Possibilities

Think of 20 years from now.  Better yet, think of 20 years ago, then think of 20 years from now.

It’s hard to believe how different the world is going to be.  

We’ll look back at the way we communicated, the way we got around, the way we wore our hair, and laugh at how quaint it all was.

I see mutton chops making a comeback.

And though we make think of the church as timeless, it does the same thing.  The church, popular theology, worship…these were all very different animals twenty years ago.  

So what do you think it will look like in twenty years?  Seriously, I’d like your opinion.

We’re all shaped by context, context, context, so each of our respective visions will only be as wide-reaching as our own worldview.  And that’s okay.  We don’t all have to start at the same place to reach another.  

A few thoughts from my limited perspective:

-I think “liturgical church” and “contemporary church”– often seen as opposites– are going to start to converge.  This is actually already happening, especially in the emergent movement.  A lot of 20 and 30-somethings (the obvious target group for jeans-wearing rock concert community churches) are actually being found in traditional-style churches these days.  I find myself in somewhat of the same boat…while I once would have run to a good contemporary church, I now find myself strongly drawn to the meaningful ritual, symbolism, and thoroughness of liturgy.  There’s no reason why the elements of either should be exclusive from one another.  

(And it would be nice to find a community church that was solid and thoughtful theologically.  I’m not saying they’re not out there…I just would like to find one personally.  If you think you’ve got one, please share.)

-I think, and I hope, that the mission of the church will become more obviously holistic and outward.  This isn’t a new thing, it’s just been a while since we could honestly claim that as our identity.  When the mission of many protestant churches in particular became solely focused on “drive-thru conversions”, we forgot so much of our purpose.  In the last few years, this trend has been changing, though not without some growing pains.  Many, many churches are involved in their communities and serving for the sake of love, and it’s a good thing, too.  The majority of the world had forgotten that we’d cared.  

-With the rise of Universalism, Relativism, and a number of sincere Christians asking some questions, I think the dialogue regarding the nature of salvation theology is going to become more prominent.  That could be messy, but it’s a conversation that I’m always very interested in.

-A house church mentality will take hold in a lot of larger churches.  Large group meetings won’t go away, but I think it’ll be less “superstar preacher and followers” and more of a wide-reaching organic system with many parts and many roles.  Organic.  Like a body.  Of Christ.  Anyways, I think this will be most apparent when many small groups move from being more than just Sunday School and into the realm of community service/outreach, like little churches.  I also think that people will increasingly find similar Christian small group communities outside of their own church.

-I’m crossing my fingers on this one: cross-church and cross-denomination service.  If the day comes where we start seeing Southern Baptists and Catholics doing projects together, I may honestly cry.

I realize that these thoughts are all very obvious and I’m not really making any daring predictions here.  But I hope I at least helped stir some creative juices.  So what do you think?  Predictions?  Concerns?  Rebuttals?