Editorials
the promise and the challenge
New Church Day inspires us each year with the image of the Holy City New Jerusalem “ coming down out of heaven , prepared as a bride adorned for her husband .” This is the promise of the Lord ’ s Second Coming – of the New Church coming to earth as “ the crown of all churches hitherto established on the earth .” It is an exciting , daunting and humbling vision .
That Church has been descending for almost 250 years now and it is easy to feel discouraged that its crowning glory still is just a blip on the horizon . We see a lot of storm clouds , with flashes of sunshine and hope .
Our formal structure – the General Church of the New Jerusalem – has a strong , loyal base but has not grown significantly in the past 100 years . Indeed , church membership has begun to shrink slightly in North America . This is all the more troubling because the world seems morally adrift and desperately in need of a spiritual compass – of being led by the Lord , not by “ Siri ,” the ubiquitous voice on their Smart phones telling them where to go . The world needs the New Church more than ever , and we need to be doing all we can to grow its presence . But we have our own challenges .
Any church is only as strong as its next generation and we are not attracting our young , New Church-educated people to join and participate in the life of the Church the way they once did – even though many no doubt consider themselves “ New Church .” Doctrinal issues are driving some people away . There is great pressure to change and adapt to new cultural and secular priorities .
The world has witnessed enormous change since the New Church began descending from heaven in 1770 . Culture , values and attitudes are forever shifting and always will . To grow the Church we must look for ways to accommodate its message without ever compromising the essential doctrines of the Church . The challenge is to balance what we can usefully change with what must not change .
Accommodation is the way we change the way ideas are presented so that they may be understood more easily , without changing the essence of the idea .
210