While continuing to ponder the questions raised in the earlier post, I read the following from Graham Buxton, which really says it all. "When those who previously have had no time for either the Christian faith or the church see Christians engaging intelligently and creatively in social and cultural life, contributing as fellow members of human society alongside everyone else and willing to learn from those who may not share their faith convictions, then perhaps we may witness a new openness to the things of God in people's hearts. They may sit up and take notice - Christians are not people 'from another planet', but people 'just like us'! This is the promise of being willing to advance beyond the sacred-secular divide syndrome."
Earlier in his book, this writer uses the example, when there are issues around the performance of local schools, of getting involved in school boards and committees, rather than continuing the pattern of complaint and dissatisfaction. My personal experience, where there was infrastructure lag, was pro-actively getting involved in a local community centre, hoping to get some programs up and running, offsetting some of the stress on the community, especially young families. Too bad that most people would rather complain than get involved! Yet with some Spirit-energised patience and effort, some of the vision of the above quote was actualised.
The quote above comes from Celebrating Life: Beyond the Sacred-Secular Divide (2007), p. 173.
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