BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1949 IS CHURCH “MISSING OUT”?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 17, 27 July 1949, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1949 IS CHURCH “MISSING OUT”?

Preaching at Auckland Oil Sunday, the Rev Wesley Parker told the congregation at St Paul’s Methodist Church, Remuera, “We are forced to the conclusion that the Church is just missing out with this generation. We claim to possess the greatest of all truths, but we have failed to sell our ideas.” He went on to blame the motor car, the Labour movement, rationalist ideas, two world wars, and the disunity of Churches. It would appear that, in putting his arguments in that order, he started v/ell on the outer and worked towards a bulls-eye. Actually, it is not at all impossible to be a Christian in a motor car miles away from* a Church building; it.is not impossible to be a Christian and a Socialist; and if we believe, as is constantly reiterated, that the last two wars were fought for Christianity, then should they not have strengthened the thing they defended? That different sects of religion should differ and continue to differ as to their forms of ritual and some of their beliefs, while it might be regrettable, should not be seriously damaging to the cause of Christianity as a whole—provided all accept the pattern of living laid down by the Founder of our faith. Perhaps the biggest weakness in the Church today is the failure of lay members of all sects to take their Christianity out of the Church building into their daily lives and into their every contact with their fellows.

Need any minister of religion feel he has failed because his formal services are poorly attended if he knows his community is. definitely the better for his Church’s message? True indeed is Mr Parker’s analysis of the effects of war upon the present generation and their religion. Greatest difficulty with many seems to be to realise that the Christian message is not something out of the past, some part of our tradition, but something essentially practical and constructive for the present and the future.

If Christianity has not yet permeated diplomacy to the point where it can prevent war, if it has not yet permeated economics to the point where it can prevent slumps and poverty, there is no need for the Church to despair. While it has a living faith to guide it and a vital truth to teach, it cannot fail. And if those who need its message are not to be found within four walls on Sundays, then the Church will have to figure out a fresh line of approach.

What could be better than Christian laymen, practicing their Christianity in every aspect of their lives?