01.03.07
karl barth on change and renewal
In The Forgotten Ways Alan quotes a letter from Karl Barth. He recognized the need for adaptation and change when he gave guidance to a pastor in Marxist Germany in the 1950s…
“No, the church’s existence does not always have to possess the same form in the future that it possessed in the past as though this were the only possible pattern.
“No, the continuance and victory of the cause of God which the Christian Church is to serve with her witness, is not unconditionally linked with the forms of existence which it has had until now.
“Yes, the hour may strike, and perhaps has already struck when God, to our discomfiture, but to his glory and for the salvation of mankind, will put an end to this mode of existence because it lacks integrity.
“Yes, it could be our duty to free ourselves inwardly from our dependency on that mode of existence even while it still lasts. Indeed, on the assumption that it may one day entirely disappear, we should look about us for new ventures in new directions.
“Yes, as the Church of God we may depend on it that if only we are attentive, God will show us such new ways as we can hardly anticipate now. And as the people who are bound to God, we may even now claim unconquerably security for ourselves through him. For his name is above all names…”
Found in The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch. “Letter to a Pastor in the German Democratic Republic,” in How to Serve God in a Marxist Land (New York: Association Press, 1959) 45-80
Robert Campbell said,
January 3, 2007 at 2:19 pm
This makes me think of Francis Schaeffer’s “Church at the End of
the 20th Century.”
As we face the future, it is my hope and prayer that we can hold fast that which is eternally true, and also delight in changing everything else if such change adorns the Gospel and its extension in our world.
“Refusal to consider change under the direction of the Holy Spirit is a spiritual problem, not an intellectual problem. There is a bad concept of
old-fashionedness and there is a good concept. The good concept is that some things never change because they are eternal truths. These we must hold to tenaciously and give up nothing of this kind of old-fashionedness.
But there is a bad sense. I often ask young pastors and professors who are wrestling with these things a simple question: Can you really believe that the Holy Spirit is ever old-fashioned in the bad sense? The obvious answer is No. So if we as evangelicals become old-fashioned-not in the good sense, but the bad-we must understand the problem is not basically intellectual,but spiritual. It shows we have lost our way. We have lost contact with the leading of the Holy Spirit who is never old-fashioned in the bad sense.
There is a place for the church until Jesus comes. But there must be the balance of form and freedom in regard to the polity and the practicing community within that church. And there must be a freedom under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to change what needs to be changed, to meet the changing situation in the place and in the moment of that situation.
Otherwise, I do not believe there is a place for the church as a living church. We will be ossified and we will shut Christ out of the church. His Lordship and the leadership of the Holy Spirit will become only words.
Let us be thankful there is a given form. Then let us be careful to make sure that we are not bound by unbiblical forms, by forms which we have become used to and which have no absolute place in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In regard to the polity and practice of the church, except for the clearly given biblical norms, every other detail is open to negotiation among God»?s people under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.”
Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church At The End Of The 20th Century
Alan Hirsch said,
January 4, 2007 at 8:40 am
I must say that I love that letter coming as it does from Karl Barth.
Hey I can’t wait for the review proper. Super curious as to how the book will impact you Len.
Love
A
Journeyfiles » Blog Archive » Erste Besprechungen von Alan’s Hirschs Buch "The Forgotten Ways” said,
January 15, 2007 at 2:25 am
[...] Da haben wir zu dem Buch direkt Besprechung 1 und Besprechung 2, zu Karl Barth (ein Australier bringt uns diesen Theologen zurück, man überlege sich das…) und einem Vergleich zu “Organic Church” von Neil Cole bzw. “Decoding the church” von Howard Snyder. Interessante Meinungen und Einblicke. Zwei Zitate aus dem Buch: “Nothing is more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than achieving a new order of things.”? Machiavelli [...]