Redemption, the true hope of the Gospel

Is the hope of the Gospel that mankind can be redeemed?

The premise of the argument is that the Church(as an institution, not a movement) is dying because the good people of the Church are giving up on her.  They leave because they have lost faith in her.  They leave because they believe she has lost her effectiveness.  They are right in their realization, but wrong in their abandonment.  I do not know who quoted this, but it has been said that, “She may be a whore, but she is still the bride.”  We are still called to be a part of her, to reside within the body, the church.  I do not intend to debate the difference between the church as a movement, and the institutional church.  What I intend to do is bring light to the need to maintain hope in the fact that although she is not perfect, the church is redeemable.  Along with this realization, although mankind is not perfect, it is redeemable.  One thing I have found in many of those who have been around the church a long time is that they have been hurt to the point that they have lost hope in the possibility of redemption of all.  They have given into the idea that, as things are, so they will always be.  Some things never change.  I think God gives hope to the young, and often years of dissapointment break down that hope until there is nothing left but old tired people ready to die dissapointed.  This is tragedy.  I submit that “Faith like a child” includes hope.  We must maintain hope.  Hope in our God, hope in our Savior, hope in our redemption, and hope in the redemption of our world.  Without hope, we have nothing to strive for.  When we lose hope, we lose the battle for the lost.  I submit that this battle is one that we were never meant to lose.  My question now is, what does it take to maintain this hope that Christ brought?  For those who have already lost it, how can they lay hold of that hope once again? 

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