Categories: politics, religion
Date: 01 December 2008 15:19:00
The BBC has commissioned research into communities and changes in the past 30 years. I guess that we didn't really need this to discover what they found out - that communities throughout the UK are more fragmented.
We don't need a survey to tell us this because we all know this from our day to day lives. Why do they think that society has become more and more fractured and that people care less and less about neighbours? Would we have had reports of people being found dead in their homes 30 years ago as we do today? Then people knew and interacted with their neighbours.
I remember the biggest difference I found after moving to London was that no one talked to, or knew, their neighbours, even people in the same converted house or block of flats. Then when I moved back to Wales I found that the same thing was happening here.
Maybe it's down to the fact that people are mobile now and tend to move every few years; therefore communities are constantly in flux. That could also explain why churches are also slowly dying in many areas. The sense of community, that churches were a central part of, is no longer as central to our lives. TV, satellite and DVDs have taken over our lives. We no longer feel the need, or desire, to interact with others to the extent that we used to.
God is no longer as important as he used to be because he is no longer part of our communal living. The church feels less relevant because it no longer meets the needs of many in today's society. The churches that grow are those that change the way they interact with those around them. Many of those that are dying are doing so because they are now insular ghettos that fail to reach out, especially in practical ways, to those around them.
With Christams approaching we need to find a way to show that the Jesus who came 2000 years ago is as relevant and necessary today as he was then. That the world has developed but not changed in its fundamentals. People are in need of salvation today, as much as they were then. We still have the basic needs of survival but have learnt to fill our needs with possessions that never actually satisfy that empty feeling that we all have inside.
Let's pray that this Christmas people we know will desire and receive the gift that satisfies. That after opening our presents we won't feel that emptiness of dissatisfcation and anti-climax but that we'll feel that sense of fulfillment that only Christ can bring.