"Death of the Church is intended to provoke, although we have been careful to be accurate and responsible in our statement of the issues. We will have failed if you only yawn. You may not like what we say, but you must at least acknowledge the issues, for they are very real. The institutional church in America will look very different twenty-five years from now. Indeed, several denominations may no longer exist. We are sure that there will be hundreds of local congregations that won't. The forces reshaping our culture are too many and too strong. We see signs of social fragmentation and collapse everywhere. But we also believe deeply in the hope of the Gospel and the security of the church. Both will survive. But how the church universal is expressed in and through the churches in America will look very different. This is the issue we write about." -- From the Introduction