ries , in those years when churches were full of people and pastors were not lacking . Unfortunately , today the situation has changed a lot , and it has changed for the worse . There are fewer pastors and fewer people choose it as a ‘ profession ’. Yet there is no shortage of vocations . On one hand we have fewer pastors , on the other we have more and more people approaching the academic study of Theology and enrolling in courses at the Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome . Of course , this does not mean that all people who study Theology will , in the future , go on serving their congregations . But , and this is an important ‘ but ’, it does show that God and Reformed Theology are still an interesting subject .
Frequently I hear phrases
‘ Two Women with a Candle ’ by Peter Paul Rubens ( Mauritshuis , The Hague ).
such as ‘ today people no longer need God and feel to be part of a congregation ’. False ! If that were the case , we would not see some churches increase in number ( in Sicily , for example , Pentecostal churches are numerically giants ). People need God , they need to feel part of a congregation , and they need spirituality . Do we know how to offer these three things ? Language , communication has changed , and perhaps we struggle to keep up with the pace of a fast-changing society . We must not , in my opinion , however , fall into the temptation of distorting our theology to make it more ‘ attractive ’. We must not change the theological content of the message ; we must change the way we proclaim it .
I am currently the pastor of the churches of Riesi ( close to Caltanissetta ) and Agrigento . Both churches have a glorious past when the church was full on Sundays . Today it is very different . Sicily was and is a land of mission . It remains a land where preaching a theology different from the Roman Catholic one means choosing to sow in the desert , entrusting every sprout to God . But if ‘ the light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness comprehended it not ’ ( John 1:5 KJV ), we too must struggle to make the Word of God shine through a preaching that is coherent with our theology , and made credible in the concrete actions we take . Witnessing and proclaiming the Gospel means keeping the candle of faith burning in us and in others because , as we know , lux lucet in tenebris .
Giovanni Bernardini
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