The Week in Review

Assignment #5 Book Reflections of "Death of the Church"

Church Growth and Health

The book, Death of the Church by Mike Regele was a hard read. However, the information contained within the pages was such that it makes you think. One of the first quotes of interest is "Simply, we can die because of our hidebound resistance to change, or we can die in order to live." (19). Regele was making this statement to stay that the churchmust decide if it is going to die to it's traditions so that it can live to give the message in today's society or if the local churches refuse to die, they will suffer death eventually anyway because they will lose their importance to the people.

Regele also states, "And where is the church in all of this? It is simply one more of the many alternatives reality constructions available in the marketplace of beliefs, which is why it resorts increasingly to marketing techinques. It has no premier position...The church's message is simply one more voice in the cacaphony of created realities competing to attract a following. This will not change. It is in engaging what this means that the church again comes face-to-face with its own death. However, it is also in this place of death that its greatest opportunity dwells, and nowhere else" (80).

Regele states that the church has lost its place of honor and now has become one of many voices in a choice of alternatives for individuals. Because of this, many churches result to looking for marketing plans, without realizing those things are only band-aids to something greater.

Regele uses the wording that the church must die to live several times, and it also brings you to the thought of the individuals within the church. You and I must be willing to die to what our expectations are for "our churches" and allow what God wants to live to be birth into our hearts. The church, the Bride of Christ will forever be it is the local congregations that must look to see how they can be vital in today's world. One last point I would like to make is this, no matter how much we change in our world the message of God is still fresh and needed for the people. We cannot change the church in such a way that it is not giving "TRUTH". If truth is changed for the sake of change, we are no longer the church, but a gathering of people as the author says, our stories becomes just another story in the sea of stories. When in fact our story, or better yet, God's story is unique through all times.