ON January 16, 2018, the North West Tasmania Preaching Centre (a Chinese Methodist church in Tasmania, Australia) successfully signed an agreement to purchase a Brethren church building. Although there are only around twenty people in the congregation, they are not content with their rented place of worship. They are longing for a place of their own. They fervently prayed for it hoping that their dreams would come true.
It is not just a coincidence that a Brethren Church has been wanting to sell their church building as the number of their members is decreasing. After the Christmas celebration service last year, they had decided to put the church on the market. When the members of the Preaching Centre heard of the sale, they saw this as an opportunity to start their own congregation in this church. So far, they have signed the Agreement of Purchase and the handover will be on April the 9th.
In Relation to Education
The success in buying the church building is indeed encouraging. However, it is also an indication of the weakening of Christianity in Western Culture. As Christians, we need to ask ourselves, why has a decline of the Christian faith occurred in the Western World?
This is an issue that calls for deep thought. The above Brethren Church is a classic example. What made them sell their church building? An elder from this church has told the purchaser that it was a big church in the 80s. Each Sunday, there were about 120 Sunday School Children not to mention the congregation. However, we need to ponder, when did these people slowly slip away? Why were there only twenty or more senior worshippers left before they closed the church doors? Why is that the younger generation does not turn up for worship?
The elder mentioned that the offerings collected nowadays were insufficient to pay the utilities and insurance premium. The remaining church members were unable to sustain the church expenses therefore they had to sell it albeit reluctantly! They are glad that another denomination is taking over the building so that it can still be used to advance the gospel and carry forth their past vision. What a mixture of feelings!
Looking into the root of this matter, this is strongly connected with Christian Education. Australia has taken up the “Freedom of Choice system” which emphasizes personal freedom. So the younger generation embraces their choice to choose what they want. The next generation of Christian families opt not to follow their family faith.
Honestly speaking, this does not happen only in Australia, even the USA and Great Britain, which are known as Christian countries, are facing the same problem of sales of church buildings. It has become a norm!
Tomorrow’s Reference
Let’s not look at others, instead we should examine ourselves! We are thankful that we are able to send missionaries to other countries to spread the gospel. We should also pay more attention to our local church’s advancement, especially the growth rate of our church. We know that there is strength in numbers in expanding God’s kingdom. We also need to put in extra effort in Christian Education to further equip the youth to be the future leaders of our church. This is of great significance!
However, the most important thing is our own family. We ought to enforce it as a family creed to serve the Lord our God from generation to generation. Just as Joshua declared, “I and my family will always serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) What is happening with the Western Church is something we should take heed of and be alert! Don’t wait until the day when we also need to reluctantly sell our church buildings, and cry over spilt milk. It will be too late.