Confessing Church
Within weeks of its founding, more than a third of German pastors had joined the Emergency League. It was the forerunner of the "Bekennende Kirche" (Confessing Church), which aimed to preserve traditional, Biblically based Christian beliefs and practices. The Barmen Declaration, drafted by Barth in May 1934 and adopted by the Confessing Church, insisted that Christ, not the Führer, was the head of the church. The adoption of the declaration has often been viewed as a triumph, although by 's estimate, only 20% of German pastors were supporting the Confessing Church.