“Forming the Future Church”: a sermon for TRINITY SUNDAY 2025 (JUNE 15)
Does the Church have a future? Does our church (PCC, presbytery, congregation) have a future? Does the people of God have a future? I believe we can confidently say that the Trinitarian God will always have a people in this world. However, the survival of any individual denomination or local Christian community is far from guaranteed. If a species of living creatures ceases to reproduce, that species is doomed to extinction. If any congregation fails to “produce” a new generation of committed believers, that congregation is destined to disappear. This language of “reproduction” comes straight from the New Testament – the apostle Paul told the Corinthians: “I am … writing this … to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed … I became your father through the gospel .” (1 Cor. 4.14-15) When he wrote to the Galatian...