8-10 things the Church should pick up on
if only someone dared enough . . .

That was the title of a talk/discussion I heard about recently - I didn't go, and I have to admit I don't really know what was said, but I thought it might be kinda interesting to try and make up my own such list, so here goes, in no particular order, and I have no idea whether I'll have that many ...

1. Forget about numbers
   I feel like I'm always hearing about how church numbers are declining. Sure that poses challenges for our future, but I don't think the best way to deal with that is to concentrate on the fact. A scratched itch will rarely go away, of you know what I'm saying ... Get on with life - which brings me to my next point.
   
2. Get on with loving - just loving
   A lot of churches a finding incredible ways to connect with their local communities, but I always find that these are always talked about as opportunities to witness, opportunities to increase our numbers. I think that compromises our ability to love them fully. If we have an agenda in our love, then that is not Godly love. We are called primarily to love. So do it. It's not complicated.
   
3. Value diversity
   If someone has a new idea, a new way of seeing things, a new way of doing things, that's fantastic. Why do some people insist they have a monopoly on what's "right" and what's "best", or worse - on God's will. Credit where credit's due though - there are churches doing this quite well already, they just tend not to be the ones that shout the loudest.
   
4. Integrate with the community
   I feel like we're always acting as a separate entity, when really by our nature we should be an integral part of the community. Lose the boundaries. Don't be so "us and them" about everything. Don't talk and think about Christians and non-Christians, think about people.
5. The list goes on ...
   Most of the other things that I want to add are variations on the same themes, so I won't bore you with more. But there is one other thing...
   
6. Love and value everyone
   Sure, it goes without saying, and I think most of us are doing OK on this front, but I think it's easy to forget. At the end of the day, this is what we're about, and failing to do this probably is the most common cause of church problems. I'm not saying be artificially super-nice and a "good Christian." I'm saying love everyone. Wastefully. And its starts with those closest to you.
   

There's a lot of ideas here that probably need more explanation. Hopefully I'll get around to it one day!! :)

It doesn't seem like it should be such a hard thing ... or at least not really any harder than satisfying the needs of any other age groups. But for some reason, the Uniting Church (at least in SA) is particularly worried about catering for the needs of young adults (which they define as 18-35) - I'll talk about that later though...

But the funny thing is it is kinda hard. But - I think - only because there aren't many of us around. Let me try to explain - you might notice that this argument could apply almost equally to any age group, as long as they're in the same sort of situation.

So young adults have slightly different needs than other age groups - that's not exactly a new and fantastic revelation. Some of these things are because of the age we ARE (in-depth exploration of life, faith often with more than a hint of idealism), while some of them are probably more because of the age we are IN (our affinity for multi-media communication, reflection and worship). Whatever the causes, it means that often, churches tailor particular gatherings or worship services to young adults. And there is some wisdom to that - as I've said, we have some slightly different needs. But that's not even the problem - that's relatively easy to do. The problem is, as far as I can see, that we create these little pockets of young adults that are relatively isolated from the (usually) larger communities that they are supposed to be part of. They have to rely on each other for pastoral care, for new ideas and experiences. It's not that they're not capable of these things - its just when it's done in a small group, these things can fall apart pretty quickly. Chances are, there's one or two out of 20-30 that do most of the caring for most of the young adults. When one of them leaves, or gets tired, the whole things starts to fall apart. So how do we cater effectively for the individual needs particular age groups in the wider context of an inter-generational community?

Fair Trade Coffee

We went to Romeo's Foodland at Glenelg yesterday for a bit of a 'do' to celebrate all Romeo's Foodlands stocking some new lines of fair trade coffee. Thanks to Deanna for inviting us along, giving us free coffee samples and for picking such a good position next to the freezer section on a 42 degree day!!

For anyone who hasn't heard of it, there's a pretty good explanation of fair trade here. But basically it's about ethical consumerism, and promoting training and good farming practices to help achieve sustainable business models in the countries (developing countries) where most of the world's coffee is grown. Basically we're talking choosing to pay 5c in a $3 cup of coffee to the farmer instead of 3c, with some independent auditing and accreditation to encourage proper usage of the extra money.

The best thing about it - seeing local small business owners taking the lead (hopefully - at least thats what it looks like) on promoting things like ethical consumerism, instead of taking the line of the Big Two trying to increase profits by replacing choice with Own-Brand products (which in my experience to date are rarely a good choice from any perspective bar price - although it will be interesting to see if this changes with the multi-tiered home-brand systems coming in).

The one thing that does frustrate me a little bit about the fair trade coffee thing, is that it seems impossible to get fair trade coffee that isn't organically grown. I might be wrong, but last I knew, organic farming was less productive than other ways, and I'm not convinced that just because us rich kids are willing to spend millions of dollars a year on coffee that we should be using any more land than we have to to make what is essentially a luxury item - especially since as far as I know we're pushing the limits of the productive land we have if we want to feed everyone. And I get that part of this is about encouraging sustainability, and that that is the reason some people give for choosing organic produce, but as far as I know, sustainable farming is possible without being organic, as long as we adhere to good farming practices. And I understand that that's no given when buying imported produce, but doesn't that just mean we need accreditation for good farming practice, as well as the existing accreditation for organic farming??

Anyway, I've had my rant - and that was about a 'good thing' !!! Nice work.