When you mention church today so many people groan as if the very mention of the world conjures up images they would rather forget.
Perhaps being forced to go to church as a youngster, or bad encounters with churchgoers, has left the impression that God is boring. I don't know how God can be made to sound boring - but some churches have it down to a fine art.
How can the Creator of the Universes, the master of time and space, the very being whose power and light keep the world together be considered boring. Scarey yes, awesome certainly, magnificent and mysterious without doubt - but boring - no way!
Just what is going on in churches today that makes people want to stay away in droves? Why is going to church is on so many people's hate lists?
They'd rather go to the movies, watch a video, read a book, listen to music, visit a nightclub, talk with friends, go for a long walk, hide under the sheets - anything but go to church.
The church is supposed to be conveying wonderful truths about God but has become involved in so much tradition and ritual that it's missing the point - young people in particular, just don't relate anymore.
The idea that the church is a building or a specific place where God hangs out is an illusion. God is God. Any building, no matter how big, could not contain even his big toe - supposing of course he has one.
Most outsiders still identify church as an occasion where you dress fit to attend a funeral and are bound by a rigid set of thou-shalt-not's. To many, the church is seen as irrelevant to today's culture.
However, God does ask us to gather together but that doesn't mean the buildings where we hang out become holy or qualify the pastor infallible.
The world has found many unkind ways to describe the church-goer. Those who wear the tag Christian are often imagined as dogmatic, legalistic, moralists, fanatics, Jesus nuts (actually the name of the nut that holds the rotor blade on a helicopter) and the worst of all hypocrites; those who's lives do not measure up to what they profess.
It is a rare occasion when you hear of the person with genuine faith who shines as a light in the community showing godly love and wisdom, unselfishness and insight. Yet many people do express those exact qualities. Unfortunately it is often the bad example of the days events that claims most attention, like front page news.
Today's church buildings with their gold adornments, carefully carved pulpit, silver collection plates and lavish stained glass windows (dedicated to the memory of Mrs Dour and Mr Moneybags, who passed away after 50 years of faithful pew sitting) are the last places the average earthbound human would look for heavenly alternatives.
To God, the church is a body of people throughout the world who have put him first in their lives. It does not have a name like Anglican, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal or Charismatic. Its leader is not the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Pope.
It’s leader is Jesus Christ and love is the glue that binds believers together. You will know these people by their actions and by the words they speak. If they don't act like Christians then they probably aren't.
The church may one day be an irrelevant - if not irreverent oddity - but God will never become old fashioned. He's the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and he won't change or go away no matter how you try and gift wrap him or tell people he's dead or has retired on the royalties of his book.
To survive into the next century the church must be relevant to the age in which it shares God's eternal truths. There are two extremes today, the dry bones Sunday only meetings where people go out of a sense of loyalty, and the glamorous TV style evangelists who have developed the art of preaching the contents out of your pocket rather than the sin out of your soul.
Part of the problem, in my experience, is that the church is building and promoting an alternative culture rather than encouraging its members to be more effective in the existing one. It has alienated its membership so its membership slowly walked out the door.
The church is generally about 10-years behind the world when it should be 10 years ahead.
Christians must know their own hearts, speak and act with authority in their chosen fields and become involved - whether it is music, manufacturing, public service, politics, education or the pulpit the pulpit.
Recognition should not come because they're Christians, but because they're damn good at what they do. Rampant street preaching is nowhere near as effective as getting on with the job of being the best person you possible can be.
Bible-banging and shoving the gospel down people's throats under threat of fire and brimstone is just not on. It creates more cynics than converts.
There is room for social activism, for righteous anger, for causes and issues from visiting the sick and old to championing human rights, saving the dolphins and whales and protesting unfair laws, corruption and injustice.
The church must be a force to be reckoned with - its voice must be heard but not only as a right wing, fundamentalist organisation but as a body of people who have compassion for the poor and the hurting. Christ was not a politician - he was a social revolutionary - an agent of change sent on a mission to bring believers together on common ground to change the world.
The Holy Spirit is God's agent in this age and he is moving throughout all the world not just in churches but in pubs, whorehouses, hospitals and homes - wherever people are
For many street-wise people, arriving at church has come at the end of a long spiritual and intellectual journey. Solid, relevant teaching is essential. Re-runs of The Cross and the Switchblade or sermons that evoke memories or Sunday School of old will not appeal.
Often such newcomers have to find their own spiritual food when the pulpit message falls short, or when the preaching platform becomes a podium for cheerleaders to steer the congregation through 90 minute sing-a-longs.
These people need a deep grasp of the faith - they need to get into the solid heart of the Bible. They haven't come to be talked down to or to be drilled in church doctrine. They have come because they want to know about Jesus Christ, about miracles and the new life promised to believers.
There seems to be a general philosophy of preaching basics over and over again until, after a year or two in the same church, everything begins to have a familiar ring. So where's the challenge, where's the state of the nation overview, the prophecy, the words of knowledge, the gifts of discernment and the overpowering love and healing?
Once we realise God is bigger than our preconceptions and our doctrines perhaps church gatherings will become more invigorating occasions with a practical role to play in keeping society sane and healthy.
When the clamour gives way to silence, when repeat sermons give way to Spirit inspiration, when we love our neighbour as ourselves then Christ will cause new form to rise where there was once only dry bones.
By Keith Newman
Perhaps being forced to go to church as a youngster, or bad encounters with churchgoers, has left the impression that God is boring. I don't know how God can be made to sound boring - but some churches have it down to a fine art.
How can the Creator of the Universes, the master of time and space, the very being whose power and light keep the world together be considered boring. Scarey yes, awesome certainly, magnificent and mysterious without doubt - but boring - no way!
Just what is going on in churches today that makes people want to stay away in droves? Why is going to church is on so many people's hate lists?
They'd rather go to the movies, watch a video, read a book, listen to music, visit a nightclub, talk with friends, go for a long walk, hide under the sheets - anything but go to church.
The church is supposed to be conveying wonderful truths about God but has become involved in so much tradition and ritual that it's missing the point - young people in particular, just don't relate anymore.
The idea that the church is a building or a specific place where God hangs out is an illusion. God is God. Any building, no matter how big, could not contain even his big toe - supposing of course he has one.
Most outsiders still identify church as an occasion where you dress fit to attend a funeral and are bound by a rigid set of thou-shalt-not's. To many, the church is seen as irrelevant to today's culture.
However, God does ask us to gather together but that doesn't mean the buildings where we hang out become holy or qualify the pastor infallible.
The world has found many unkind ways to describe the church-goer. Those who wear the tag Christian are often imagined as dogmatic, legalistic, moralists, fanatics, Jesus nuts (actually the name of the nut that holds the rotor blade on a helicopter) and the worst of all hypocrites; those who's lives do not measure up to what they profess.
It is a rare occasion when you hear of the person with genuine faith who shines as a light in the community showing godly love and wisdom, unselfishness and insight. Yet many people do express those exact qualities. Unfortunately it is often the bad example of the days events that claims most attention, like front page news.
Today's church buildings with their gold adornments, carefully carved pulpit, silver collection plates and lavish stained glass windows (dedicated to the memory of Mrs Dour and Mr Moneybags, who passed away after 50 years of faithful pew sitting) are the last places the average earthbound human would look for heavenly alternatives.
To God, the church is a body of people throughout the world who have put him first in their lives. It does not have a name like Anglican, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal or Charismatic. Its leader is not the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Pope.
It’s leader is Jesus Christ and love is the glue that binds believers together. You will know these people by their actions and by the words they speak. If they don't act like Christians then they probably aren't.
The church may one day be an irrelevant - if not irreverent oddity - but God will never become old fashioned. He's the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and he won't change or go away no matter how you try and gift wrap him or tell people he's dead or has retired on the royalties of his book.
To survive into the next century the church must be relevant to the age in which it shares God's eternal truths. There are two extremes today, the dry bones Sunday only meetings where people go out of a sense of loyalty, and the glamorous TV style evangelists who have developed the art of preaching the contents out of your pocket rather than the sin out of your soul.
Part of the problem, in my experience, is that the church is building and promoting an alternative culture rather than encouraging its members to be more effective in the existing one. It has alienated its membership so its membership slowly walked out the door.
The church is generally about 10-years behind the world when it should be 10 years ahead.
Christians must know their own hearts, speak and act with authority in their chosen fields and become involved - whether it is music, manufacturing, public service, politics, education or the pulpit the pulpit.
Recognition should not come because they're Christians, but because they're damn good at what they do. Rampant street preaching is nowhere near as effective as getting on with the job of being the best person you possible can be.
Bible-banging and shoving the gospel down people's throats under threat of fire and brimstone is just not on. It creates more cynics than converts.
There is room for social activism, for righteous anger, for causes and issues from visiting the sick and old to championing human rights, saving the dolphins and whales and protesting unfair laws, corruption and injustice.
The church must be a force to be reckoned with - its voice must be heard but not only as a right wing, fundamentalist organisation but as a body of people who have compassion for the poor and the hurting. Christ was not a politician - he was a social revolutionary - an agent of change sent on a mission to bring believers together on common ground to change the world.
The Holy Spirit is God's agent in this age and he is moving throughout all the world not just in churches but in pubs, whorehouses, hospitals and homes - wherever people are
For many street-wise people, arriving at church has come at the end of a long spiritual and intellectual journey. Solid, relevant teaching is essential. Re-runs of The Cross and the Switchblade or sermons that evoke memories or Sunday School of old will not appeal.
Often such newcomers have to find their own spiritual food when the pulpit message falls short, or when the preaching platform becomes a podium for cheerleaders to steer the congregation through 90 minute sing-a-longs.
These people need a deep grasp of the faith - they need to get into the solid heart of the Bible. They haven't come to be talked down to or to be drilled in church doctrine. They have come because they want to know about Jesus Christ, about miracles and the new life promised to believers.
There seems to be a general philosophy of preaching basics over and over again until, after a year or two in the same church, everything begins to have a familiar ring. So where's the challenge, where's the state of the nation overview, the prophecy, the words of knowledge, the gifts of discernment and the overpowering love and healing?
Once we realise God is bigger than our preconceptions and our doctrines perhaps church gatherings will become more invigorating occasions with a practical role to play in keeping society sane and healthy.
When the clamour gives way to silence, when repeat sermons give way to Spirit inspiration, when we love our neighbour as ourselves then Christ will cause new form to rise where there was once only dry bones.
By Keith Newman
)...but they had enough reasoning to see it was for the better that Gods will be done and that it would be for the good...i.e. a blessing.