Future Shifts in the Church
I love Conan O’Brien.
I even named my cat after him.
He used to do this skit called, “In the Year 2000.”
Where he’d peer into the future.
Funny stuff.
This is my attempt to look into the not-so-distant future.
At shifts I see looming or arriving in churches.
They are coupled together but they don’t all hold pinky fingers.
I’d be curious to see which shifts you dig and which ones you don’t.
What you see as either/or and what you see as and/both.
Read carefully and leave a reply.
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Churches starting churches.
Churches launching campuses.
.
Pastors leading from out front.
Pastor leading from up top.
.
The development of leaders.
The replacement of a leader.
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The Bible opened on top of the collected works of Seth Godin, John Piper, and Rob Bell.
The Bible laying beside collected works of Seth Godin, John Piper, and Rob Bell.
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The peer-to-peer networking of the church.
The power-grabbing consolidation of the church.
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Discipleship as a first-step, next-step, grow-as-you-go, journey towards Jesus.
Discipleship as an online program, just-take-this-class, activity about Jesus.
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Iron-sharpening-iron community.
Anonymous-staying-anonymous community.
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Churches sending Christians.
Christians consuming churches.
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Becoming the church Jesus had in mind.
Becoming clones of the church you’re favorite leader had in mind.
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Orthodox in theology, open in methodology.
Open in theology, open in methodology.
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Jesus as the end.
Jesus as the means to an end.
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Shaping culture.
Shaped by culture.
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Preachers and teachers communicating with their family.
Preachers and teachers communicating with hologram technology to an audience.
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Courage in the face of rejection and persecution.
Compromise in the face of rejection and persecution.
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I could list more, but that’s plenty for now.
What do you like/dislike?
Do you agree/disagree?
What would you add?
Hey Jason,
I really can identify with these two ideals. They really jumped out at me.
“Becoming the church Jesus had in mind.”
vs
“Becoming clones of the church you’re favorite leader had in mind.”
I think the struggle between these two ideals becomes apparent when one notices the tension between the dictates of a religious construct that may clearly contradict the way, or style of Jesus.
I’m no expert, and maybe you can comment on this, but I’m beginning to notice a re-fascination with “becoming the church Jesus had in mind.” Maybe its as a backlash against the prevalance of what I think may be the inevitable byproduct of traditional organized religion? Not sure…(I’m still forming my opinion here, and open for enlightenment). But the development of denominations(and I belong to one, so im not bashing here
appears to have the tendency to self propagate ones peculiar set of doctrines. AND sometimes that seems to compete with a Jesus centric message.
“Becoming the church Jesus has in mind” seems to sometimes threaten generations of tradition, and to break free from this vice, we need individuals that are willing to lay aside tradition, form, and even subjugate the ideas of ones “favorite religious speaker” to the message of Jesus. After all, he started this whole deal right? ;->
Anyway..maybe I strayed away from evaluating the other “shifts” you had listed..:-) I’ll leave it at that for now. Thanks for the opportunity to comment…Great blog…
I sorta agree with this:
The Bible opened on top of the collected works of Seth Godin, John Piper, and Rob Bell.
The Bible laying beside collected works of Seth Godin, John Piper, and Rob Bell.
I disagree with this:
Courage in the face of rejection and persecution.
Compromise in the face of rejection and persecution.
and disagree with this:
Jesus as the end.
Jesus as the means.
I think its more the other way round nowadays with the shift towards Jesus as the end.
Not sure I fully understand the questions – but here are my “free associations”…
Churches starting churches.
Churches launching campuses.
– churches BEING “THE” church – that would be revolutionary
Pastors leading from out front.
Pastor leading from up top.
– Pastors as shepherds – one gift among many. All equal in “rank”
The development of leaders.
The replacement of a leader.
– leaders are everywhere, how about FINDING leaders and training them in WISDOM and GOOD CHARACTER
The Bible opened on top of the collected works of Seth Godin, John Piper, and Rob Bell.
The Bible laying beside collected works of Seth Godin, John Piper, and Rob Bell.
– Bible on TOP – but properly understood as a historical work of mixed styles, and not a “guidebook”
The peer-to-peer networking of the church.
The power-grabbing consolidation of the church.
– excited about peer-to-peer – If Jesus wanted power-grabbers he would have put Judas in charge of growing the church.
Discipleship as a first-step, next-step, grow-as-you-go, journey towards Jesus.
Discipleship as an online program, just-take-this-class, activity about Jesus.
– jewish approach to discipleship, relational, immediate, ongoing, tangible, and then it must be duplicated.
Iron-sharpening-iron community.
Anonymous-staying-anonymous community.
– anonymity brings out the worst in people. (see any blog with anonymous posts – they are usually really rude) Mutual accountability is iron sharpening iron… we need more of that.
Churches sending Christians.
Christians consuming churches.
– hmmm… churches have a tendency to consume christians by filling their schedules with all sorts of silly programs. Christians consume churches like TV shows – they come out of curiosity and if it’s not entertaining enough they find a “better” one. Churches sending christians… good – but what about churches BEING christians – ie. living as sent…
Becoming the church Jesus had in mind.
Becoming clones of the church you’re favorite leader had in mind.
– the second is far more popular than the first – probably because people don’t really take the time to figure out what JESUS’ church looks like… we’re too stuck on what we can see here and now to look back that far….
Orthodox in theology, open in methodology.
Open in theology, open in methodology.
– if orthodox means “tradition trumps all”, then open is important (open to the spirit of God that is) – if “open” means mushy, spineless, non-committal, then open is bad. Why don’t churches listen together for what the spirit of God is saying and then do it??? Maybe we can’t hear him through all the insanity of our programs, building fundraisers, PA systems, fancy videos, disco lights, children’s choirs, foyer coffee shops, rock-star worship teams, etc, etc.
Jesus as the end.
Jesus as the means to an end.
– Jesus as the beginning and the end (John 1)
Shaping culture.
Shaped by culture.
– shaping. but something is holding us back. I personally think it’s our massive and clunky out-dated church structures… the spirit is moving and we’re chained down – so maybe, just maybe, God is putting His plans in the hands of the unchurched because they aren’t restricted by tradition. (ie. the compassion for Africa movements, AIDS movements, fighting for the poor, etc. — i can’t honestly say Christians are at the forefront of these movements lately – but they should be)
Preachers and teachers communicating with their family.
Preachers and teachers communicating with hologram technology to an audience.
– top choice. God values relationships WAY MORE than “good teachers” (with big egos)
Courage in the face of rejection and persecution.
Compromise in the face of rejection and persecution.
– courage! but the church in many areas has embraced compromise BIG TIME as a “necessary” method to get “non-believers” through the doors. Problem is – you can get them in the building, but then you have to either stay consistent with compromise or pull a major bait-n-switch…
We often lack the courage to eloquently and lovingly explain why we believe what we believe – and even why we don’t intend to change as society lowers it’s collective moral standard.
—– —– —–
thanks for the post!
blessings on Project Church
Churches starting churches.
Churches launching campuses.
-”churches without walls”, growth happening naturally as people share Jesus with others. I don’t have a problem with strategizing, but sometimes we put the strategizing ahead of the “life begetting life”.
Pastors leading from out front.
Pastor leading from up top.
-Pastors in the midst, living and leading from relationship, not position alone. Pastors connected with people.