Dash of Thought September 2025

The task of the Church is to shape our common life in such a way that it bears witness to the fact that in Jesus Christ the new world of God has broken into our world. Its task is to faithfully follow the way of Jesus and to place itself at the service of the world for the life of the world. The Church's mission is not to ensure growth, prosperity or survival. - These sentences summarize the provocative core statement of a book I read this summer.[1]
A first thought on this: The lived community of the Church, our togetherness, the way we shape our life together, is our recognizable witness. Following Jesus as an individual, detached from this, is impossible. Church is a community of followers.
A second thought: Where we walk faithfully alongside Jesus as a community of followers, God and his new world become recognizable. This path leads to a reversal of circumstances. Living with Jesus means not putting ourselves first in our service to the world, looking away from ourselves and seeking the good of others. This is made clear in many places in the Gospels, for example in the Sermon on the Mount or in the discourse on losing and finding life. Our part is to let go of ourselves and our Church, piece by piece. God's part is to create new life from this and allow fruit to grow.
A third thought: the Church as a community of followers that is on the move with Jesus in a world that is constantly striving for bigger, better, faster, higher, for success and growth, forms a contrasting society. As an ambassador of God's new world, she embodies her own culture with her own lifestyle, her own language and her own history. These are distinct from the cultures, lifestyles, languages and histories of the world around it. The church is distinct, but in the world and in favor of the life of the world.
These thoughts challenge us as a Church, congregations and employees. But I also see them as a great relief. We are simply commissioned as a community of followers to confidently follow Jesus on the path that he has shown us and is leading the way. We don't have to try to prevent ourselves from becoming smaller. I certainly don't see how we could prevent it. We can confidently and gratefully leave that to God, the Lord of the Church. Instead, let us focus entirely on the adventure of discipleship.
 
Bishop Stefan Zürcher
 
 
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