Belief blockers

The 2018 Faith and Belief in New Zealand report, undertaken by McCrindle in Australia and commissioned by Wilberforce Foundation in NZ, explores attitudes towards religion, spirituality and Christianity in New Zealand. The purpose of this research is to investigate faith and belief blockers among Kiwis and to understand perceptions, opinions and attitudes towards Jesus, the Church and Christianity.

It is a very insightful and useful piece of research.

In 2017 Karl Faase from Olive Tree Media in Sydney, Australia put together a superb teaching series entitled ‘Towards Belief’¹ based on the 10 Belief Blockers that emerged in the Australian study one year earlier. The Belief Blockers in Australia and New Zealand are quite similar especially the top 3 which is no surprise. Some of you would have heard Karl teach about this in 2017 in a series of seminars around NZ that we at LeadershipWorx sponsored.

Here are the Eight Belief Blockers (from most to least) in NZ. Pages 42-44 of the Report. The %age figure is the combined score of ‘massive AND significant negative influence’.

1. Church Abuse 76% (Personally, I am so upset about this. The one place under heaven outside of home all people should be safe should be church).
2. Hypocrisy 68%
3. Religious Wars 67%
4. Judging Others 67%
5. Issues around Money 66%
6. Authoritarian Style 60% (I hear the word bullying-by Pastors-come up a bit these last few years).
7. Exclusivity 57%
8. Outdated 53%

Now here is our challenge I think. Let’s assume that the above is true for the average non-christian New Zealander. He/she holds strong thoughts and feelings². It’s true that some items here maybe perceptions only but perceptions are reality for a lot if not most people as they are for you and me.

How then do we address these issues? How do we lower these barriers for entry and remove these Belief Blockers?

I have a few suggestions.

• Don’t hide from these issues and certainly don’t ignore them.
• Talk about them openly to your people and urge help them make sensible responses to them.
• Determine to be a local church that is different and ‘works in the opposite spirit’.
• On No’s 2 and 4, teach and model a better way as Pastor. Your people are listening and watching you.
• On No’s 5 and 6. As Pastor think through your conduct and communication very carefully and determine to……..well…….’work in the opposite spirit’.

I agree that no individual church can solve all of these blockers and I also agree that we are all tainted and implicated when a brother or sister somewhere in NZ blows it³. But just perhaps in our own small corner of the world we can make a difference and thereby see a few more folks come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and be enfolded into your church. And that would be awesome!

Blessings

Alan

¹This series is available for $60.00 from us.

²People often ‘feel’ something negative but struggle to put it into words. That is in fact true for all of us when we feel stuff.

³Generally speaking non-christians in NZ see no difference between Catholic and Protestant Churches. The Church is the Church…end of story.

Announcement

Sam Allberry, Is God Anti-Gay National Tour is coming to NZ in May to a city near you . Full details next week.

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.