation in our churches.
Many of the churches across the ‘western world’ are in crisis. Their congregations are ageing, and in some cases, they are vanishing to zero. Entire denominations are well on the way to extinction. This is most obvious in the age structure of congregations. There is an entire missing generation comprising teens, twenties and young families. In many cases children were brought up in a Christian environment, went to Sunday school, and were prayed for by their parents, but then fell off a demographic cliff, never to be seen in church again. We will look at who they are, the reasons why they left, and possible approaches to bringing them back.
Then there is the rise of ‘nones’, who are those who have never had any religious affiliation or interest of any kind. Their view of Christianity is woeful. Most have never had any spiritual conversation in their entire life! The passive easy-going feel-good church has failed these ‘nones’, and failed to seriously ‘go fishing’ as Jesus repeatedly taught his disciples. Jude so graphically put it:
“Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire”.
The ‘missing generation’ is our mission field. Many of these missing youngsters were driven away by the church itself, whose attitudes, false preoccupations and blunders have sometimes been less than Christ-like! Today’s missing generation has grown into a culture which is dramatically different from those of their parents. They have moved on, but the church has not (with few laudable exceptions). This crisis in Western Christianity MUST be addressed as a matter of great urgency. It is the first call upon the 21st century church. It will be hard for those traditionalists who are much older; and probably impossible for those locked into extremes of either liberalism or inflexible fundamentalism. We need love, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to find the way forward.
Dr Gordon Stanger is a geologist, hydrologist, water resources specialist, and a climate-change impact analyst. He is an RFA committee member and is semi-retired.
