To What Kind of Church Does the Future Belong?

"Lord . . . may I keep in step with You. I want to be Your church moving into the future."

To what kind of church does the future belong?

Not to a church that is lazy, shallow, indifferent, timid, and weak in its faith;
Not to a church that expects blind obedience and fanatical party loyalty;
Not to a church that is the slave of its own history, always putting on the brakes, suspiciously defensive and yet, in the end, forced into agreement;
Not to a church that is anti-critical, practically anti-intellectual and dilettantish (showing frivolous or superficial interest - ed. addition)
Not to a church that is blind to problems, suspicious of empirical knowledge, yet claiming competent authority for everyone and everything;
Not to a church that is quarrelsome, impatient, and unfair in dialogue;
Not to a church that is closed to the real world.

In short, the future does not belong to a church that is dishonest!


No, the future belongs:

To a church that knows what it does not know,
To a church that relies upon God's grace and wisdom and has in its
weakness and ignorance a radical confidence in God;
To a church that is strong in faith, joyous, and certain, yet self-critical;
To a church filled with intellectual desire, spontaneity, animation, and
fruitfulness;
To a church that has the courage of initiative, and the courage to take risks;
To a church that is altogether open to the real world.

In short, the future belongs to a thoroughly truthful church.


Source: McBride, J.L. (1998) Spiritual Crisis: Surviving The Trauma To The Soul, Haworth Press. Pg 53.