Thoughts on The Church in the Power of the Spirit

Preface, Introduction and Chapter One


The first thing I noticed when reading through the preface and the first chapters was how prophetic Moltmann was in describing the current situation of the church. The book was first published in 1975 – a time when many in our denomination and downtown church would describe as the “Good Ole Days.” It is interesting to hear the author describe many of the fissures that have become modern day cracks in our foundation.

Moltmann argues we have to move from the large structures seemingly inherent in denominational churches to smaller communities. Further, we have to address passive attendance into active participation. I have thought recently about the number of people who attend the 9:30 worship service at First Presbyterian Church, shake my hand, compliment my sermon and head out into the world. About half of our congregation stays around for the educational hour and their Sunday school class. “Forms of community that are accepted personally and entered into voluntarily are becoming more important.” This is a challenge to Presbyterians who have relied primarily on offspring to fill the church’s rolls. I am encouraged by the thought that we worship a God who does not merely calls us to join together. Moltmann’s purpose is to understand the triune God as the God who is community, who calls community into life and who invites men and women into sociality with him. ”


“Anyone who only talks about a ‘crisis’ without recognizing this implicit opportunity is talking because he is afraid and without hope. Anyone who only wants to have new opportunities without accepting the crisis of previous answers is living an illusion.”

“When its traditions are imperiled by insecurity, the church is thrown back to its roots. It will take its bearings even more emphatically than before from Jesus, his history, his presence and his future. As ‘the church of Jesus Christ’ it is fundamentally dependent on him, and on him alone.”

“Theological insight and the practical experiences I have mentioned would suggest that the book’s practical intention might be formulated as follows: to point away from the pastoral church, that looks after the people to the people’s own communal church among the people.”

“The church is the people of God and will give an account of itself at all times to the God who has called it into being, liberated it and gathered it.”

The church is present before God and before men and women and before the future. Where have we put our emphasis in the past? Do we recognize this, and if we do, do we mix the two spots? “The church of Christ is an ‘open’ church. It is open for God, open for men and open for the future of both God and men. The church atrophies when it surrenders any one of these opennesses and closes itself up against God, men or the future.” I think there is a lot of truth in the need to be an “open” church. It is easy for churches, when faced with adversity, to shut itself off from the outside and hunker in a bunker. It is a contributing factor in the closing of many churches and the relative few new church developments.

Many will blame the cultural upheavals begun in the 1960’s as the basis of the declining membership in mainline denominations. It appears Moltmann would disagree with this thinking. The church ceases to be the church of triune God when it settles into a comfortable routine. “The unrest of the times points it to this inner unrest of its own. The social and cultural upheavals of the present draw its attention to that great upheaval which it itself describes as ‘new creation’, as the ‘new people of God’. It appears that we need to pay attention to the inner unrest within the church and see where we need to move.

We are called to continually go back to the one who called the church into being; Jesus Christ. “It is only where Christ alone rules, and the church listens to his voice only, that the church arrives at its truth and becomes free and a liberating power in the world.” The church’s lone and all embracing reason for existing is the lordship of Christ. Our Christology will determine our ecclesiology. I believe this is a very helpful reminder. It requires all of us to pay attention to the Christ we claim to follow. Whenever we make a statement about Christ, we are also making a statement about the church and towards the messianic kingdom. We have to subordinate our individual interests to the interests of Christ. Of course, this is easier said than done.

I wonder if Moltmann was one of the founding fathers of the “missionary church” movement? It seems like he touches on a number of themes present in current writings. I can only assume many of our modern theologians have read this book and are influenced by its insights. The modern church is beginning to understand that mission is not something exclusively “over there” but a thing that needs to be practiced in our everyday world and lives.

Moltmann identifies the way many churches (including my own) get it wrong. “Call and mission are something that have happened once and for all, then the church today calls no longer, it instructs and teaches Christians and baptizes the children of Christians. In this way it remains within the confines of ‘Christian society’, which continually reproduces itself through infant baptism.”

“The theological interpretation of the church today must absorb these germs of a missionary church in the decay of the corpus christianum. What we have to learn from them is not that the church ‘has” a mission, but the very reverse that the mission of Christ creates its own church. Mission does not come from the church; it is from mission and in the light of mission that the church has to be understood. The preaching (emphasis added) of the gospel does not merely serve to instruct Christians and strengthen their faith; it always serves to call non-Christians at the same time.” I absolutely love this paragraph and believe this is the goal of my whole work in the DMin program. In my 9 years of ministry, I have had very few adult baptisms. I would like this to change and I am hopeful it will. “Evangelism is mission, but mission is not merely evangelization.”

“The real point is not to spread the church but to spread the kingdom. The goal is not the glorification of the church but the glorification of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.” I think we all have to hold ourselves accountable to this standard.

I am looking forward to reading further about the concepts of ecumenism and the political church. These are two hot button topics with many people in the pews and I do not know if I have a complete grasp on them yet. “Generally speaking, the theology of revolution understands ‘revolution’ as the outward correspondence of man’s inner repentance.” Moltmann begins to talk a lot about liberation theology and the need to read the Bible through those with full eyes and empty bellies. If we are working for liberation, we must take sides with the poor and the oppressed. I just read an article that stated that most evangelical Christians in America are in favor of cutting support to foreign countries and slashing Federal aid to the many social programs that benefit the poorest in our land.


Moltmann p. xiii
Ibid p. xv
Ibid p. xvii
Ibid p. xviii
Ibid p. xx
Ibid p. 1
Ibid p. 2
Ibid p. 3
Ibid p. 5
Ibid p. 9
Ibid p. 9
Ibid p. 10
Ibid p. 16