CHURCH RESPONSIBILITIES

ESSAY 7 March 2008

CHURCH TEACHING
Church teaching is vital to existing congregations and to those who find faith and seek a place to worship. It should equip Christians to enjoy the wonderful pleasures that life offers.
Many forms of our pleasures demand effort and dedication, but this should not exclude the Christian duties of concern for others. They should not become exclusive ends in themselves.
There have many testimonies from people who had achieved great worldly success, which they ultimately found to be empty. They only found fulfilment when they turned to God.
Many have found emptiness from excesses in pursuit of worldly pleasures. Some were in a mess from excesses of sex, drink or drugs. Fulfilment and redemption only came whether they found Faith.
The vital lesson is that God forgives past sins, no matter how wicked. His help is available to all who repent and pray for it.
Non-Believers who lack the restraints of faith are controlled only by the norms of their society. Some are constrained only by the eleventh commandment “thou shalt not be found out”.
They aim is for to self-gratification, such as, materialism, excessive alcohol, sex or dependence on hard drugs. They will not be satisfied but always want more. Fun to start with, but ultimately empty.
They will tend be self-centred, indifferent to their neighbours and hostile to their perceived enemies. They will find that their lives are eventually unfulfilled and alone. They can’t take their pleasures with them. Christians should be warned of these dangers.

TEACHING THE YOUNG
The established churches have a vital responsibility of teaching Christianity to the young who customarily seek membership. It is vital that this teaching is effective in providing the foundation of lasting faith in these young recruits. Churches only instruct some children. (My father-in-law never went to church but sent the children to Sunday school every week.)
Later many attend classes for confirmation these are opportunities with captive audiences. It is vital that their message is well presented. Teaching must be simple and relevant if they are to provide lasting faith. The young need the faith to guide the rest of their lives. Above all they must know that their loving God cares for each of them no matter how humble their position. His help is available to all those who pray.
The future support if churches depends on teaching them Christ’s Messages and giving faith to the young.
The established churches have a unique responsibility. They have large numbers of nominal members most of their children go to churches for confirmation.

CHRISTIAN ADULTHOOD
When they leave the confines of school and home, young people have a new freedom and are their own masters. They become part of their age group. Some rebel against social norms to assert their new independence.
Like most societies, their groups tend to be hierarchical, with individuals rated according the criteria of these societies.
The most important lesson for young Christians is that God created everybody with different talents and abilities. Regardless of how they are rated by their peers, what is vital is that they live according to God’s Teaching of what is right and wrong. This is a vital lesson to avoid pressure to behaving according to the values of the others in their group to gain their approval.
They have a wide variety of choices of how they live. The Internet opens the door to the rest of the world. They need strength through Christian faith and a clear knowledge of right and wrong.
If they can achieve this, they can have an exciting and joyful life. Christianity is not a killjoy message. This should be a fun time. Faith must be real and become a basis of their exciting lives. They should be warned of the real dangers of lack of restraint and self-indulgence. There is a slippery road to hell on earth. Tragedies occur from dependence on self-gratification starting with alcohol and sinking through soft to hard drugs. Addiction to the latter can lead to utter dependence on regular doses. This in turn leads to crime to pay for them, regardless of the pain caused to others. This is contrary to Jesus’ teaching but it also leads to destruction and misery in their own lives.
Young Christians should be clearly warned of these real dangers.
As already noted, there is a gap between clergy and laymen. The generation gap is even wider. Churches need to learn to tailor their teaching to bridge this gap.

CONCLUSION Perhaps falling support for churches now is partly due to inadequate teaching years ago. This must not continue, they have a vital responsibility to give young Christians the faith they need as the anchor of their lives.

SEX
Everyone was born as a result of lovemaking. Yet sex is almost unmentionable, though it is very real. There is another world out there after dark.
Illicit sex, outside marriage, is too common and can be one of the great temptations. Prostitution has been widespread since time immemorial and still is. Brothels in Germany geared up for the influx of the recent World Cup soccer fans!
Sex ought to be a sacred and a private giving part of our lives. The ecstasy of making love, though transient, has been the greatest physical pleasure in my life and the greatest temptation.
Surely it is among God’s greatest gifts, when shared by couples dedicated to caring for each other for life.
That should be taught to young Christians. Otherwise they are likely to get a very different message from their peers at a time when they are most vulnerable.
A major church, with celibate clergy, forbids birth control. Yet in a world of low child mortality and population pressures, many couples sensibly decide to limit their children. They should not be denied this precious gift of their shared lives.
This doctrine has led to excessive population growth and poverty in some societies where powerful churches can enforce it. This has led to deprivation and hardship. I cannot believe this serves our Creator’s purpose. Birth control no longer means that the result of the ecstasies of care between two loving mates should be children.
CELIBACY is prescribed for priests in the Catholic Church. However they are human, some ministers are not so strong. There have been sad accounts of major failures in their behaviour in South Africa, Ireland and USA, where $2billion have been paid to victims since 1950
Is this imposed celibacy really necessary for those who serve Jesus?
Homosexuality is a deviation from the norm. Happily I do not understand it and have not had to cope with it in my life.
It is puzzling because, if the causes were genetic, it would have died out. However it is a real part of society.
Members of the same sex are emotionally attracted to each other and prepared to share their lives together. This seems to be how they were created, can it be their fault?
It is widely condemned, but, if that is the way the Creator made them, they must answer to Him. It is not for us to judge.
They can only be answerable to God for this. The physical aspects of these relationships are between them and God. Thankfully I understand them not.
I believe this, however, if I had felt the same powerful love and attraction for another man that I felt for my wife when we fell in love I too would now be pariah.
CONCLUSION Sex is a very real part of life. But everyone is different. It should be sacred and beautiful but can be evil and selfish. Christians should be taught these realities.

CONCLUSION
A vital role of churches is teaching of Christian messages updated to everyday life.
They should ensure that their teaching of new Christians will equip them with the faith they will need in the rest of their lives. On all issues they must be realistic and credible if they are to be accepted. The effectiveness of these teachings will affect support for churches in the future.

SUMMARY – Essays 5,6,7 & 8
Most Christians are not evangelists or theologians, they are specialists in an increasingly competitive and demanding world. This is where Christians serve God in all their varied dealings with other people. The churches should be leading them to this Christian living.
The simple Truth of Jesus’ Messages does not change. Church ministries should update all the lessons from the Gospels to help Christians live in their more complicated world today.
They should also provide contemporary examples of the availability of the Holy Spirit to help anyone with the faith to pray for it. There are also many verifiable reports of healing through faith in God.
Worship should merely be gathering for clergy to lead and reinforce the faith Christians as Jesus promised.
The deceptions, which Christ warned against, are the manmade additions to church worship identified at length in the essays above. Sadly many Christians revere the churches and their deceptions and believe that this is how God should be worshipped. However their numbers are declining.
Churches should return to their vital role of leading their flocks to live according to Christ’s Teaching.