The Crisis of the Australian Church and its Implications for Mission

By Dr. Les Henson

Dr. Les Henson is Head of Theology at Tabor Bible College Victoria. A mining mechanical engineer by profession, he studied at Bible Training Institute, Glasgow, before serving the Lord in West Papua as a church planting missionary, for 19 years. Later he attended Fuller Theological Seminary and Monash University. On arriving in Australia, Les worked for 2 years with World Team before taking up his position with Tabor.

Les is married to Wapke and have two grown children. They fellowship at the Ranges Community Church in Victoria

In the sixties and seventies, the Church in Australia became increasingly isolated and less relevant to mainstream society. It began to move from the centre of society to the fringe. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Church became an insignificant sub-culture on the periphery of a pluralistic and multi-cultural society.

The Changing World

The world we live in has been changing at an alarming rate over the past thirty to forty years. Australian society, like the rest of the Western world, is moving through a transition period from modernity to post-modernity, involving an epochal change in the way people live, think and act.

This new world is of post-Christendom, post-denominationalism and post-institutionalism. Christianity is no longer the main player on the block. The old denominational and organisational structures are crumbling because brand loyalty is outdated in our consumer-orientated society. Institutions, particularly those of the church, are seen to belong to a style vacuum, since almost everyone is looking for freedom and autonomy in this increasingly anti-authoritarian and anti-hierarchical world. Many Christians are struggling to make the faith they profess meaningful to their everyday lives and relevant to those whom they witness and minister.

The Church in Australia is facing a significant crisis. It is as the Church has always been- just one generation from extinction.

From 1990 -1995, the Pentecostal church was the fastest growing church in Australia. It was growing at a conversion rate of less than one person per year per congregation.

The Anglicans, Uniting and Presbyterians are dying off at an alarming rate. The larger churches, if they are growing at all, are growing primarily at the expense of dying smaller churches. An escalating number of clergy are opting out of the ministry and Christians are either discouraged or looking for the latest bandwagon to get their next fix of super-spirituality.

The Australian Church is facing a crisis, but crisis is part of what it means to be the people of God in a changing world. To deny the cultural and ecclesial crisis we are facing is a dangerous delusion.

In response to this, many small mission communities are being formed from as few as thirty people with only a tenuous connection to existing deformational structures. In the next twenty years, these will make up a significant proportion of the Church in Australia.

Significant Social Trends in the Past 30 Years

Households

• There are more households, but they are smaller.
• People are paying more for their homes.
• The cost of living has led to the rise of DIY (often a Sunday activity).

Employment

• Most people in their middle years work outside the home.
• Work hours have increased.
• There are more women in the workforce.
• People have less free time.

Mobility

• People are more mobile than they were 30 years ago.
• Greater job mobility means people move more often.
• Distance from relatives varies with social class.

Divorce and Family Life

• Increase in divorce.
• The number of single people has risen.
• Individuals visiting absent parents (often on the weekend).

Leisure Time

• Weekend sporting activities.
• An increase in the hours spent watching television.

A Fragmented Society

One key conclusion from these snapshots of Australian society is that we are living increasingly fragmented and dysfunctional lives.

The Power of Networks

The Western World is a network society. The Internet is both an example of network society and a metaphor for understanding it. People choose their own route with a search engine as the only pilot.

In a network society, the importance of place or neighbourhood becomes of secondary importance. Networks have not replaced neighbourhoods but they have changed them. The sense of community is disconnected from locality and geography. Individuals may be in several networks but some will be in none – due to the collapse of the neighbourhood as a friendship base.

Consumer Culture

We are a consumer culture and our identity is found in what we consume. The core value of society has moved from ‘progress’ to ‘choice’ – the absolute right of freedom to choose. Consumerism affects the ways in which people evaluate truth claims. Consumerism creates a self-indulgent society and excludes the poor. With the recent Global Financial Crisis, the bubble has burst and only time will tell how this affects society.

Post-Christendom

• The network and consumer society coincides with the demise of Christendom.
• The Church is on the periphery of society and no longer at the centre.
• The Christian story is no longer at the heart of the nation.
• The Church has to realise its missionary responsibilities.

Our changing cultural context means that we need to take cultural and worldview differences with increased seriousness.

The Situation

The contemporary Church in Australia is facing and struggling to cope with a major paradigm shift. The Church is moving out of Christendom to a post-Christendom context. It has moved to the margins of society. The Church is a modern entity and is increasingly called to cope and adapt to a postmodern world.

• Church people have lost a sense of belonging.
• The Church is hierarchical and needs to become egalitarian in nature.
• It is institutionalised and needs to go through a process of de-institutionalisation.
• The Church has focused on maintaining its purity rather than engaging the world.
• Mission structures are based on gathering rather than scattering.
• It has too often become a ghetto rather than a scattered world engaging community.

When the Church has attempted to engage the world, it has done so uncritically. It has tried to be relevant and ended up looking just like the world. In doing so, the Church has failed to transform the world it attempted to engage.

Implications for Mission

Supporters of mission are dying off and not being replaced, especially in hard financial times. Many missions will fold unless they become part of something bigger. Smaller missions need to network or merge in a creative way to offer flexibility and choice.

Mission organisations and networks must give back and not just take from the Church. They need to educate, encourage and support the Church. If the Church dies so do the Missions.

Egalitarianisation of Mission

• A need for young people and women in leadership roles and mission promotion.
• Missions must also be multicultural in their makeup.
• A Need for Flat Structures
• Postmodernists are terrified of hierarchy and institutionalism. Greater Emphasis on Pastoral Care
• People coming into mission need great care because of increased dysfunctionality.

Missions must stop competing and instead work together. The Church is tired of the competitive nature of missions. We need to demonstrate unity and work together.