Gospel Optimism

An amazing thing happened this week at DAC. On Monday, 32 people turned up for one of the two Explaining Christianity courses, of which a reasonable number are people exploring Christian faith for the first time. This should warm our hearts!

I made the point in Sunday’s sermon that we must not think 'the soil' is too hard. Yes, there are many opposed or apathetic about Jesus, but many others are more open than we think. In fact there is tentative evidence of a turning of the tide. Are people seeing the hopelessness of secularism and turning back to consider questions of God and faith?

I mentioned an article on the Sydney Anglicans website citing research by McCrindle. Have a read for yourself: https://sydneyanglicans.net/news/the-figures-which-show-australias-new-relationship-with-christianity/54750

The ‘headlines’ of the article are that one in ten who ticked no religion in the 2016 census changed their response to ‘Christian’ in 2021; there is evidence of older Australians turning back to Christianity; two thirds of Australians have a positive attitude to Christianity; and therefore we have an opportunity to show people what genuine faith in Jesus looks like.

Please pray that we’d seize this opportunity to speak and live out the Gospel of Jesus. And please pray for those attending Explaining Christianity (it is not to late to drop in and join either group this Monday 10am or 7pm).

Grace and peace,
Rev. Mark Boyley