Where I think the church will be in twenty + years...

I must say, looking at my church today and looking at where I think it will be in the next twenty years, I don't see it being at all the same.

With the advent of webcast ministries, and the ever popular I-Pod, I think the Church is going to have to figure out how to reach those of this technology savvy world. We are a society of constant motion and multi-tasking. Churches may find they have members who want to listen to the weekly sermon while riding mass transit to and from work. In the working world it is also a known fact that the younger generation has strong ties to family. We’re seeing more and more where families spend their weekends together, not in church. Making church services available anytime will provide the desired spiritual lessons people are seeking on their terms not on the terms of the church. Along with this, churches need to be open to giving up the traditional Sunday morning worship for a more family friendly evening session

The "old" way is dying, and that may be bad or it may be good. There will still be those who will need to attend a church in a "church building" but I see more people getting their spiritual fulfillment over the internet. Churches are going to have to start sharing their buildings, or selling them to move to smaller, more environmentally friendly buildings, so they have less to maintain on their own. They will not always have the monetary funds to keep a church building up and running. Churches will have to choose between having a great, nice, huge, archaic building, and having a meaningful and productive ministry to the world. Christians will have to figure out how to reach the world and those who are lost through alternate means.

The sense of community that a church provides will have to be broken down into smaller groups. I don’t see the huge gatherings of people coming together but a couple of times a year (i.e. Christmas, Easter, and a couple of other special days.) Sermons are going to have to be extremely relevant to a person’s everyday life, or they will get bored and go someplace else for advice. Small “family” group Bible studies focused on relevant issues may be the main source of religion for many people.

Pastors may have to change tactics in the way they work. Bi-vocational pastors may become the norm. If the church as we know it now still exists, the standard sermon will have to be altered to a way that makes people think and want to come back that next week to hear more (Isn’t that the ultimate challenge now?!)

People are less and less willing to give up their money to an entity in which they don’t feel connected closely to. Church giving is down in almost every single church in the United States. However, when a crisis comes along, people will give up their Starbucks for a week to help out. For example, when the tsunami hit on Dec. 26, 2005 in South Asia, churches came together and gave millions upon millions of dollars to the cause. When Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, churches gathered together money, manpower, and supplies and contributed to that cause. Mission opportunities will need to be available for people to attend. This will need to be spearheaded by mission-minded people. Churches will have to be willing to reach out to other churches and become communities with other churches to make these options viable.

As for mega-churches... I think the gigantic, make-me-feel-good, not have to think because I am being told what to think, churches are going the way of the smaller Bible studies and smaller, more connected churches. However, each church has to find its niche market (to use business terms) and appeal to the people that will support it. Each age group and ethnic group will have to be satisfied and that means each church will have to be different. Churches will have to understand that they can’t reach everyone, but they can help those people they don’t appeal to find a church that does appeal to them. Therefore, churches need to be connected to one another through the wider church community.