Vicar of Baghdad, there's a job that you probably wouldn't volunteer for. According to the Christian Today Website Iraq once had 5 million Christians, now it has 200,000. Christians in Iraq face financial hardship, political instability and the threat of attacks from extremists, and so many have fled to the relative safety of Kurdistan.
Canon Andrew White is our man in Baghdad, where his Anglican church runs a clinic and relief programme. The church is in a hard situation there and yet his advice to us in the UK is telling:
“Don’t take care, take risks and make sure that the church is totally and utterly relevant. The reason I became a clergyman was because I was too bored sitting in the pews. There are so many churches that aren’t full of life.”
Good - make it relevant - But what if you end up losing half the church in the process? So frustrating for Pastors/preachers trying to set their churches on fire if the congregation have a bucket of water to hand....
ReplyDeleteWhat if you end up growing the church in the process?
ReplyDelete