Language: Everyone could understand

Reginald Bibby, a sociologist, whose research interest for the  past thirty years or so  has been in  religious tendencies and trends of the Canadian population, conducted several surveys from 1975 - 2000, and has  written three books on the results of his surveys.  Last year, Bibby published, The Restless Gods.  The book deals with the major perceptions or myths surrounding Canadian people and their relationship to God either through the Church or some other form of spirituality.  The common myths, until the publication of the book, were that people are not interested in God.  Religion seems to be on decline, churches will not survive, people  have no loyalty to a  tradition and shop randomly searching for spiritual beliefs in a spiritual market place.  All in all, this painted a pretty bleak and depressing picture for the future of churches and more than that, was a terrible and gross reflection on the Canadians.  The Restless Gods, negates all of the above myths as  Bibby through surveys of Canadians, discovered that  religion and spirituality is on the rise in Canada.  The news astounded everyone and has raised the possibility for churches to engage in ministry with renewed confidence, enthusiasm and trust in God.

Bibby postulates that religious renaissance in Canada could be because restless gods are stirring the people.  Along with it, one can speculate, that it could be that Canadians have learned that nothing can be taken for granted.  A relationship with others and God  has to be critically examined and evaluated to observe growth, that the consumerism is leading towards the destruction of mind, body and soul, and are realizing that only the word and the way of God can provide enough inspiration to bring meaning and adjudication into the complacent and longing lives.

Reginald Bibby further claims that the people are restless in Canada and are seeking spiritual homes and religion to quench their spiritual thirst.  Every other attempt in Canada to find inner peace, it seems, has failed to satisfy the spiritual quest of the people.  Those who walked away from religion and God, to look around, and construct and develop their own gods, have admitted their failure.  They are searching, looking to meet God, to be committed to him and find peace and refuge from the consumerism.   The present day Canadians live with the oppression of globalization and a rat race to outdo one another.

This research presents churches with an extremely exciting opportunity to reach out and engage in ministries which can ensure the return of Canadians to churches.  The intention of the series of articles is to share with readers certain thoughts on Congregational Development with hope that they will establish biblical, theological and practical framework to engage with Restless Canadians.  This article’s intention is to reflect biblically on the basis of congregational development.

The account of the day of the Pentecost, from the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-10), is the fulfilment of the promise Jesus made to his disciples (John 16:7:13).  The Spirit, who is the advocate, descended upon the disciples and worshippers, and gave evidence of the universal nature of the gospel and their ministry in the world, as everyone heard them speak in their own language.  Those who did not belong to the chosen nation (Deuteronomy 7:1-6) were now part of the covenant God had made with Jesus’ disciples and through that were part of the kingdom of God.

The event takes place in the city of Jerusalem.  The population of Jerusalem at that time was 250,000 people of various race, origin and creed.  The city became diverse and cosmopolitan,  because of the trade between Rome, Greece, India and China and also being a part of the Roman Empire which stretched from today’s Scotland to Saudi Arabia.  Thus the most incredible aspect of the day of the Pentecost is that the inhabitants of the city heard the message in their own language.  It was indeed a moment of Grace and eminent discovering of the nature of God for the disciples.  The Spirit revealed that their ministry had to be inclusive of all people in the world and that they had to strive towards the unity and integration of every facet of their culture and environment.  The apostles comprehended the message and went out to share the good news with the nations of the world.  To this end,   Saint Bartholomew’s missionary activities  near the border of India and in Armenia, Saint Paul’s missionary journeys to Syria, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece, are an example of missionary activities of the disciples and the apostles.

This passage encourages the members of our churches to engage and develop the language which everyone can understand through their respective ministries.  The language could be the outreach ministries into our communities or ways to encourage people to be involved and engaged with the church.  This has to be initiated with great imagination, intuition and care for the restless Canadians in our communities who are looking and searching to find restless churches to enter into a relation so they can foster their understanding of and relationship with God, themselves and the members of their communities and find comfort, solace and refuge from the busyness of life.