FROM AUSTRALIAN FRIEND SCOTT
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 12:25pm
I recently returned from a visit to Australia. I had not been there in 8 years and was curious what obvious changes would be noticed. Aside from the exorbitant price of food one thing stood out to us in a massive way. The church had left the people. I guess you may ask, "How can that happen don’t the people leave the church?" You could say America is the same in many ways, but I just noticed it so massively in Australia. Let me explain.

The everyday people on the streets have changed. They are looking for sincerity and truth that will set them free. They are looking for a God of power and struggling to find teachers of such. Everywhere we went, and I mean everywhere, in shops, parks etc we encountered people looking for a real Jesus, not of just words but power and life. Many if not all had looked in various churches and none had found. They all remained hungry.

Of course, there are wonderful churches in Australia just like here in the USA, but the trend in Australia has been to follow the crowd or model of so called successful, large churches. These churches can stir the soul of man but are largely devoid of the Spirit. Many teach a gospel pleasing to men and their passions and are excellent at what they do. But does that make it right? Does it make it right when people come to church for a coffee or doughnut and leave full naturally while feeling empty spiritually? Sure they can feel the charged emotion of the crowd and meetings and sadly many times mistake this for the Spirit. But back to the point, a politically correct gospel that pleases and presents adherents with an easy path minus personal responsibility and spirituality runs through the land.
Christian motivational speakers run empires and the party rolls on. But people are wandering looking for churches or others that can teach them how to get free from sin and live in the power of the Holy Spirit in relationship with Jesus. You can talk power but people want to walk power and find true pastors and teachers of the bride of Christ as the Bible calls us.

For example, we were walking in a park and a couple approached us and said “You are Christians aren’t you?” They were hungry to learn about a Jesus of power, but the church had left them. The next day while in a shop two workers asked me out of nowhere if I thought God was real. They explained to me how they talk together about God and wonder how to find Him. One lady mentioned how she had prayed not even 5 minutes earlier saying “God I know you're real but I can't find you, please help me, how do I find my way to You”. Both women knew different churches but church had left them. The whole experience was TOTALLY amazing. For the 45 minutes to an hour we spoke with each other, their world stopped. Right there in a busy pharmacy they were meeting Jesus their prayers were answered and they didn’t even seem to care if they lost their jobs, they were desperate.

If ever I have seen a country getting ready for a move of God, it is Australia. Just don’t go looking in most churches. Granted you’ll get good music if you like the party mix. Maybe you’ll find the arts at work, motivational speakers stroking people's ego, or even what many mistakenly call the Spirit, that is actually the soul. There is a whole industry at work with very skilled CEOs and politicians tickling people's ears and claiming to be pastors. Take the time to get outside the mainstream and you will find a remnant church and a generation hungry for a real Jesus of power, signs and wonders in demonstration of the Spirit. I am for church, but in my way of looking at things, real church is individuals meeting together to worship, encourage and grow in truth, holiness, and righteousness of the Spirit of God.

I was thrilled when talking to a long time friend to find he had left a church he was involved with that was large and worldly. He told me how he had visited many churches looking for the Spirit and found them to all be the same. He was finding Jesus in a new and intimate way. He spoke of his old church running “rave parties” at which they stop and worship a soul God. He talked of his devastation at seeing many marriages fall apart from a worldly spirit in the church. Make the church a nightclub and church gets the same fruit as a nightclub, broken lives burning out. But beyond all that my friend had left the worldly church and was on a journey looking for true believers moving in the power of the Holy Spirit that believe in an absolute Bible.

If you have read this far, you have done well and obviously have some strong thoughts on this matter. I believe Jesus is about to move in Australia in a huge way as the church abandons people by not leading them spiritually. In the years ahead we will see men and woman rise up in truth in a greater way and make a difference. Unlike the current church, they won't be looking for how close they can get to the world, but will run the other way, leading many others the same way.

Australia has a huge social problem with binge drinking as they call it. Drunken youth at malls turn the streets of many cities into drunken hellholes at night. Australia loves its booze and that alcohol is destroying millions of lives like a slow cancer. Instead of showing the community a better way, much of the church raises their wine glasses with the world to say, "Let's have a good time." Pastors fall prey to alcoholism while trying to justify their drinking. We all know whatever we have to justify is usually always wrong. Where does the community turn for answers and change when they burn out? When the church has become like a football club, talking about Jesus like they would previous games and future events, how can this kind of church lead anyone to Christ? Australian churches, put your wine glasses down and turn your music down long enough to see that in trying to make yourselves relevant you have become irrelevant. People in the community are desperate for change. Some people, while sitting in your church seats, cry themselves to sleep trying to find the Jesus you have buried in humanism.

To the remnant of churches and people struggling against the flood of carnality and humanism in church, I say this: Stand strong! Your day in Jesus is coming where you will be a greater voice of truth and righteousness. The Bible talks of those that preach another Jesus. Can I ask what would that Jesus look like? After all if humanism were about man and his ways, what would you call a Jesus that is watered down to our level of carnality? Jesus said, “I will build my church.” Jesus had absolutes and not a greasy grace that many apply to excuse their lust for the world and its fruits. A modern humanistic church that is devoid of absolutes has left the people. Church has left the people.

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