Show Notes
In 2016, following trends in many Western countries, a majority of Australians identified as Christian 52.1%. Five years later, that was down to 43.9%. Christianity is still the most common religion in the country, but for the first time no longer in the majority.
Moreover, 38.9% of people now identify themselves as having no religion - a jump of almost 10%.
Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen ask what this really means. And, more particularly, what should Christians do about it?
The WADR team talk to Prof Ruth Powell of National Church Life Survey Research, which has been doing research into Australians and faith.
Then Megan and Michael discuss what this seismic shift in faith means for the gospel, before finishing up with a look at Brides of Christ, an Australian TV mini-series which looks at another time of change for faith in the 1960s.
Help internally displaced people in Africa!
Disasters and conflicts have led to a record number of over 75 million internally displaced people, or IDPs, around the world. IDPs are people who have been forced to flee their homes but have not crossed international borders.
Almost half of all IDPs - more than the population of Australia and New Zealand combined - are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Most of the displaced have left everything behind: their homes, belongings, and livelihoods. They urgently need food, shelter, clothing, and trauma counselling. So Anglican Aid has launched a Forced to Flee Emergency Appeal to provide essential aid to IDPs in Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, and beyond. This aid will be distributed by local churches, who are sacrificially providing for the needs of the displaced, and pointing them to the God who is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
What is With All Due Respect?
Less aggro, more conversation.
Is it even possible to have a deep discussion without it descending into chaos? Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit think yes, and want to show the rest of us how to do it.
There’s plenty of things they disagree on: free will, feminism, where you should send your kids to school and what type of church you should go to. But there are also plenty of other things that they have in common. They want to talk about all these things with conviction. But they also want the conversation to be constructive. Tune in to find out if that’s possible.