Here is what I am seeing. Most of these are already happening in small or large
ways. Almost all of them are
welcome advances beyond our current situation.
1.
The “one-size-fits-all” approach is over. Every church will shape its mission to
fit its own context. There will
still be thriving “traditional”
congregations, but fewer of them; at the same time we will see an expanding
diversity of churches, worshiping communities, missional outposts, and
gatherings of disciples, with different structures, criteria for ministry,
purposes, and leadership.
2.
The diversity in ministry-styles will broaden
far beyond the old, conventional model – at least one full-time, in-residence
pastor per congregation – and include more part-time, non-professional,
non-residential, and unpaid leadership.
There will be more shared and collaborative leadership as well, and more
leaders serving multiple gatherings.
Different oversight models will evolve, eg. one trained professional overseeing multiple gatherings served
by theology students, lay preachers, part-time pastors, etc.
3.
The traditional “roll of active members” will
become decreasingly relevant; gatherings will have fluid forms of participation
and involvement. Some may adopt
covenants of shared spiritual practices as criteria for identifying
members. This will necessitate a
change in (among other things) the way churches support themselves financially,
moving from pledging to a variety of fund-raising strategies. These may include fees for services,
dues arrangements, rental income, and production of goods for sale. Many denominations/networks will have
to change the way they collect assessments to support the hierarchy/bureaucracy.
4.
The old denominations will remain… but continue
to shrink (eventually hitting something like “terminal velocity,” I suppose). Within and outside of these
denominations, disciples and gatherings will form new networks for mission and
support, across denominational lines.
New semi/post-denominational alliances will form. Connectionalism will become more
voluntary and temporary. Regional
denominational bodies will grow weaker and have to compete with less formal
networks.
5.
Coercive strategies for forcing compliance and
loyalty (by, say, claiming control over property or pastors) on the part of
regional or national denominational bodies will collapse. Voluntary arrangements based on mutual
benefits will emerge.
6.
The church will become more democratic and less
controlled by specialists like clergy or even elected representative
elders. At the same time, churches
will have to take more care to establish meaningful criteria for membership and
participation.
7.
The “neighborhood church” will decline as the
primary local ecclesiastical model; there will be more gatherings that draw
from a wide area based on missional emphases, worship styles, and particular programs
an opportunities.
8.
Suburbia will recede as the center of church
life, and be regarded more accurately as the moral and spiritual wasteland it
is. The church will seek to evangelize
suburbia by recognizing it as basically an “un-churched” zone requiring: a) witnessing
to the diversity of Christ’s body, and b) strategies to redistribute wealth out
of suburbia to places of need.
9.
The church will get poorer. This is because the 99% will continue
to get poorer, until something dramatic is done to address the inequalities of
wealth in our country and the world.
Sucking up to the 1% is always an option, but it is usually toxic to the
church’s identity.
10.
Fewer gatherings will own property, choosing to
rent, lease, meet in free spaces, like homes or public places. Disciples will realize that resources
sunk into buildings are robbed from mission. Those that do own property will see it as a source of income
while meeting missional needs in their community.
11.
Seminaries will shift from being graduate
schools to serving the needs of the church. Field education will expand in importance and
prominence. More students will be
commuters and part-timers.
Regional councils will place less emphasis on academic degrees from
accredited institutions, and more on actual expertise and skill in ministry. Hence, ministry experience will become
an important criterion for seminary teachers.
12.
Those doing ministry at every level will find
support in various ad hoc groups and networks. These will cross denominational lines; some may even be
interfaith. Such connections will
also be used for credentialing and discipline.
13.
Worship will explode into a nearly infinite
variety of expressions, from drumming circles to family dinners. It will generally be more sensory,
somatic, emotional, and less cerebral.
The use of organs will decline dramatically.
14.
Doctrine will become “open source” and focus on spiritual
practices. Disciples and
gatherings will be informed by theologies from across the spectrum, not just
those historically associated with a particular sect, or even historical
Christianity. Some will remain
consistent. But most churches will
weave together strands of theology, ecclesiology, and spirituality from the
entire Christian tradition, and beyond.
And it will all be about effective practices of liberation and
reconciliation, both inwardly in terms of the individual soul, and outwardly in
terms of social justice and peace.
15.
We will decreasingly use the term “Christian”
and seek words to describe ourselves that have less baggage from Christendom. We will be “followers,” “disciples,”
“friends,” etc., of Jesus, Yeshua, Christ, the Word, Wisdom, the Messiah, the
Way, etc.
16.
We will pay exponentially more attention to the
Holy Spirit than was ever the case before.
17.
Scripture will remain central in
importance. At the same time it
will be interpreted less literally and historically, and more mythically,
symbolically, figuratively, spiritually, and metaphorically. We will be more concerned to discern
the living truth in Scripture, and less interested in facts or historicity.
18.
It will be highly unusual to see a national flag
in a place where followers of Jesus Christ gather for worship. Disciples will realize that there is no
good theological reason for such a thing, and plenty of very bad reasons.
