Was having a chat to a couple of Christian friends the other day about lots of various Christian topics. As they are both from O/S ( Singapore to be exact ) at one point I asked them how they found Australian churches. While they were mostly positive, especially about the great Bible teaching available here a couple of comments caught my attention.
The first was that Australian Christians seem to be quite tight-fisted. They noticed that our churches seemed to be filled with hand-me-down donated items. That the ministers were relatively poorly paid compared to regular aussie wages, and that some denominations were having to sell off church buildings because they couldn't get enough money to support them despite our Christians being among the wealthiest in the world.
The other comment they both made was that Australian Christians seem to spend lots of time criticising each other. The Evangelicals poke fun at the Charismatics and visa-versa, and both groups seemed to spend their spare time making nasty comments about the other.
And when I thought about my experience as a Christian over the years I had to agree with them. So now I guess Im asking why is it this way ? And what could be done to change it ?
The first was that Australian Christians seem to be quite tight-fisted. They noticed that our churches seemed to be filled with hand-me-down donated items. That the ministers were relatively poorly paid compared to regular aussie wages, and that some denominations were having to sell off church buildings because they couldn't get enough money to support them despite our Christians being among the wealthiest in the world.
The other comment they both made was that Australian Christians seem to spend lots of time criticising each other. The Evangelicals poke fun at the Charismatics and visa-versa, and both groups seemed to spend their spare time making nasty comments about the other.
And when I thought about my experience as a Christian over the years I had to agree with them. So now I guess Im asking why is it this way ? And what could be done to change it ?