Count your blessings! I wonder how South Africa compares?

A friend sent me this very interesting article about research from the University of Nigmegen in the Netherlands. It showed that the churches in the city of Rotterdam were so effective in their social outreach programs that they city indicated it would not be able to function without their input (which amounts to approximately 130 Million Euros per year).

I have two thoughts about this. The first is simply, WELL DONE! It is wonderful to see the Church doing good work! I am convinced that the most significant testimony that any Church can have is to make a significant tangible impact upon its surroundings. The second observation is this, in contexts where faith is a deliberate choice (such as the largely secularized European countries), the faithful tend to be far more committed and active in their faith. In contexts such as ours where faith is commonplace, expressions and commitments of faith tend towards the mediocre, rather than the extra-ordinary.

What is your experience? If the Churches in your city or town were to close down would anyone notice the effects?

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Secularists on both sides of the Atlantic have clamoured for the separation of church and state, religion and politics, opposing the use of public funds for faith-based initiatives. But a recent study commissioned by the city council in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on the social benefit of Christian churches, suggests that if the churches were to stop their volunteer activities today, the city would go bankrupt. They save the city up to 130 million euro each year and contribute significantly in creating social cohesion and integration.

The researchers of the University of Nijmegen approached 272 churches in Rotterdam for their enquiry, and discovered the largest number of churches to be evangelical fellowships (36%). The Protestant Churches of the Netherlands (PKN) formed 18% and the Roman Catholic Churches 13% of the total. The remainder were made up of other ecumenical churches. While in some European countries, like France, Poland and Belgium, evangelical fellowships are still branded by secular authorities as 'sects', it is clear from the Rotterdam research that such fellowships are rapidly becoming 'mainstream', swelled by large numbers of evangelical migrant Christians.

?Against the expectations of secularists, the number of church members in the city was not found to be diminishing. At around 200,000, they in fact represented one in every three Rotterdammers. Of these, one in four attended church regularly, some 50,000, or 9% of the city's inhabitants. Half of these regular church-goers - some 25,000 - are active volunteers, mostly spending more than eight hours each week in volunteer work. These activities include intercultural and interreligious engagement, informational and educational courses, and social aid programmes. Volunteers offer emergency financial aid, run food banks (see photo) and meals-on-wheels programmes, assist those grieving, help with homework, teach language and computer lessons, support assault victims, prostitutes, asylum-seekers, refugees, homeless and prisoners... and much more. The researchers also found that migrant churches contribute just as much as the non-migrant churches. This broad, wide-ranging, non-bureaucratic and non-discriminating social help has until now gone largely unrecognised by officials.

According to the researchers of the University of Nijmegen, it is time for city fathers in Rotterdam and elsewhere to give recognition and concrete financial assistance to the considerable contribution of the urban churches. This is also clearly stated in the report's official title: 'Count your blessings!'

Source: Jeff Fountain, Hope for Europe