Both Mark Twain and Paul McCartney have been quoted as saying, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Today, perhaps, we could add the Church to this list. It seems that everyone from the secular humanist to the church statistician is predicting the death of the church.
However, Barth points out that while these reports of the church’s demise are presented as shocking news, fresh to our time, they are not anything new. Barth writes, “We need not regard the tragedy of modern godlessness as anything out of the ordinary, nor treat it as tragically as is presupposed in this conception of the necessity of dogmatic prolegomena.” In other words, when we speak of the things of God, we don't have to limit ourselves by the fear of unbelief.
Reports of the Church’s demise fail to recognize two important points.
First, that the Church is not about us. The Church does not depend on crafting witty sermons or designing clever advertising campaigns, it is the work of God. The Church is a gift of grace.
Second, and building on that point, to say the church is dying is to say that God’s Holy Spirit is unable to do new things. If we look across the long lens of history, God’s Spirit has moved in new and fresh ways and will always do so.
Might the church look different a century from now? Of course. However, the Church is not dying and will never die because God’s breath continually gives God’s church fresh life.
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