Lakewood Church Houston, TX
As I look at the trends and the “edge” of what it feels like the church in America is moving towards I see one specific word used over and over again, but I think it has been missed by most of us – can you guess it?
I believe most are an attempt to express the larger initiative of TRANSFORMATION.
If you said, authentic, organic, emergent, missional, social justice, house church, vintage, etc. Then you would be wrong. And though I do see those trends occurring I believe most are an attempt to express the larger initiative of TRANSFORMATION.
We are at the point where the Church has finally stopped and taken a look back at the mega church movement over the past 30 – 40 years, and we are starting to see where adjustment is needed. During that time the church has gotten incredible at “packing the house” – and have produced amazing results and numbers. But what I believe our Emergent / Missional / Vintage Faith friends have sensed is the need for “something more.” The problem is that as with any generation they want to throw the baby out with the bath water by changing too much of what has gone well, instead of continuing to modify.
The REVEAL study that came out of Willow Creek is the tipping point for this movement because it caught the attention of the boomer mega church leaders that would otherwise have just written the values of the next generation off like their values where by those that preceded them.
Regardless, what I believe the next 20-30 years of church is going to look like is a resurgence on the focus on sanctification. When the power of the gospel invades someone’s life, and then they are discipled in that faith one on one. The REVEAL study that came out of Willow Creek is the tipping point for this movement because it caught the attention of the boomer mega church leaders that would otherwise have just written the values of the next generation off like their values where by those that preceded them.
So what does this mean? Here are my predictions:
1. The Mega Church large weekly services will change as we know them, but not go away. There will still be churches with 5, 10 and 20 thousand people on the books. But they will be spread out over many house churches, neighborhood congregations and campuses. Small Groups will be where the focus continues to be, and even more so in the future. But there will also be a desire for connectedness and community that is lost in mega churches. The services at a church of 20,000 all trying to meet in the same place on the weekends is to much of an anonymous crowd for this type of environment.
Yet on the flip side, as much as the emergent or missional guys would say it is changing, mega churches and their programmatic expertise will remain extremely valuable. The problem right now is that mega churches are still heavily leaning towards the stylistic preferences of the 45 + boomers (actually 45 is a young boomer) who like Hendrix guitar solos mid song (or solos in general -for me these feel like vomit inducing self promotions, let’s just keep the focus on God and not your mad skills on the little strings) , a sweet Sax vibe and the more traditional rock and roll. This next generation’s style is more characterized by the “Unplugged” concerts MTV started years ago, but with a more interactive approach including art, images, video and learning “experiences.”
They have grown up being able to know about world wide tragedies instantly, sometimes before the news even gets a chance to report it.
2. The Experiences of service and ministry will be the single most effective teaching tools in the church. This is their boots on the ground and their hands getting dirty. This goes with an increase on a desire to be the church out in the world. The social networking and communication paradigms shifts that the internet has presented in the last two years has integrated itself into the lifestyle of this generation. They have grown up being able to know about world wide tragedies instantly, sometimes before the news even gets a chance to report it. The hurt and needs in the world are no longer secret or that easy to hide – and this will be a generation that wants to takes it’s faith to those places.
From my limited perspective it seems that the boomer generation needed to be taught how to serve, how to even become aware of the issues in their community and world; so that they could serve with the love and faith of Jesus. But for the group coming up, they already know how to be aware – and Christian or not they are going to be highly involved in serving. If a church keeps the same approach that worked for boomers, they will certainly struggle.
And a quick side note, this also plays very heavy into the spiritual retreats that you do. Having a class room approach will simply not work. Meaning, taking a group to a camp ground 30 minutes away and then doing a bunch of classes will only be moderately effective. Think global with your retreats just like you do with missions. Think how the locations of where you take people needs to connect them to God as your teaching or classes might. I think the church that starts having retreats in geography that already resounds as “spiritual” will catch something very special.
I personally received 5 html mass emails from my church in two days this week…I deleted all 5 immediately.
3. The way the Church communicates will have to drastically change. In the past 20 years the church has caught the marketing and branding skills from those industries and has started to fully utilize the tools and strategies that have worked there. But now it is rapidly becoming over done. I personally received 5 html mass emails from my church in two days this week. All of them had great copy, logos and brand positioning. I deleted all 5 immediately. When I gave my church my email I didn’t expect to have it spammed. I gave it for real communication with an individual, not to become part of their database. This generation is ruthless with their time and even more so with their attention. We are growing up with advanced filtering and “ignoring” skills just to defend our lives from the overflow of information. If the church is a part of that “overflow” instead of a place where things can slow down and we can hear the voice of God, then the church and it’s message will become part of what is ignored.
I have a few more predictions but I haven’t hashed them out yet, and they are probably more my preferences anyways, lol.
So, now it is your turn. What are your predictions for how the church will change over the next 10-20 years? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and let’s prepare together!
