The Jeremiah diagnosis: Reflections on the Decline of the Church in the West: Why Revivalism Is Not the Answer, What Could Be Next [Paperback]

The book is not against revival per se, but sees it more as a part of the continuing ebb and flow of spiritual intensity. The main thrust for spiritual leaders according to Derek Frank, through good times and bad, should be to carry on the work of reformation, moving on from where Luther and Calvin left off. The main concern is .. to search for the big issue which could prove critical to would-be reformers of today. If the Church continues to look to revival alone and ignores the need for continuing reformation, it may yet be in for hard times ahead.

Reflections on the decline of the Church in the West; why revivalism is not the answer; and what could be next. The author makes a call for a new season of reformation; at the same time he uses Jeremiah's words to warn today's Christians of the dangers of complacent overoptimism.

Is a revival what the Western Church needs to reverse its decline? The Jeremiah Diagnosis argues that this is an inadequate prescription - the only hope lies in a new season of reformation. Quoting the prophecies of Jeremiah and reflecting on the history of the 16th Century, Derek Frank invites Church leaders to consider what could be the key issues that need to be faced today in order to complete the reformation.

Derek Frank is Anglican Chaplain of All Saints', Vevey, Switzerland.

Yet for those living in the 16th Century, it was rather less easy to discern exactly what was wrong. There was the long-standing suspicion that things were far from right, and that reform was overdue. But exactly what the reform was that was needed, let alone how it was to be implemented, was extremely difficult to envisage ( . . . ) and beyond that lay the most insuperable question of all. Just how could such a massive power structure as the church ever be confronted? The pressure to acquiesce was enormous.

At the start of the third millennium, ( . . . ) we too have a long-standing sense that things are far from right. We hear of the amazing growth of the church in other parts of the world through this last century, whilst to quote the Archbishop of Canterbury speaking to the 1998 World Council of Churches Assembly in Zimbabwe, parts of the western church are 'bleeding to death'. And few in Britain and Europe really believe that the church we are a part of is as good as it gets. Yet not only we, but apparently our senior leaders, have great difficulty in putting our finger on what exactly is wrong. Let alone to work out how things could ever be changed.

Meanwhile the greater proportion of such remaining membership as the western church still has remains in a relatively convenient and compliant acquiescence. Such acquiescence is not without parallel to that which existed in the church of the Middle Ages, prior to the sixteenth century Reformation. For there is an intrinsic propensity of the church of every generation to acquiesce. And in the process of doing so, to come first under delusion, and then under deception. . . . Yet a few hundred years on from now, it is not unlikely that the acceptance by the faithful of the present failings of the western church may then be seen as vastly more blatant than we presently recognise. Indeed that our level of delusion about today's 'temple of the Lord' may be beyond anything we realise.