Melbourne discussion group

[Glenn Ambrose]

This is an invitation to anyone who is interested in issues surrounding Christianity and would like to meet up and discuss; lordspath.org or send me an email at contact@lordspath.org
Lord’s path is a very informal gathering, we are not associated with any particular church or denomination we are just Christians wanting to discuss ideas or topics that have been rattling around in our heads.
This discussion group emerged from an Alpha course that I did. I enjoyed the conversation so much that my self, a retired Baptist minister and two friends that we roped in started this group.
Over three weeks a topic is discussed on the forum, lordspath.org, and over the weeks an article is developed so that we have a record of our discussions.
The third week we all bring it together and finally meet up in person with a final, maybe not definitive, conclusion. From our gathering the next discussion topic emerges.
We started with 'Are we all priests?' this lead to 'Why are churches dying?' and the current topic is 'What can be done about declining church numbers?'. At the moment we are a small group of four, two Anglicans and two Baptists, but it would be nice to grow.

 

[Paidiske]

I left Melbourne a couple of years ago (and Albury is a bit far away for me to manage connecting with a group there now), but think it would be great to see a local group from here connecting there. Hope it all goes well.

 

[jabattler1976bhc]

'From 1971 to 2021 the percentage of Australians that identify as Christian has halved from 86.2% to 43.9%.'

Where did you get this from ?

I think there are people who identify as 'Christian' who never attend any church services...
And 'lapsed' Christians who haven't attended for years

Was this from the Census data?

Well at least there are still Christians around...

 

[Bob Crowley]

I'm not a Melburnian, but I noticed that Melbourne gets it's fair share of weather changes.

Melbourne hit by rain, wind and hail in dramatic weather change, with another cool spell forecast for next week

After what finally felt like summer conditions on Sunday, Melbournians stepped outside today to bitterly cold winds, showers and even some small, winter-like hail.

www.abc.net.au

I live in Logan just south of Brisbane, and at this time of year it's consistently warm or hot, being subtropical.

Years ago when I was in the Presbyterian Church, we had a young couple who came from Melbourne. Eventually they went back there, mainly for family reasons. But I remember them saying they missed the weather amongst other things - they said you could get four seasons in one day.

Some time ago my wife and I did a road trip from Brisbane to Melbourne via the coast and then cut back inland via the Hume Highway and the New England Highway. It was November if I remember rightly, and as I wrote above that's pretty warm in Brisbane. Anyway we stopped at Lakes Entrance for a few days.

The day we got there we went for a walk on the beach. I had on a singlet, t-shirt, flannelette shirt, jumper and a parka, and I was still cold! I think the wind was coming straight from Antartica! The next two days were beautiful, although I think the water would have been freezing if I'd gone for a swim.

The old Presbyterian pastor I had ran an orphanage in Melbourne way back, circa the 1960's I think. He didn't like Melbourne much - he said if you didn't support an AFL team, you were a nobody.

He had a standard joke he used to trot out about Melbourne. The local Lions Club had a raffle. First prize was one week's holiday in Melbourne, second prize was two week's holiday in Melbourne, and third prize was three week's holiday in Melbourne!

 

[Bob Crowley]

PS - Then there is the quote allegedly attributed to Ava Gardner, but which was actually a fabrication by a journalist.

The Australian book you've finally got time for: On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Ignore the poor fortunes of its Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner-led film. Shute’s apocalypse novel is a dynamite isolation read

www.theguardian.com

An apocryphal quote was famously (and erroneously) attributed to Ava Gardner, in which she described Melbourne as “the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world”. The quote was fabricated by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Neil Jillett for a satirical piece and endures in Victorian folklore to this day.

Ava Gardner was the main female star in the 1959 movie "On the Beach" by Nevil Shute, about the end of the world due to nuclear warfare. It was set in and around Melbourne.

One hopes we don't actually see this in real life.

 

[YahuahSaves]

he said if you didn't support an AFL team, you were a nobody.

I was born and raised in Melbourne and I agree with this statement. The odd looks I get when people ask what team I barrack for and I say "None. I don't like football".

 

[Paidiske]

I lived in Melbourne for 38 years and never followed AFL. I didn't feel that made me a nobody, particularly, but in the early 80s it was easy to feel on the outside as a migrant.

 

[YahuahSaves]

The third week we all bring it together and finally meet up in person with a final, maybe not definitive, conclusion. From our gathering the next discussion topic emerges.

Sounds interesting but I'm half a days drive away. I hope it picks up though

 

[YahuahSaves]

to anyone who is interested in issues surrounding Christianity

OK I had a look at the site... a lot about the "decline of churches" .... the irony is at the bottom of the page there's another article: "are we all priests"?

"Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood".

Do you understand how the articles on declining church attendance and churches "dying" with the above article is contradictory?

I had this discussion with a traditional church member recently (a 75 year old lifetime Christian) who was very adamant that having a relationship with God was dependent on attending church on Sundays, doing community service and fellowship with other believers.
There is nothing wrong with the ideology as such, but worship, helping others and fellowship can be done anywhere, any time - and the 1st should be done daily (following Jesus - not his example - but the Holy Spirit.)
There are believers out there waking up to this.

We (as believers and followers of Christ) are the Church (the living stones). The traditional church as we know it is man-made, but the real Church is being built by God, it was always HIS plan.

 

[Techo]

I was born and raised in Melbourne and I agree with this statement. The odd looks I get when people ask what team I barrack for and I say "None. I don't like football".

I lived in Melbourne for 38 years and never followed AFL. I didn't feel that made me a nobody, particularly, but in the early 80s it was easy to feel on the outside as a migrant.

I grew up in Geelong and moved to Melbourne in 1977 for work. I'm still there... but retired now. Not following AFL is fine... you could do a lot worse... like... ... follow Collingwood. If Geelong does ok I'm happy for them... or Hawthorn (I lived there for a while)... or Essendon (my late wife and her family like them)... but mostly I don't care who's on top of the ladder.

There was a actor from Sydney (forget who now) who said something like "The traffic in Melbourne is really bad. You never know what they are going to do. In Sydney you know exactly what they are going to do. They attack! Constantly!"

 

[Paidiske]

I must admit, I don't miss Melbourne's traffic.

 

[Bob Crowley]

There was a actor from Sydney (forget who now) who said something like "The traffic in Melbourne is really bad. You never know what they are going to do. In Sydney you know exactly what they are going to do. They attack! Constantly!"

I've never lived in either Sydney or Melbourne, but I did spend a couple of weeks at Sanctuary Cove Resort in Melbourne on the west side way back with a hockey commitment.

I remember being stuck in congested traffic on one of the five or six lane freeways and looking down on the hockey fields where we were soon due to play as I was trying to get there.

If I'd been in the passenger seat I'd have had the privelege of watching a fair amount of the preceding game from the freeway!

On the other hand, and probably at about the same time I was driving a cab part time in Brisbane. I happened to meet another driver who had moved from Sydney to Brisbane about a year before. He remarked that it was good for cab drivers in Sydney.

I asked him why. He said "It costs you about forty dollars to go round the block!" which was a comment on Sydney's traffic.

No doubt Uber and the ride share companies have made the cab industry a lot less profitable, but now I suppose it costs someone forty dollars to go round the block in an Uber in Sydney.

After my experience in Melbourne, it's probably not much better in peak hours.

 

[Bob Crowley]

On a side note the issue of traffic made me realise just how much fossil fuel we've consumed (wasted). I suppose in my lifetime I've driven about a million kilometres, partly because I spent some years driving for a living.

If I assume I averaged 10 kilometres a litre (and I'm probably being generous), then that's 100,000 litres.

We've got a 5000 litre water tank in the backyard. 100,000 litres is 20 of those 5000 litre tanks, and I'm just one driver!

I think God expected us to make those fossil fuel reserves last a lot longer, but in our usual human fashion we've worshipped endless economic progress as one of our idols. Now we're all desperately trying to back pedal.