‘Boarded an A380 Airbus – interestingly at a distance they look smaller than the old jumbo Jet – probably because they don’t have the camel’s hump nose - but actually they are much bigger, a double-decker plane in fact.
I was seated next to Angela and Steve, a coupe in their early sixties from rural Victoria off to New York for a two-week holiday. “First time we’ve done anything like this.” They asked me what I was doing in Florida – It made me think - How do you explain church planting to people who are not church goers? I said I was going to a conference about starting new churches. “More churches? I thought no one was going to church much any more,” responded Steve. “Our kids went to the local church children’s club sometimes when they were in primary school, but as they got older , there are so many things they can get sign up for...” said Angela.
They asked me how come I was attended. As I replied that I was a minister with an interest in learning about how churches can serve their communities, they exchanged that uneasy glance people sometime do when priests or pastors are identified and there was an awkward silence for a just moment. “Well, I hope it goes well for you, and good luck!” grinned Steve.
Some time later I looked at the little LCD screen that tells you about the route information. It informed me that the temperature around us was minus 51 Celsius; there were 12,000 kilometres still to go, and we were flying a dizzying 10 kilometres above sea level and hurtling forward at about 600K per hour.
Yet everything around me was as warm, still and peaceful as it was when we were on the tarmac. The lights were dimmed and drinks were being served. I wondered how we would all feel if the Captain could flick a switch and instantly make the whole fuselage translucent!
It’s just so hard for us as passengers to picture ourselves being in a thin metal shell at the very edges of space, hurtling six times faster than a speeding car and two kilometres above Mount Everest in bitter cold. The soft seating, mood lighting, diligent cabin staff and comforting entertainment system mean we are totally oblivious to our real location.
We in the western church have long left the comforting safety of the Christian era - but we are oblivious to it! Cocooned in our ‘cabin’ its hard to really believe that it’s all changed out there – but it has. Not so much in the non–western contexts but certainly in our western world. The Steves and the Angelas and their adult children don’t feel any antagonism towards us – just a mild bewilderment.
I recently heard Sarah Deutscher (Red Network) share from a study shows that only 15% of Aussies can connect with the things we do as ‘church’ and ‘outreach’ – That means 85% of Aussies wouldn’t ‘get it.’ We’re flying at a totally different altitude now! We need a different approach.
It can be difficult to imagine new realities. With the exception of the Great Wall of China, the Maginot Line was the greatest system of permanent fortification ever built, and probably the last. The broad purpose of the Line was to halt an invasion long enough for the French Army to fully mobilize, and then act as a base from which to conduct a counteroffensive. It was such an impressive piece of construction that dignitaries from around the world visited it.
However, the Maginot Line had two major failings – it was obviously not mobile and it assumed that the Ardennes was impenetrable. Any attack that could get around it would leave it floundering like a beached whale. Blitzkrieg was the means by which the enemy simply went around the whole Line. The speed with which Germany attacked France and Belgium in May 1940 completely isolated all the forts.
The German Army attacked through the Ardennes – such an attack was believed to be impossible by the French. One million men and 1,500 tanks crossed the seemingly impenetrable forests in the Ardennes. Once the Maginot Line had been isolated it had little military importance. One in seven French divisions was a fortress division - so the Maginot Line took out 15% of the French Army.
“... from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command...” (1 Chron 12: 32 NIV)
