canadianchristianity.com email interview with Willard Metzger, director of church relations, World Vision Canada

1. What are the main challenges and issues the Canadian church is facing? How are we doing at dealing with those challenges and issues?

The church has always faced the challenge of remaining relevant, but perhaps even more so today. Canadian society is displaying an increasing concern for the environment and issues of social justice. The churches initial silence has caused it to appear out of touch with important concerns. The mainline, historical churches have been embracing the concerns, but secular media often focuses on the evangelical church in their profiles, which has just recently begun to embrace the concerns. As a result the church appears to be out of touch.

The ability to embrace the increasing number of new immigrants is also a challenge for the church. The church will first need to learn how to be good neighbours to new immigrants, rather than approaching them primarily as a new mission field. The general public will not tolerate such an opportunistic approach.

2. What are the bright spots, encouraging trends, new movements in Canadian Christianity? How will the Canadian church and Canadian society change in the future? What future trends and issues will we have to deal with?

I see a growing interest in the evangelical church around social justice issues. There will be a growing need for tools to help the church address these issues while also calming their fears of loosing their evangelistic concern. Good theological, biblical reflections will be important.

I also see an increasing willingness for the church to work together. Any decrease in territorialism will benefit the entire church.

3. What is the character of the Canadian church? What distinguishing characteristics does it have? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Is this changing?

The Canadian church has the opportunity to be a model. The mosaic character of Canadian public is also evident in the Canadian church. Because the Canadian church is largely less defined by theological boundaries and less encumbered by political allegiances than the American Church, it provides an alternative example of Christianity.

4. What is the state of the church in Canada numerically, both in terms of the number of church members and the number of Christians? What branches of the church are growing and shrinking? In what parts of the country is the church growing or shrinking? Among what demographics is the church growing or shrinking?

The young adult population is finding it increasingly difficult to take the church seriously. Because of their gravitation towards environmental and social justice concerns, any silence or delay from the church regarding these issues causes quick disinterest.

5. What is the attitude of the larger Canadian society to Christianity? Is this changing? In what ways? What impact is secularism having? What is the character of Canadian society generally, how is it changing, and what impact is that having on the church?

Canadian society has two very clear expectations of the church: 1) That the church gets along. Even nonreligious people know intuitively that if it feels as though churches are competing for them, that such activity represents a misguided focus. 2) That the church should be leading the charge in addressing issues of poverty and social issues. Again, even nonreligious people know intuitively that part of the responsibility of the church is to look after the poor.

Perhaps this has become a stronger expectation for the church as church members have become more affluent. The activity of the church in addressing issues of poverty and social justice has become necessary for the integrity of the church and to be accepted as a voice of authority in Canadian society.

6. What is the ethnic makeup of the church in Canada and what impact is immigration having on Canada? What percentage of immigrants are already Christian? Are we converting immigrants to Christ? Are other religions gaining adherents? Are we winning our children or losing them? How multicultural is the church, how representative of the Canadian population?

There have been too few serious attempts of creating multicultural churches. Smaller urban centres impacted by immigration have been hesitant to build bridges into these new communities. Greater intentionality is necessary.

7. What are the most important moral issues that the church will be wrestling with in the next few years? Are we still wrestling with issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, or are those battles over? What can and should the church be doing in these areas?

One of the greatest moral issues for the Canadian church is how to have Christian integrity as people of affluence. What is the difference between the righteous rich and the unrighteous rich? Answering this question will be crucial for the health of the Canadian church and for the acceptance of the faith message of the Christian church.