I was commenting the other day that I hadn’t really seen a great deal of commentary or publicity about the Franklin Graham crusade (festival victoria) except through the church network. I will be interested to see who actually turns up to the rallies. I know a bunch of christian people that are going, but I have yet to hear of any non-christian people (or people who at least aren’t pretty receptive) who are planning to attend.

The first open event at Telstra Dome is on tonight and will continue tomorrow and on Sunday. But if you were not a member of a church community, would you even know about it? Perhaps the way you would know about it is through articles like this. And the impression you would get would not necessarily be a good one. Much of the article goes through Franklin Graham’s political and theological conservatism, his comments on the use of abstinence to slow the spread of AIDs and comments made about muslims. He concludes:

Graham’s beliefs would not be shared by the vast majority of those who will attend Festival Victoria. Most would probably consider them irresponsible and dangerous.

But if the recently completed Festival Tasmania is a guide, festival-goers will not be told the truth. From the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania down, there was uncritical public support for the crusade and silence about Graham’s politics and theology. And lest this be thought a Tasmanian oddity, the patron of Festival Victoria is Archbishop Peter Watson and senior members of all the main denominations (including the Catholic and Uniting churches) sit on its Council of Reference. It seems that this broad involvement came with the understanding that Graham would not talk politics or Armageddon while in Australia. However, there are such explicit links between Graham’s call to conversion and his broader religious/political outlook that such a concession is both futile and deceptive.

There are many indications that Australian evangelical Christianity is being increasingly influenced by American fundamentalism. This is a trend that most people of good will, of all political persuasions and faiths, would deplore.

If this radical new movement is to be confronted, and fundamentalist extremists in all the monotheist religions consistently condemned, our Christian leaders must be more open about Festival Victoria’s star attraction. Now is not the time for a superficial display of public unity, but for clergy to speak the truth about the teachings of Jesus as they and their church understand them. To his credit, even Graham would expect nothing less.

The religion reporter from the Age, Barney Zwartz, seems to be on the festival’s payroll, with this glowing report (though I suspect he didn’t get to approve the headline with its nudge towards prosperity doctrine):

His Melbourne rallies, called Festival Victoria 2005, may not have attracted the same public anticipation as 1959, but the city’s churches have been abuzz. Festival director Paul Molyneux says more than 820 churches are involved from almost every denomination, including Catholics, and some 10,000 volunteers have been trained, 9000 of them as counsellors for people who come forward to receive Christ.

This means the festival would already be a success even if no one turned up to the meetings, says the festival’s patron, Melbourne Anglican Archbishop Peter Watson - himself a counsellor in the 1959 crusade. “The number of churches involved has caught people by surprise. Even the 9000 going through training is a surge of new life entering churches, apart from people who go forward. Just the Christians coming together, it’s a watershed of encouragement for the churches in a day when it’s needed.”

Gerald Vanderwert, minister at Donvale Presbyterian Church, says his congregation is richer for being involved - about 25 will be counsellors and ushers, and the church is sending a busload to the festival.

“If you’re a Christian, it’s a challenge and an opportunity to stretch yourself. The motivation is that the Gospel is being preached. For my people who are involved, it’s training in sharing their faith, in counselling, and looking at the wider picture outside their own little circle, and working together with other believers for a common cause,” he said.

Barney breathlessly reports that Franklin is fresh from “adding up to 15% to Hobart’s church-going population”. Given that the report was published on Wednesday and the last day of the Tasmanian festival was on Sunday, I think it is a little early to be assessing the impact on Hobart’s church-going population. That “statistic” is apparently based on this quote from Franklin:

“They said it was the largest Christian meeting since my father was there in 1959,” Graham said. “Less than 4000 attend church there on Sunday. We had 4000 each night and had more than 600 people respond to the invitation to receive Christ, so that’s adding over 10 per cent to the church in three days. We feel good about that.”

Well that is great. The largest, most well funded Christian meeting in Hobart focussed on evangelism and meeting new people since 1959 and you manage to convince just as many to attend as the number that normally attends worship on Sundays. SCORE!!

When churches don’t know how to respond to the decline in attendance and relevance of the church, they feel the need to do something. The something is often less clearly defined. So if everyone is involved in a fundraising scheme or a big event, then they feel that it simply has to be a good thing, because self-evidently so much is going on. However, I suspect that the so much going on will conceal the fact that nothing is happening.

Over two or three years, Melbourne churches and denominations will have spent a tremendous amount of time raising millions of dollars, engaging in training and mentoring programs leading up to having tens of thousands of people a night attend the Telstra stadium for three nights to listen to Franklin Graham speak and christian musicians including Marina Prior and Guy Sebastian sing.

Can you imagine what the impact would be if those 9000 churches, the thousands of hours and the donated resources were invested in a concerted effort to house homeless people, to care for and support drug users or to educate, support and assist struggling families. Not to say that large scale evangelism is without value - but just how many people will actually connect with God through this ministry that otherwise wouldn’t? I suspect not many.

This weekend we will see a couple of filler pieces at the end of news reports which focus on the people attending the stadium shows. If the place is not full, then that will be the story. If it is, then it will be one of those 50s throw back segments as a feel good ending, careful not to overtly report too much christian stuff because it would offend non-christians. And after spending millions of dollars and being excited at the great accomplishment, little will have changed. But it will be reported as a great success. I will get group emails from the various lists I am on telling me how wonderful it was, how God came near and changed a city.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2005 at 6:35 pm by dan and is filed under challenges for the church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.