Without a community we do not have a place to which we can bring someone to share in the experience of Good News. We only have an idea which can be debated, dissected or combined with other self-help ideas to improve your life. Of course some will object that they have not experienced any Good News in their church and in fact have experienced some really painful bad news or at best some very boring, life-draining news. But this is a result of a misunderstanding of the nature of the church. As Karl Barth has reminded us, the Word of God is embedded in the all too apparent “fallenness” of our society in which the church is a full participant. It is an ecclesiological doceticism to assume that for the church to be a proper witness, it must be superior to the world in which it exists. (Church Dogmatics; Karl Barth, Volume 4.3; pp. 723-725)
The Good News of Christ was not revealed in a world of comfort and pleasant experiences. In many cases it required great personal sacrifice and pain – Bad News – in order for people to experience the fullness of the Good News of Christ. In brutal terms Jesus is quoted in Luke saying, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27) It is not that the church should deliberately be a painful experience but that even in those painful moments, moments when the church or person is being disobedient to their Lord, still Christ can address you in a way that enables you to experience Good News in your life.
