DRAUDZE NO JAUNA UN CITĀDĀK – RELIĢIJAS POTENCIĀLS PIEAUGOŠAS KOMPLEKSITĀTES APSTĀKĻOS ¹

The Christian church in its current composition, structure, and expression is in crisis. However, the crisis of the congregation and the church that has escalated in recent decades can be understood as a spiritual challenge. This means not only making structural changes in the existing forms of congregation and church, adapting to the changing reality in the context of the current lack of resources, but also paying attention to the spiritual perspective of complex processes of change. How is it possible to think about the congregation and the church in a completely different way? What could be the new forms of plural, lively and open congregation and church that are important for the sustainable development of the whole society? The starting point is to rethink what we mean by the concepts of “congregation” and “church” and what could be the practical forms of religion in the near future – in an individualized, differentiated, and complex society. In 2020, the Internal Development Goals initiative emerged, suggesting that there is one blind spot in the efforts to solve complex societal issues and create a sustainable global society – the internal development of a person and the need for internal change in the person himself. The initiative proposes the idea of a new, inner, consciousness-raising revolution, capable of creating a new foundation for the coexistence of humanity. At the end of 2021, the first part of the initial project was completed, formulating 23 different qualities and skills – in relationships with oneself, thinking and cognition, relations with others and the world, cooperation with others, and in action. As the church and Christianity become involved into and a part of the program for achieving the inner goals of a person, aligning their actions with these goals, and creating the structures necessary to achieve these goals, the church would become one of the driving forces of sustainable development, a kind of “folk high school” for the birth of a new consciousness, gaining new relevance on a societal scale. In this global task of learning and building a metastable civilization, the congregation and the church have a decisive potential. The article discusses the latest insights contributed by several theologians (Uta Pohl-Patalong, Tomáš Halík, etc.) regarding models of the congregation and church relevant to the future of Christianity, and analyses the project Erprobungsräumen of the Evangelical Church of Central Germany, aspiring towards new forms of congregations.