The future of the church has already begun. Community continues. Collaboration and leadership are its untapped resources. However, attempts to optimize the status quo cannot address the current crisis of the Protestant and Catholic major churches. Far-reaching societal, economic-technical, and political changes since the 1970s have fundamentally altered their organizational frameworks. For community to continue, the church must think ahead. Part I of this book provides fundamental theological, historical, and cybernetic considerations for the renewal of church structure, politics, culture, and leadership. These form the background for methodological suggestions for a mission- and life-world-oriented self-design - for renewed church action and new possibilities for shaping Christian life.