Whatever views of Jesus people may hold in our culture, it cannot be denied that he ‘made a difference’.  This often was by teaching that shocked those who heard it out of their complacent, misguided and sometimes totally false ways of thinking about God and what Hedesired.  Jesus has indeed often been described as the ‘shocking Jesus’.  Indeed,  He appears to have deliberately set out to shock by challenging the mindset of those who heard him.  An obvious example is the story of the ‘Good Samaritan’, in which the Samaritan is the hero as he helps the Jew who has been mugged.  The concept of their sworn enemy the Samaritan helping a Jew was simply obscene to Jesus’ Jewish hearers.

 Jesus certainly ‘made a difference’, offering a totally different view of the world to the comfortable conventional one.  It follows thatChristians (and therefore Christian communities like CrossRoads), asmembers of the body of Christ should also be ‘making a difference’.  One example of this I read about again recently was an American woman whom President Abraham Lincoln was alleged to have           described as the “little lady who started a big war”.  The ChristianPresident was referring to her role as a catalyst in the American Civil War that ended in the abolition of slavery in the United States.  She is an example of how Christians are called to use their gifts (in her case like Charles Dickens writing great stories) in order to establish the  Kingdom (rule) of God.  Her name was Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote one of the most influential books by a Christian in the cause of the gospel  -  ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’.

 Stowe grew up near the slave-owning state of Kentucky and so had close hand knowledge of the abuse of the African slaves across the river from her Ohio home.  Uncle Tom’s Cabin is not just a nice story book that children read (used to read) at school but a powerfulexposure of a great, ungodly injustice being carried out by allegedChristians.  Therefore it shocked and divided society in the same way as Jesus did.  Here we have a woman who was being ‘salt and light’  indeed ‘making a difference’ in her time, in a way that shocked.

 This is the task of all who claim to be a Christ-ian, one for whom Jesus died and who have been grafted into His body for eternity.  Christians are to be Jesus wherever we are.  It is important to remember that we don’t ‘go to church’ because we ‘arethe church’ 24/7, wherever we are.  We are the organism made up of those ‘called out’ by God (which is what the word  church means), all the time  -  Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning, Saturday night, whenever, i.e. in all of life.  Like Harriet Beecher Stowe God expects us to be using our gifts in all of life to be ‘making a difference’, otherwise we are the ‘salt that has lost its saltiness’ and is only fit to be thrown away (Matthew 5:13).

 It is true that most of us are not able to write a great novel thatcontributes to the ending of one of the great social evils, slavery.  Nevertheless, one of the measures of our faithfulness to Jesus (our ‘saltiness’) is the degree to which our gifts and resources are ‘making a difference’ for the Kingdom of God.

 How about taking some time out this week to reflect on the degree to which we are carrying out our Christian reason for existence, i.e.  ‘making a difference’.

• The Tax Collector
• Resurrection
• Let Go!
• Overflowing Grace

Gratitude Of The Damned

• Joy
• Bring Our Mates?
• ‘Churchy’ Complainers
• The Priority Of The Damned

Into The Village Of The Damned

• The Call That Reshapes Life
• Who Needs The ‘Doctor’
• Mission To The Damned
• A New Heart
• Agents Of Grace

• 10:30am – CrossNet Cell @ Towradgi Park

Tuesday 14th

• 9.30 am – CrossNet Cell @Cafe Dusk Tarrawanna
• 7.00 pm – CrossNet Cell @Towradgi BC

Wednesday 15th

• 9:30am – PlayLife
• 10:00am – English For Life
• 4:00pm – CrossNet Cell @ Gloria Jeans, Corrimal

Thursday 16th

• 7.00 pm – CrossNet Cell @Il Mondo, Wollongong
• University of Wollongong International Student ministry

Friday 17th

• 1:30pm – CrossFire (Lunch time group at Corrimal High School)

The ‘Hub’

• 4:45pm – OASIS (kids K-Yr 5)
• 5:00pm – The Meeting Place @ Fairy Meadow Bowling Club (Adults)
• 6:00pm – Light Dinner
• 7:00pm – One Way Ticket (Youth Church & Activities Yr 6 – Yr 12)

Sunday 19th May

•  8:00am – Morning Prayer
• 10:00am – All Age Worship with children’s activities
• 12:30pm – Korean Congregation with lunch following
• 1:00pm – Baptism
• 4:30pm – International Meeting
• 6:00pm – Light Dinner
•  7:00pm – CrossNet Cafe

For generations the mainline Christian denominations, including the Anglican church, have invested heavily in sending missionaries overseas to make Christ known to peoples who do not know him.  This has resulted, forexample, in the explosively growing church in large parts of Africa.  Usually such missionaries receive training for the task before they go.  This mayinvolve training in the relevant local language, lessons on the culture which they will be working in, all so the missionaries may be able to               communicate with the local people, and also be able to present the gospel in culturally appropriate ways.  All this is ‘Mission Basics 101’ i.e. the basicapproach if we want to effectively be able to share the Jesus story in anon-Christian culture.  Sadly the church generally has failed to apply the same ‘Mission Basics’ to our own time and culture.

 We now live in a society that is as fundamentally pagan as anything the early Christian missionaries faced, where we now have generations of people who have not a clue about who Jesus is, and what He stands for.  A survey a couple of years ago showed that over 60% of Australians did not know an active Christian.  Further, we have a language problem.  Our society speaks a very different language from ‘church speak’, and thinks in a very different way to people shaped by the influences of the Bible.

 An example of our language problem in terms of our desire to communicate with our culture can be illustrated by what I call the ‘Sydney Morning Herald syndrome’.  The Sydney Morning Herald aims to set its language at the level of an intelligent 14 year old, i.e. be understood by the intelligent 14 year old.  This involves care being taken with such things as the length ofsentences, paragraphs, articles and the degree of difficulty of the words used.  Compare this with church language which has a readability index more like that of an intelligent 21 year old.  The Prayer Book is an extreme case of this.  If we want to communicate with our culture these are matters that need attention.  Standard church services, even most allegedcontemporary ones, just won’t cut it.  This is why CrossRoads’ aim is toreinvent itself as a ‘Missional’ church, one where all we do is driven by the need to communicate Jesus to our culture. 

 The main ‘Missional’ areas of CrossRoads life are to be seen at ‘The Hub’, PlayLife and in our CrossNet cells where the attempt is made to develop a culture, use style and language and use settings that make the gospel of  Jesus accessible to those who would never appear in a standard churchservice.  To be effective we need to imagine we are in the jungles of Borneo or somewhere like that and set CrossRoads up in a way which is suitable for a totally pagan culture, that is as a ‘Missional’ church.  Ultimately this will change the way we do everything because we do not live in a culture the standard church is designed for.

 On reading this, some will throw up their hands and say ‘look, I can show you churches where the standard services are growing, so it can be done.’  Before we say that it is important to analyse why such services are growing.  It is often because they are taking ‘consumer’ Christians from other local churches—i.e. there is no actual  ‘Kingdom growth’.  Or they are in new housing development areas where many people are moving into the area and so a proportion of the new residents arrive in the church.  However, mostly they belonged to a church before they moved, so their oldcongregation has lost them i.e. again no ‘Kingdom growth’.

 The reality is that while some standard congregations grow it is at theexpense of others, this is shown by the fact that overall the Australian church is not growing, there is just a ‘rearranging of the deck chairs.’  For ‘Kingdom growth’ a church must be truly ‘Missional’, i.e. aiming its resources at, developing methods and styles for, those who are ‘un-churched’.  This is what CrossRoads is becoming and must continue to become. 

 A big problem we face is that ‘Missional’ requires resources.  Our most ‘Missional’ and I think God-honouring activities cost us, but with no financial return, as would equally be the case if we were supporting a mission inBorneo.  It is up to those whom Christ has already saved to provide the funds for God to do His work.

 That is most of us who are reading this article!

• Blind To Reality
• Choice At The Crossroads
• Self Assessment

The Rabbit Hole

• God’s Advice
• The  Blue Pill
• The Red Pill
• The ‘Good Way’

Reality Is A Journey

• Feeling Stuck?
• Time Short
• Enter The Rabbit Hole
• Reject Delusion
• Not An Individual
• Where God Chooses
• Not Comfort But Servanthood

Many of the problems that have occurred in the Christiancommunity we usually call the ‘Church’ relate to a wrongunderstanding of what the ‘Church’ is and why it exists.  I wasreminded of this recently when attending a service at anotherChristian fellowship.  On the front page of the Sunday newssheet was a statement that said—”Welcome To Our Church”.  After this it went on to tell us how they were sure I could find a place to serve in God’s Kingdom at “Our Church”.  Such statements while indeedcommendably intended to be welcoming to the visitor belie a  common but seriously flawed and damaging mindset in regard to the church.

 Firstly, whatever CrossRoads CC is, it is most certainly not ‘Our Church’.  The Christian Community we call CrossRoads is always God’s church.  It is the community of people whom God has drawn to Himself by the sovereign and gracious action of the Holy Spirit.  Also, He is the owner of it for He paid a great price (1 Corinthians 6:20), the price of Jesus’ death on the Cross.  The ‘church’ building is also His, as is everything we possess, and is for His use.

 When the members of a congregation think they own the ‘church’ it causes many problems because they want to exercise ownership.  Wrong attitudes will arise such as “I was one of the people who built, saved money for etc this building”, or my parents donated the pews (or whatever) so I am entitled to have a say in what’s done with it.  One current example I am aware of is a congregation where a large number of members are violently resisting the installation of modern seating in their contemporary building.  They want to hang onto “their pews”.  Such attitudes can and do cause blockages to gospel ministry when objections are raised to gospel initiatives by those who think they have some ownership of the place.

 It needs to be stated strongly that (in our case) CrossRoads is not and never will be ‘Our Church’, it (building and people) belongs to God.  We are only members by God’s grace.  Where the “Our Church” mindset exists the effectiveness of gospel ministry isconstantly being limited.

 As it is, CrossRoads is God’s church and none of us have ownership of it no matter how long we’ve been here, or how much we have contributed to its foundation and/or development.  Our role is to always be prayerfully asking God how we should be developing our ministries no matter what changes to our current practices,services that may involve.

 God is currently doing great things at CrossRoads, and I think this is at least in part because we are increasingly adopting a flexible approach to our ministries and being prepared to do or to change ‘whatever it takes’ in order to build His Kingdom.  For that is why God, (the owner of CrossRoads, us, and all we have) has put us here.

• The Mask
• The Heat
• The Slug
• The Sword
• The Grife

Wear Your New Hat

What?

How?

• Remembering Who God Is
• The Greatest Conspiracy – The Crucifixion of Jesus

A Consequence – God’s Judgement

• He Rebukes and Terrifies
• The Resurrection of Jesus laughs at the Futile Efforts of Men

A Coronation – The Triumph of the Son

• God the Father Crowns God the Son as King
• Jesus, Saviour and Judge of the World is Coming

A Conclusion – God’s Terms For Peace

• Serve The King!
• In a world that is unravelling, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!