The Lord Jesus Christ said: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
We believe it is absolutely crucial that we do all that we can to ensure children and all vulnerable people are safe - and that nothing stands in the way of them coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their loving Rescuer, Lord and friend.
As a church, we take seriously our responsibilities and position of trust. Procedures and checks for our leaders, consistent with Diocesan regulations and requirements, have been put in place. All our staff, children's leaders, and those with responsibilities over them, have undergone safe ministry training, are police checked, have working with children cards, have signed commitments to child-safety, and undertake to follow the child-safe policies, practices, commitments and training laid down by the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.
As our Archbishop has written:
"As
a community walking in Jesus’ footsteps, we follow this command, “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love
your neighbour as yourself.” (Deut 6:5, Matt 22:37, Luke 10:27) God
calls us to love and minister to vulnerable and marginalised people –
these are people who need special care, protection and support. The
Anglican Church of Australia within the Diocese of Melbourne is
committed to child safe practice. The safety and the wellbeing of
children and vulnerable people are embedded in policies and practices
which reflect a commitment to zero tolerance of abuse."
For more information on our Child Safe practices, policies, commitments and training - see here
The best and most dependable way of expressing your financial gospel partnership with us is via electronic giving. You can use your online banking phone app or computer login to transfer directly to our church’s account:
Account Name:
Wardens Account for the Anglican Parish of Langwarrin Pearcedale
BSB: 063 607
Account Number: 1024 3567
Put the Reference: ‘Giving’
Thanks for your financial gospel partnership!
We meet at our Langwarrin centre
That’s fine – we’d love you to come and listen and spend some time exploring ‘a Jesus-shaped world view’ at your own pace. You can be open and upfront about where you’re at. No one will be pushy, but they will be happy to help.
If you’ve got honest questions or issues then nobody is going to be offended by you asking them – whatever they are. Our leaders have access to books and other resources that might be of benefit to you and are more than happy to sit down over coffee or lunch to talk about your questions – just ask!
The short answer is normal comfortable clothes – we’re pretty sure God doesn’t care what you wear and we’re not that fussed either. There’s no need to dress to impress. We look forward to seeing you, not what you’re wearing.
And we're now enjoying our warm heaters in winter.
Please bring them! Jesus welcomed children and so do we!
Don’t wait until children are about to start school before bringing them to church. 0-5 are key years for children’s development and they pick up a great deal of formation by being with us in church.
We are most equipped to serve and welcome babies and children at our 9.30am family service at Langwarrin, but you are most welcome to bring babies and children to any of our services.
At our 9.30am family service we encourage people (including parents) to be comfortable with childish noise. There is always a talk specifically for the children. During term time there is a children’s program for preschoolers and primary school aged children. In the holidays we provide children’s packs during the service or sometimes there's a creche for young children. Our children’s program is run by leaders who will be with the children at all times and will help them discover what it means to follow Jesus. Our leaders are police checked and have Working with Children checks.
Sundays are when we gather together as the family of God’s people.
Our Sunday services are the heart of our church life – where we are
refreshed, encouraged and equipped to serve Jesus in our individual
lives in the week ahead.
Jesus is passionately committed to his family – the church. He calls
us his followers to love and serve his people. Going to church isn’t
what makes us Christians, but it’s a vital part of living as a
Christian.
No. If you're visiting with us, you're our guest and it's our privilege to host you.
Our regular church members do give money to support our church - increasingly they give electronically - though some take the opportunity to either 'tap and give' via an EFTPOS machine at the back of church, or give cash via an offering bowl also at the back of the church. But we no longer pass an offering bowl around.
Please sit anywhere you like in the available seats. Please make yourself at home. We want you to feel welcome!
No. You won’t be asked to read or pray aloud by yourself, or stand up and introduce yourself. We know how nervous a first visit anywhere can be, so we want you to feel comfortable; it’s fine to just sit back and watch and listen and join in when you are ready.
We try and start on time and expect the ‘formal’ part of our gathering to take around:
Morning tea can stretch out as people enjoy their conversations (and their food!) and you’re free to stay as long as you like to chat.
After our second service (9.30am) on most Sundays we continue to meet with each other sharing refreshments together over a morning tea in the church hall.
This is a chance to spend some time hanging around as a community, catching up and enjoying being part of a welcoming, supportive spiritual family. It’s an opportunity to meet new people or to ask the speaker some questions. We’d love you to join us.
Each of our three Sunday gatherings has its own style – but here is what you can expect at every service:
Welcome – you will be met in the church foyer by one of our friendly welcomers who will give you a news sheet and can answer any questions you have (like ‘where are the toilets?’).
Listen – there will always be at least one reading from God’s Word the Bible. Following that will be a talk (sermon) explaining what has been read and what that means for our lives today.
Sing – we spend some time singing songs – some are prayers we sing to God directly, others remind us about who God is and what He’s done and who we are called to be. There are really only two places that Australians sing together; at the football and at church – that’s because football and God are two things that people get passionate about!
Pray – we talk to God together and are also led in prayer by someone out the front. No one is required to pray out loud by themselves.
The Lord’s Supper – together we regularly remember and celebrate what Jesus did for us on the cross. We do this according to his instructions to remember His death – by sharing bread and wine together (there are stickers for children). If you love and trust the Lord Jesus and are used to taking the Lord’s Supper you are welcome to join us for this, or feel free to either come up and be prayed for, or to sit quietly and watch what happens. This will be further explained at the time.
Feel free to participate in the service as much or as little as you wish.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Click here for more information on our services and click on the service you’re interested in.
Absolutely. We have a number of prayer ministries including
Or please contact us if you'd like prayer.
We believe every Christian has a part to play in the ministry of Jesus' church. And many members of our church are involved in various ministries.
That said, our staff team consists of:
We'd love to help you get to find out more about Jesus - whether it be at one of our Christianity Explored courses, one of our Guest Services, or meeting up 1:1.
Please contact us to ask us more - we'd love to hear from you.
We run two Op Shops — one at each of our sites:
Our Op Shops provide cheap quality clothes and goods to the local community. Please come in to grab a bargain and have a chat.
For opening hours - see our calendar
We welcome donations of good quality. If you wish to donate goods,
please bring them during times our Op Shops are open.
Please note — we cannot accept any furniture, mattresses, electrical items of any description, cots, prams, helmets, baby capsules, car booster seats, baby bouncers, or high chairs.
Apart from Winter, we also run a Market on the grounds of our Langwarrin centre on the third Saturday of the month from 8am-12noon (please confirm this on our calendar). If you'd like more information, or would like to run a stall, our Market Coordinator can fill you in on the details and cost. Please contact us and we'll put you in touch.
During the week we run small group Bible studies which are open to all church members and visitors to our church. These provide a fantastic opportunity to meet together with other Christians, to grow in knowledge of the Bible and apply it relevantly in a group setting, enjoy support, prayer and encouragement, and develop a greater sense of community and belonging. Small groups are a strategic opportunity to talk about those ‘Christian’ things that puzzle or excite you.
We listen to God (by studying the Bible together), talk to God (in prayer, silently or out aloud), support each other in times of struggle, ask questions (the only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask), and encourage each other to follow Jesus – at home, at work, and in life.
For more information, please contact us.
Babies, children and youth are loved by Jesus and are an important part of His family. We want to encourage them to respond to Jesus in faith, and to be fully committed followers of him that grow, give and serve.
We believe that families are the centre of faith development for children, and want to encourage parents in this role, including recommending resources for Christian parenting.
Some of the ways we connect with children, youth and families are:
As a church, we take seriously our responsibilities and position of trust. Procedures and checks for our leaders, consistent with Diocesan regulations and requirements, have been put in place. All our staff, children's leaders, and those with responsibilities over them, have undergone safe ministry training, are police checked, have working with children cards, have signed commitments to child-safety, and undertake to follow the child-safe policies, practices, commitments and training laid down by the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.
Our church mission is to be a community of disciple-builders, serving Jesus
The Langwarrin-Pearcedale Anglican church is Evangelical and Anglican.
Being evangelical means being committed to the ‘evangel’ – the ‘gospel’ – the ‘great news’ about Jesus. How does that work out in practice? Here are some examples:
Being Anglican we value the stand taken by the Anglican reformers of the 16th century and the sacrifices they made. We consider the documents they hammered out (the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles) to be excellent expressions of key Biblical truths.
Our church has adopted the belief statement of GAFCON Australia - the Jerusalem Declaration - as our formal statement of belief.
The Jerusalem Declaration
We believe marriage is all about a man and a woman becoming one flesh; that it involves a choice and commitment to cherish and love one’s spouse to the exclusion of all other people ‘as long as you both shall live’.
We believe marriage is a reflection of God’s love in Jesus Christ for his church – creative, sacrificial, self-giving and faithful.
‘Marriage ministry’ at Langwarrin-Pearcedale Anglican Church, as in most churches, involves much more than just the wedding ceremony. It involves helping couples to understand the commitment that they will make, to prepare for the challenges which marriage will bring, and to appreciate the particular nature of Christian marriage. Ideally, we would like to help you establish a Christian marriage – based upon Christian values and beliefs, as you seek Jesus Christ’s help and blessing in your marriage. We believe that marriage is one of the most important commitments a man and a woman can make in their lives and therefore take some effort to ensure that you have the best possible start. After all, the decisions and promises you will make in the wedding service are life-long commitments and therefore need to be taken only after proper consideration and preparation. The Church also feels a continuing care and responsibility for you, so do not hesitate to seek out our help in the future.
Do we marry divorced persons? Yes. We seek to be as compassionate and helpful as possible. In simple terms if there is no “going back” we aim to help you “go forward”. Your preparation for remarriage will need to be tailored to address the known factors divorcees face. Each couple will be given all possible help towards a new start.
Be aware that we are an Anglican Church and can therefore only use an authorized Anglican Marriage Service and marriage vows as the basis of your wedding ceremony. We are only permitted to conduct weddings that accord with God's design as set out in the Bible.
We invite you to contact us to discuss any questions you might have, check dates and times, and arrange an initial interview. A wedding booking is not usually made until after the initial interview and the deposit has been paid.
Yes. If you are a parent and would simply like to say thank you to God for the gift of your son/daughter we can organise a service called a ‘Thanksgiving for a child’ – either during one of our church services or privately at your place at time convenient for you.
There is no preparation required.
And you are always welcome to then consider having your child Baptised in the future – as a Thanksgiving service is not Baptism.
For more information - please contact us
The first step is to come to our 9.30am family service on a Sunday - babies and children are most welcome.
Why is that the first step? Because baptism involves promising to bring your child up in the local church. So before you proceed any further, you will want to check us out to see if we're a good fit for you and your family - are we the kind of church you can see you and your family coming along to regularly and get involved in? Are we the kind of church you would feel glad to have your child grow up in? Do you feel comfortable with the folk and other families here? Do you feel that the service works for you?
Just as 'it takes a village to raise a child' so 'it takes a church to grow a Christian'.
Once you and your family have begun to feel comfortable coming along on Sundays and have gotten to know some of our folk, the second step would be having one of our team meet up with you and your partner for 6 sessions to do a course called "Christianity Explained" as preparation for the promises you will be making in the baptism service. This is an opportunity to ask questions. Baptism involves significant promises – so we want to do all we can to help you understand the commitment baptism involves, and support you in living them out.
A final step is a meeting with the minister. Because baptism is all about following Jesus and joining his people,the actual baptism always takes place at our 9.30am family service. Thus we do not conduct baptisms in private services or every Sunday.
Just as a wedding is to marriage, so baptism is for the Christian life — just the first step in your walk with Jesus. In the case of infants and children, they are baptised on the understanding that:
If you have further questions - please contact us.
Religious differences can cause, and have caused, all manner of conflict, violence and evil between humans on every level. There is no denying the fact.
Nevertheless, this by itself, proves very little about the rightness or wrongness of religious belief in general or about Christianity in particular. After all, countries frequently go to war in the name of justice and honour – but this does not mean that justice and honour are bad ideas. It is not uncommon for people to commit murder in the name of love – but this does not mean we should abandon the idea of love.
In reality, religious conflict tells us less about religion, and more about human nature.
Humans are capable of turning on each other for all kinds of reasons: historical, racial, cultural and personal as well as religious. In fact some of the worst atrocities committed within the last century were carried out under régimes hostile to religion in the name of national and international socialism. In general, humans will fight about anything they feel strongly about from politics to car parking spaces. Religion simply provides a very good place to start a fight because so much hangs on which one is right.
The right question then is not, "does religion cause conflict?", but rather, "can anything be done about human conflict"
And here, God’s word, the Bible has some helpful things to say.
1. Humans fight because they have no faith
At the heart of human violence and vindictiveness lies the conviction that we all have, that it is up to us to make our own way and create our own justice.
By rejecting God and trying to live our own way we have in effect become our own gods. The problem is that we must now compete with every other human who is also trying to be god. We fight and become more and more fragmented as we each try to establish our view of right and wrong and defend our own cause in this world.
2. Jesus Christ offers us a way back
God has addressed the human problem by sending his son Jesus Christ to offer us reconciliation. Jesus urged us to turn aside from our rebellion and accept God’s forgiveness.
Jesus also gave us an example of trust in God by refusing to fight against those who were persecuting him (cf 1Peter2:21-24). In the end he was vindicated by God by being raised from the dead and given honour and authority to govern the world (see Philippians 2:3-11).
3. Christianity offers the beginnings of peace
Christians are far from free of the human tendency to fight but there are signs of hope. Wherever Christianity has been preached faithfully there has been the beginning of reconciliation; whether between races classes or family members. Those who follow Jesus example know the truth of the Bible’s claim that:
There is neither Jew nor non-Jew, slave nor free, male nor female for you are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:28)
By accepting the offer God makes to you through His Son, Jesus Christ.
You can do so by praying a prayer like this one:
"Dear Lord Jesus
Please forgive me. I turn away from my independence from God, to you.
Thank you for dying for me in my place. I put my trust in you.
I gratefully accept your gift of forgiveness and new life with you as my Lord. Please help me live for you from now on.
Amen"
Before you do, here are ten things that becoming a Christian means.
If you still want to become a Christian then why not do it now? It's the best thing in the world!
Please feel free to contact us if you have and we will do everything we can to help you.
Sometimes we get the impression that people only become Christians because their parents were Christians or because they need a crutch to get through life.
Well here are 11 reasons why it’s worth being a Christian.
Not quite. The church is not full of hypocrites – there is always room for a few more.
But seriously, hypocrites are people who pretend they're perfect. Christians know they're not perfect. Far from it. But we are forgiven. And that's incredible. Why would we need forgiveness?
To see if you qualify imagine this scenario:
It is your birthday party and your friends and relatives have gathered to celebrate your life. Halfway through the speeches one of your friends jumps to his feet grinning mischievously and waving a DVD. It turns out that he has been secretly filming every moment of your life – your conversations, your secret actions and even (by some technological wizardry) your thoughts! Best of all, he has edited this interesting insight into a fifteen minute snapshot.
As he places the disc into the tray, how do you feel? Are you comfortable with your secret life and thoughts being revealed? What will those close to you think of you after seeing this video? Will the things they discover about the real you make you proud?
The point is that we are all hypocrites.
Christians of course make easy targets because they tend to talk more about virtue and love and so look more pathetic when it turns out they have the same nasty, selfish streak found in everyone else. But really we are all in the same boat. All of us do and think things that we would be ashamed to have others know about.
The serious side of this is that God knows all about those parts of our lives that we hide from other people. The Bible says that,
“humans look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7)
and there will come a
“day when God will judge the secrets of humans” (Romans 2:16).
If we are to avoid condemnation for those parts of our lives that we know to be rotten we must ask God’s forgiveness and receive his pardon and help so we can begin to change.
There is a feeling among some that science has been so successful in explaining the world around us that we no longer need to invoke ideas of God or the supernatural. There is a sense that faith in God is somehow superstitious or anti-scientific and that those who resort to such beliefs have abandoned their reason.
Several points need to be made in response to these charges.
Firstly it is worth noting that this idea is not widespread among scientists themselves. While some scientists are hostile to religious belief, many others have been drawn toward belief through their scientific studies rather than despite them. The world that is revealed by modern science is one of intricate beauty and fine balance and, for some scientists, the only explanation for this beauty and balance is the influence of a powerful and ingenious Designer.
Second it is important to realise that, despite the many great achievements of science, there are significant areas where science finds itself completely unable to give an explanation. At the most basic level, for example, science cannot explain where the universe came from or why it continues; Why do the laws of nature remain in place? What causes the fundamental forces that hold the cosmos together?
More seriously, science by itself tends to produce barren and unsatisfying answers when considering the important aspects of human existence. When science tries to explain why love is important it ends up talking about brain-chemistry and the instinct for survival and procreation. When scientists try to understand good and evil or beauty or free-will without reference to anything other than science they inevitably conclude that such things are simply illusions created by drive to breed and feed.
But of course these are the questions that Christianity answers best.
Love is important because God is love and has made us to know and love him. We find the world beautiful because it was designed for us to enjoy and delight in. We are troubled in our consciences because we have turned away from the God who gave us everything that we have and are. The ultimate goal of human existence is not survival of genetic material but love and relationship with God.
In the end there should be no conflict between Christianity and science. The Bible is not really concerned with the mechanisms that God might use to sustain the world nor can science answer the questions of why the world was made in the first place. Both describe different aspects of creation.
In recent decades it has become commonplace to hear that the Bible is unreliable. Nevertheless there remain good reasons to believe that the Bible is historically reliable. Here is the briefest of introductions to this massive field of study in relation to the New Testament…
1. New Testament events and figures have been confirmed by non Christian sources. Historical studies have provided many confirmations of the existence of people described in the New Testament such as Pontius Pilate. In 1990 workers building a water park in Jerusalem discovered an ancient burial chamber containing the bones of Joseph, son of Caiaphas — most probably the high priest who prosecuted Jesus.
2. The writers of the New Testament really saw the places and cultures they describe. Again and again archaeology has verified elements of the New Testament. Excavations in Jerusalem have uncovered features of the ancient city described only in the Gospels. Investigations have persuaded sceptics such as the renowned archaeologist William Ramsay that the writer of Luke and Acts had really travelled around the Mediterranean basin and seen the cities and societies he describes.
3. The New Testament was written within a lifetime of the death of Jesus Christ. Although there was once widespread scepticism about this fact, the
evidence has gradually forced historians to acknowledge that the New
Testament was written early. The earliest parts — the letters of St Paul
were written within thirty years of Jesus’ death.
4. The transmission of the New Testament has been remarkably error free. As the early church grew, more and more copies of the disciples’ writings were made and then more copies were made of those. Sometimes in this process errors crept in. Yet because so many copies were made in the earliest phases of this process, we can usually compare the different families of copies to see where the errors crept in.
Historical arguments and evidences have always been important to Christians but not most important. Christians who believe that the Bible is God’s word generally don’t arrive at the point by historical analysis but because, when they read it the Bible speaks to them of how life really is and opens their eyes to a world that no other source of human wisdom can. Christians sense God in the Bible as they read it. and hear him talking to them through it. Christians experience the Bible’s truth as they read and live it out.
So yes, we should investigate the historical issues which surround
the New Testament if we have questions about them; but if we want to
know the truth about the Bible then we should try reading it and putting
it into practice to see what it feels like. Jesus promised that, “if a
person chooses to do God’s will they will find out whether my teaching
comes from God.” (John 7:17)
Terrible things happen in this world and no one can pretend to really understand why. Even the Bible acknowledges that this question is beyond the wisest person (Ecclesiastes 8:14-17). Yet while suffering makes faith in God difficult for many people it need not force us to the conclusion that there is no God or that God is not good.
Here are a few important considerations in the way the Bible deals with this issue:
1. Suffering shows something has gone wrong with the world. At the most basic and general level, the Bible insists that suffering is a feature of this life because the human race has turned away from God. God is the one who gives life and health and safety yet each of us has turned away from God and tried to live life according to our own rules. The result of this rebellion is that everything in our world is out of alignment and nothing works properly any more — our relationships fail, our bodies fail, our children die and our world groans and deteriorates. God describes the situation in these terms: My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own wells … that cannot hold water. …Consider then and realise how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God. (Jeremiah 2:13,19)
2. God knows what it’s like. The human predicament described by the Bible is desperate and hopeless, yet God has not left us alone in it. The New Testament tells us that God has sent his own Son into the world as a human to share our life and experience our suffering. Through Jesus who was tortured to death on the cross, God knows human grief and loss first hand and so we can find help and comfort in him.
3. God has done something. The cross of Jesus is not simply an act of solidarity. It also tells us that God has acted decisively to do something about the cause of human suffering. When Jesus died on the cross he took on himself all the consequences of our rebellion against God and made it possible for us to be forgiven and made God’s friends. The prophet Isaiah put it like this: He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. … All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6)
4. There is an end in sight. Because of the reconciliation Jesus achieved, God now holds out a future free from suffering to all who will accept his offer of forgiveness and acknowledge him as God. The Bible insists that there will come a day when God will renew the world and all those who have trusted in him. Those who followed Jesus will rise to a new life. Throughout the history of Christianity, Christians have hung on to this hope in the face of persecution, loss and hardship. Because Jesus has been raised from the dead to a new life, we know that God will save us too from death and judgment (see 1 Corinthians 15).
One of the most common objections to the Christian faith these days comes from people who basically like what they have heard about Jesus Christ yet are turned off by the idea of belonging to a church. Some, perhaps, have had a negative experience in a church or been treated badly; others just don’t like the idea of organised religion and would prefer to worship God in their own way alone.
People who raise these objections definitely have a point. Bad things do go on in churches; there are squabbles, factions and jealousies between church members just as there are in other human organisations. And it’s true that there are many who use public religion as a substitute for personal faith and a way of avoiding God. In some tragic cases, whole churches adopt this mindset and effectively cease to be places for serving God.
Yet churches are necessary despite their many faults. The Christian life is designed to be lived in community and that those who try to worship God alone miss out on God’s blessings. Here are a few points from the Bible.
1. People who try to serve God alone often end up pleasing themselves. The tragic reality of human nature is that we have a permanent bias toward selfishness and self righteousness. It is this that makes relationships between churchgoers difficult however the same character flaws are present even if we don’t meet with other believers. In fact solitary worshippers are in much greater danger because they have no one to hold them accountable for their actions and can very easily justify their selfishness to themselves. The writer of Hebrews tells his readers that they need to encourage one another daily to avoid being “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:12-13).
2. Christians need each other. The Bible describes the church as a body where everyone has something to offer. The members of the church are given complementary gifts by God to enable them to serve each other. Paul insists that it is only as we work hard at serving God together and learning to love each other that we begin to change and become like Jesus. As he puts it in one letter: It was [Jesus Christ] who gave some to be apostles , some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
3. The Church is the start of God’s new society. Although we might find it hard to believe if we have had bad experiences of church, the church is the focus of God’s plan to bring about a united humanity. Jesus Christ is the only force who can begin to overcome human sin and tribalism and bring us together. When a group of people truly put Jesus Christ at the centre of their communal life there is no greater experience of love and unity. As Paul’s letter to the Galatians puts it: In Christ there is neither Jew or non-Jew, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. (Galatians 3:28)
There is an often repeated story which people tell to describe the relationship between religions.
The story describes a group of blind men who come across an elephant and begin to describe what the animal is like. One grabs hold of the leg and declares that an elephant is like a tree-trunk. Another finds the ear and decides that the elephant is like a banana leaf. A third locates the trunk and concludes that an elephant is some kind of snake.
The point of the story is of course that all the blind men are right even though it sounds like they are describing completely different creatures. And the reason why the story is told is to suggest that this is how we should think about the differences between the different religions.
Initially this idea seems very promising. There is something attractive in the idea that we might all be brought together and find that we have all been worshiping the same God after all. At the same time this approach seems to short circuit the arrogance and intolerance of people who claim that their religion is right and everyone else’s is wrong.
Yet there is a massive problem with the story. The tale fails to mention one of the people who is at the scene — namely the person who sees the situation and observes the true situation.
This person who is the one who tells the story is in-effect claiming to be the only sighted person out of a world of blind religions. This person not only sees the true shape of God but also understands every other religion better than it’s most faithful adherents. At this point the story looks less like tolerance and more like a patronising attempt to tell everyone else what they really believe.
In the end the most honest approach is to let religions disagree. Perhaps none of them are right. Perhaps they are all partially right. But nobody is helped by a pseudo tolerance that shoe-horns contradictions into a grand meta-religion. It is true that there are similarities between the world’s great religions. All insist that people need to change and that there are problems with the world. All insist that there is another reality beyond this life of flesh and mortality.
But the truth is the similarities end right about there. Religions inevitably make definite statements about the world which must either be true or false and which often contradict the teachings of other religions.
When Buddhism tells you that you will be reincarnated after death and Islam says that you will face judgment and go to paradise or hell they can’t both be right. When Hinduism describes God as a universal force and Judaism tells us that God is a great and powerful person one of them at least must be wrong.
Religions disagree and contradict each other at many points and it helps no-one to pretend that these differences are insignificant. The most respectful way of dealing with the differences between the faiths is to acknowledge them and try to understand them. Here is a brief outline of three distinctive teachings of Christian faith that set it apart from other religions.
1. God wants a loving relationship with you. More than any other religion, Christianity is preoccupied with relationships and love. Some eastern religions emphasise God’s unity of being with the universe — “everything is a part of God” —and others stress that God is so great that he cannot really be known. The Bible portrays God as a person who longs for friendship with the people he has made and is prepared to make enormous sacrifices to bring about reconciliation.
2. You can never be good enough for God. Many religions tell us that to get right with God we must do good deeds or observe certain rituals to ensure that our virtues outweigh our sins; the Bible says that we can never be good enough. Our fundamental problem is that we have broken our relationship with God by trying to live apart from him. We are guilty and we cannot make up for that guilt simply by doing the good things we should already have been doing.
3. God offers us free forgiveness. If there is to be reconciliation between us and God, we will have to admit our rebellious attempt to live without him and agree to change; but even this will not do us any good if God does not find a way to forgive us. The great message of the Bible is that this is exactly what God did when he sent his own son Jesus to die for us. Jesus completely bore the penalty of our guilt so that anyone who wants to begin living a new life with God can no matter what they have done! God offers us a free gift of complete forgiveness! Listen to how the apostle Paul described it: We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God! God made [Jesus], who had no sin, to bear our sins, that through Him we might become right before God. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee [a very religious man], and the other was a dishonest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God." (Luke 18:9-14).
Who do you identify with as you read this parable? Are you like the religious man — proud of your moral character and the things you have done? Are you more like the tax collector — painfully aware of your own shortcomings? Perhaps you would like to create a third category for yourself — not as sinful as the tax collector yet not as self-righteous as the religious man? Perhaps you would be outside the temple saying “I thank God that I am not a religious hypocrite like that Pharisee.”The sober verdict delivered by the Bible is that we are all in trouble. We have all turned away from God and done our own thing and we are all under his judgment for our ingratitude. There are no “good people” as such — we are all partners in the same rebellion whether our wrongdoing is notorious or commonplace. In the words of Romans 3:10: “There is no one righteous — not even one”
But if we ask God for mercy there is also great hope. Jesus says that, while the self-righteous pharisee achieves nothing by his pride, the tax-collector leaves God’s presence having received forgiveness. God has made a way for us to be forgiven and begin a new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we come to him in humility that new life is ours. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves … If we confess our sins he is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)
All churches are not the same. The following characteristics may help you choose a good church in which to grow and serve.