Here’s a study that shows, if you attend church in Australia you are far more likely to be university educated.

So which is the chicken and which is the egg?

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

HT: tallskinnykiwi

via Andrew Bolt:

Comedy Central might censor every image of the Prophet Muhammad on “South Park,” yet the network is developing a whole animated series around Jesus Christ.

As part of the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers, Comedy Central is set to announce “JC,” a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in New York City.

Kicking at what protects, cowing before what threatens. Where must that lead?

South Park aren’t the only skeptics to suffer from this double standard.

When atheist Richard Dawkins was asked when he would be willing to criticise Islam as he did Christianity, the response was pragmatic. “I personally believe we shouldn’t go out of our way to do things that will get our heads cut off.” To the Islamist he would make it clear that this reticence is “because I fear you. Don’t think for one moment it’s because I respect you.”

Australia’s population is growing at double the world average.

Underpinned by an economy that weathered the global financial crisis, Australia grew by 451,900 people in the year to last September, taking it beyond the 22 million mark, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal.

That is an increase of 451,900 people during the year, keeping the growth rate high at 2.1 per cent — almost twice the world average of 1.1 per cent, and higher than China, the US, Canada, Indonesia and most other nations.

The majority of the growth, 66 per cent, was due to overseas migration, with the remainder, 34 per cent, due to there being more births than deaths.

Just to keep up with this population growth Australia needs 451 churches (of any shape and size) every year. One church for every one thousand new Australians.

Instead we’re closing churches at an alarming rate.

To turn our decline around, we need 10,000 new churches today to lift the current ratio of one church to 2,000 people, to one church to 1,000 people.

If we keep doing what we have been doing, will we catch up?

Agnostic Andrew Bolt reports on how atheists have nearly converted him to Christianity.

THE Global Atheists Convention in Melbourne last weekend worked a miracle on me. I’ve never felt more like believing in God. Especially the Christian one.

My near conversion occurred because the convention’s speakers managed to confirm my worst fear.

No, it’s not that God may actually exist, and be cross that I doubted. It’s that if the Christian God really is dead, then there’s not much to stop people here from being barbarians.

more. . .

Migration numbers for Australia are at a record high.

The number of permanent and long-term migrants arriving in Australia has soared to more than 500,000 a year.

Record numbers of migrants, temporary workers and overseas students are piling into the lucky country.

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that migrants from all over the world are responding to the gospel and forming churches. Newly arrived migrants are especially responsive to the gospel, and they are young.

It has been six weeks since worshippers at Beijing’s Shouwang House Church were abruptly shunted out of their long-time home in a nondescript low-rise building.

A week after their landlord succumbed to pressure from authorities and turfed them on to the street, more than 500 church members gathered outside the east gate of Haidian Park.

The icy winds that blew at their faces had also dumped the earliest and biggest snowfalls over two weeks since records began in 1949.

Authorities quickly erected an iron gate at the park’s entrance, forcing churchgoers to meet wherever they could find suitable premises. On the eve of Christmas, China’s Christians are once again under attack.

The latest trouble began in September when about 400 people attacked Christians attending the Golden Lamp, which had been built on the outskirts of the town of Lifen in central Shanxi province. About 70 church members were hospitalised. Later that month more than a dozen church leaders were arrested and paramilitary forces occupied the church, an eight-story edifice that had been constructed to serve a congregation of 50,000.

Their early Christmas present: in early December five pastors were sentenced to prison terms of up to seven years on charges including illegal assembly and five more were sentenced to two years in a labour camp.

There was another string of incidents in early November.

read on

Albert Einstein came in at second place (16%).

83% responded that Jesus was a real figure from history. Of these believers 43% believed Jesus had miraculous powers and he was the Son of God.

2 in 5 Australians stated they actually practice a religion and only 27% do not believe in a God or universal power of any sort.

When times get tough, Aussies pray. 57% of Australians pray at various times during their lives and 29% pray daily.

The most common situations for prayer being when people are faced with challenging times (36%) or when a loved one has fallen ill (34%). However over 1 in 3 Australians also feel moved to pray when they are thankful for something good that has happened (34%)

When tough times come or bad things happen:
· 28% of Australians turn to God in their time of need, while 15% turn to Jesus.
· Only 6% of Australians turn to online friends and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

It’s reassuring to know that Jesus is outpolling Facebook and Twitter. Although I think he’s probably trailing Google as the preferred source of truth and wisdom.

Pew Research has just released a report on the size and distribution of the world’s Muslim population.

A summary of the findings. . .

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today, representing 23% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion.

While Muslims are found on all five inhabited continents, more than 60% of the global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20% is in the Middle East and North Africa. However, the Middle East-North Africa region has the highest percentage of Muslim-majority countries. Indeed, more than half of the 20 countries and territories1 in that region have populations that are approximately 95% Muslim or greater.

More than 300 million Muslims, or one-fifth of the world’s Muslim population, live in countries where Islam is not the majority religion. These minority Muslim populations are often quite large. India, for example, has the third-largest population of Muslims worldwide. China has more Muslims than Syria, while Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined.

Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are Sunni Muslims. Most Shias (between 68% and 80%) live in just four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.

MAPPING THE GLOBAL MUSLIM POPULATION: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population

Last week in Sydney I was asked for my impressions of the state of church planting in Australia.

Here are a few thoughts on how the various overlapping groups are doing.

Liberal
It was all over at least a generation ago. Attendances have halved in that time. The average age is over sixty. Churches are being closed down, not planted.

In the pursuit of “relevance” they have abandoned the truth of the gospel.

The clergy and the theological colleges have led the charge into oblivion. Every time a church folds they win the lottery through the sale of assets. This sorry tale could go on for a very long time.

Pentecostal
The most prolific church planting movement of the last century. An amazing achievement of faith and dedication. The momentum will continue for decades. If history repeats itself (Quakers, Methodists, Baptists) there will be a Pentecostal Prime Minister within a generation or two.

Contemporary Pentecostalism is shifting to the cultural mainstream. Its greatest challenge is now its own success. Typically at this stage of development a movement becomes more conservative, its leaders more “professional” and less interested in the risky business of church planting.

Evangelical
Evangelicals are holding their own numerically but falling behind in reaching a growing population. Without leadership, evangelical denominations find it difficult to turn good intentions into action. Lacking a strong centre, they tend to fall prey to other agendas.

Emerging
The Emerging church has done everyone a favour in shaking our paradigms of church and ministry. Unfortunately the use of the term “missional” seems to be inversely related to new disciples being made. I’ve been saying it for three years now: I’m just not hearing any accounts of people coming to faith in Christ, new disciples made and churches multiplied out of the “Emerging church.” Please prove me wrong.

Reformed
Here’s a trend I didn’t predict. An assortment of Calvinists are abuzz with church planting. It’s a national and international trend—at least in the West.

Why? They have made an innovative return to tradition. They have refused to adapt the gospel, but they have adapted their methods.

Still a long way to go before they become a multiplying global missionary movement.

Mega
Multi-site is the preferred method of expansion of the megachurch—one church in many locations. In the best examples, new congregations quickly grow to maturity and become reproducing hubs. In the worst examples they become dependent and infertile offspring.

“Parachurch”
Still leading the way in doing evangelism and making disciples. Rightfully wary of becoming a church. Wrongfully wary of planting churches.

Fringe
A handful of innovative pioneers are applying the lessons of church planting movements in the developing world. It’s early days, but they’re sharing the gospel and making disciples with a view to forming churches in the world of the new believers.

They have a strong evangelical faith, a openness to the work of the Holy Spirit and a flexibility in methods. The goal is not a certain size of church but discipleship that results in multiplication. Keep watching this space.

NonEuropean
Christianity is most vibrant outside the Western world. In the West the church may be in decline, but the good news is your children and grandchildren will be reached by Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, Korean and Nigerian missionaries.