After an election

Posted on 19 Oct 2020 - By Gradon

I was reflecting on the weekend election results, in the book, that I have been I was reading, on Sunday, there was this comment from Derek Prince, who was once a Cambridge University professor.

“Thus, with all due respect to most politicians and their usual promises for a brighter future, they do not have the solution. We cannot expect them to come up with a remedy for the problems of humanity—poverty, sickness, hatred, war—all of which are enormous and increasing. These terrible conditions are blighting the lives of millions of people. Still, we should pray for our government and our leaders within the parameters of the revealed will of God.”

Derek Prince Prophetic Guide to the end times (free ebook) Click on title to download it.

The solution to the conditions of the heart as Jesus prayed was for “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”. We have a message that changes lives, but it would seem no one is hearing that message because only a few Christians (judging on the number of baptisms I’ve noticed) are actually sharing the hope they have.

Imagine what NZ would be like if 20% percent of the population were believers (instead of the 2%-10% – depending where you live). I remember a time in the 1970’s when there were around 20% of the population at church on a Sunday, and, as a teenager there were only a few of my friends and acquaintances who came from one parent homes. Today it seems one parent homes are the norm. Suicides, another plague on our society were hardly heard of in the 1970’s. In my wider family, including cousins there have been four suicides – what a lot of pain they have left behind as we have wrestled over why they have done this and also what could we have done to help them in their pain.

What has happened for such a sadness to come on this land? I think the church has a lot to answer for as I reflect on how society has changed. I believe there are three things it hasn’t done – I have been a pastor over 30 years in several contexts but need to acknowledge my own failure to help people grow spiritually in these areas:

1. The Church in NZ has failed (generally) to share the faith. Most believers have never introduced anyone to Jesus- They simply don’t know how. They have never been taught.
2. Another problem is that churches have had faulty home bible studies that never really discipled anyone. Whatever was studied was completely random (often the leaders pet subjects) and never helped anyone one engage with their sphere of influence with friends and family.
3. Church leadership have never found their unique call of Jesus as a church to impact their society. They normally imitate the successful churches of their denomination often creating an ineffective busy church with lots of programs – many that are simply not needed. A number of years back a survey of pastors in NZ were asked to describe the kind of church they would like to lead. It turned out many would like to lead a church like Hillsong in Sydney. Yet, Hillsong church had found its own unique call and style but here in NZ God has its own Kiwi flavored, bicultural/ multicultural church awaiting to be discovered by its leaders.

North-South came into existence to address these issues. It has a simple evangelistic tool and a discipleship tool that has come out of the Church Planting movements that have seen more than 70 million come to Christ in the last 10 years, largely in the developing world  Click here for more info on Church Planting Movements

North-South has a method (six sessions over six months) to help churches find their unique call to their communities and beyond. It is very effective way of refocusing your church to look outward to the great harvest.

In our personal response to all the promises of politicians let us make our promise to Jesus to not only pray but work for “the kingdom to come on earth here as in heaven” as we raise up churches that know how to share their faith, know how to disciple people and know their unique call to serve their communities and the wider world.