Order of Service - August 23, 1995

Call to Worship - Jeremiah 313

Hymn 411 Come Let us Sing of a Wonderful Love

Opening Prayer

Bible Reading John 17:20-23

Community Prayer

Responsive Prayer 868 BHB

Devotion - A Changing World

Prayer "The Open Church" from BoFL p 288

Benediction

Hymn 568 Will your anchor hold?

Jeremiah 313 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:

"I have loved you with an everlasting love;

I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

4 I will build you up again

and you will be rebuilt...

Again you will take up your tambourines

and go out to dance with the joyful.

John 1720 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

A Changing World

ILLN - Fiftieth anniversary of the end of WW2. Remarkable that there were 200,000 people in Melbourne to mark the end of the war. And yet as remarkable as those celebrations were, I suspect that they were nowhere near as joyous as the original celebrations. My feelings....

APPLICN - The post-war years were a tremendous growth time in Australia. The people who were forging the future knew what sort of past they were leaving behind. The war and its end had a tremendous unifying force on the Australian psyche. Most people agreed on what was important, and were united in their commitment to build a free and prospering country, built on solid moral standards.

How things have changed....

APPLICN - People in churches can no longer agree on some basic moral or spiritual values. There is debate about proper sexuality, appropriate ways of teaching the faith to children, the proper context or focus of worship, the style of buildings, and the models for ministry, to list but a few.

There can be no question that change in the church was necessary: the church was growing irrelevant to the modern society. Its ability to understand, let alone influence the culture about reached minimal standards. The church was largely seen as a legacy of a no-longer relevant era. To step into a church was akin to stepping into a time capsule.

Who was affected the most? People over 50. People who had built their lives on certain incontrovertible truths. But in our effort to adapt to the changing world, have we overlooked a significant proportion of not only our church population, but of the population of Australia?

How are we a demonstration of an answer to the prayer of Jesus to be one?

There is the danger that the church has bought the notion that older people are no longer valuable in the work of the church. We clamour to relate to the modern generation, but often by buffeting the unsteady, and climbing over the walking frames and wheelchairs of the older generation.

We cannot accept the cry that the older generations have had their day in the church and provide nothing for them. There is a significant proportion of the older generation who have never set foot inside a church, or have given up on it for reasons similar to the younger generations: it does not relate to where they are at.

APPLICN - When Jesus prayed that we may be one, he did not mean by excluding those who are different to us.

What role can the older generation play in the church today?

* Reminding us of what is important. You need to work out what is important, whether it is the hymns themselves, or values that can be expressed in a variety of ways. You need to be willing to challenge the assumptions behind approaches in ministry. You have an important part in shaping the future of the church. But we all need to learn what to let go of, and when to let go of it.

* Reminding us of the call of Jesus to care for those who are marginalised. The age at which most people lose faith is over 65!

* You have the greatest gift of all to offer: yourselves; time; a reminder that we are all human. None of us stays young forever. We need to learn to hear your stories, but also need you to hear the stories of the new generations. It is only as we listen to each other that we can understand and move together.

Do not be cajoled into silence. Do not give up on the church today. No doubt there will come a time when I will find the prevailing patterns of church life to be difficult, but the church in every generation needs to be reminded of the essentials: people, community, prayer, patience, sacrifice. It will only come when every member is cherished as an equal part of the community.

Gary Heard