The Basic Problem in the Life of the Modern Church

“I [Findley B. Edge] was struggling with the basic question of the Christian Faith—What really does it mean to be the People of God? I didn’t know the answer to this question—not with certainty and clarity. This is the basic problem in the life of the modern church. We don’t know who we are or what we are supposed to be as the People of God! I am convinced that a majority of both laymen and clergy do not know the answer to this question—not with clarity. This is not the only problem of the church, but it is the central problem.
Our problem is not primarily that attendance statistics are declining or that the budget is becoming increasingly difficult to raise. It is that we do not know who we are or what we are called to be as the People of God. We do not know how to be an expression of the People of God because we really don’t know what it means to be the People of God. If it means something more than or something other than “being good,” “believing in Jesus,” and “being faithful to the church,” then most of us don’t know what it is.” [Findley B. Edge, The Greening of the Church (Waco, TX: Word, 1971), 31.]