Churches combining in chch?

I read  Martin van Beynens's thoughts on the rebuilding of Christchurches places of worship and making one place for all churches to gather while using ther est of the insurance monies on the poor.

Apart from the fact that insurance payouts are going to be earmarked for rebuilding and using it fior other purposes will be  a legal nightmare....  these are my thoughts on the article.

As I considered what he had written three things sprang immediately to mind.  The first was scripture.   Mark 14:7.  Jesus says that we will always have the poor with us.  I use this to point out that we should never cease working with, helping and showing the love of God to those considered poor.  Furthermore, Jesus came to preach good news to the poor. I guess the poor were uppermost in his mind as they are mentioned first in that passage.   I am not in anyway discounting the poor, and outreach and social justice that is utterly essential for the church to be involved with in the rest of what I have to say.

Martins idea is just not gonna work! no way no how.

I've been around various different denominations over the years and I have heard jokes about *Baptist Time*, *Presbyterian Time*, *Methodist Time* to name just three **smiles**. The punch line of these jokes often points out how long it takes to get anything done - and that getting used to a looooong wait before anything occurs is normative.  Another joke runs along the lines of *Get two church members together and you have a committeee*

Speaking from the position of a long wait and being on committees that were there mainly to get things done that took a hang of a lot more time and frankly meetings than expected....   I looked at the idea of a pile of churches under the one roof and wondered in my cynical manner how long the commitee would take to decide who would pay the power bill!

Martins comments that all building individual churches will do is cement differences and take up space seemed as cynical as my own thoughts.  I have 9 children.  Some of them can share a room with their siblings without the bickering and tensions soaring through the roof,  others - well its not worth going there.

I think that stuffing all denominations and religious persuations under the same roof ( share a bedroom guys - no fighting or you wont get desert tomorrow night LEAVE your sisters teddybear ALONE!!!!) is only going to exasperate and highlight the many differences that have resulted in the denominations being individual.

Now I know that there are ministers fraternals that cross denominations that are working really well - and I am really gratified when I hear of interchurch projects that work well.   Yet I can't imagine the personalities involved in a mega place of worship remaining amicable over time.

Can you?

The Tragedy in Norway.

Flowers and candles are seen at a temporary memorial site for the victims of the shooting spree and bomb attack in Norway, on the shore in front of Utoeya island, northwest of Oslo, July 26. Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik is in all likelyhood "insane", his lawyer said after the anti-Islam radical admitted to bomb and shooting spree in Norway on Friday that killed 76 people. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

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I am supposed to give my response to the events that occured in Norway when an individual went berko with  gun and slaughtered dozens of people. (77 deaths !!! ) I am even loathe to use his name as I have no desire to give him or his actions any further acclaim.

I find it sad that Anders proclaims himself to be a christian when not only do his actions but also his written manifesto say something quite different.

" Does one have to believe in God or Jesus in order to become a Justiciar Knight?  no, you don’t need to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus to fight for our Christian cultural heritage. It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian-atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy)" taken from his manifesto

Yet I do not think that focusing on that, making an effort to show that christians do not wantonly slaughter in the name of God, or Christianity is a response worth the time.  All it will do is show those who have their own agendas that when something goes wrong the church disowns those who use her name.

My response, is to mourn with those who mourn, pray for those that have been impacted and give Anders himself no time at all.  Close the courts, don't report in the media, dont make blogs about him (unless required to by a lecturer **smiles**), no more pictures, give him nothing that he wants, which from what I can see is the hype and buzz of being in the limelight.  Try him by the laws of his country. Convict him by the word of his testimony, and then let him become a non-event by focusing all attention on those he has left bereaved, now and into the future.

It is those left behind that are deserving of our time, our compassion and our assistance.

While we can pray for his repentance, conversion and subsequent life change, and as christians we should be doing these things, other than that I can see no reason to validate his actions.