In my seminary class right now, Religious History of America, we are asked to participate in a certain number of discussions online with our classmates. This week I posted the last one for the semester. The question was an interesting one and I thought I’d toss it out there to share my thoughts and see if any of you have any you’d like to add.
Of the last ten years, what, in your opinion, is one of the most important developments affecting the church?
I agree with many of the comments made by the others on this discussion board as far as some of the negative things that have impacted the church in the past several years. They have mentioned homosexuality, abortion, pornography, and other moral and ethical compromises. I agree that these have all had a huge impact on the church. They also create opportunities to minister to families. There are a lot of new ministries that are designed specifically to minister to people caught up in these sins.
On a more positive note, I’d like to point out two things that I think have set this generation apart. The first is the call to social action. Now more than ever, Christians are taking opportunities to travel around the world to help those in need in the name of Christ. Many high school and college students have formed groups to meet the needs of people that they may or may not ever meet.
George Barna published a book called Revolution in 2005. He spent a lot of time in the book talking about the fact that more and more evangelical Christians are exiting the church in order to be the Church to those who need to hear and experience the gospel. Mark 10:35 says “Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” By meeting the physical and emotional needs of people, God is opening all kinds of new doors to share the gospel.
The second major development I have enjoyed watching is the renewal of church planting. In this course we have talked a lot about the spread of Christianity in America from the Anglicans/Separatists in the East to the frontier in the West. I have lived my entire life in the “Bible Belt” in the southeastern part of America. There are churches on every corner. It seems silly to think that we need more churches. Just like I mentioned in the discussion about social action, people are searching for an opportunity to be the Church.
There are new churches being planted in all kinds of areas. Most of them do not have a building, many still don’t even after meeting for several years. The church that my husband and I attend, West Ridge Church in Dallas, GA, started in 1997 meeting at an elementary school. After that we moved to a middle school, then a high school, and then onto our own campus two years ago.
West Ridge has now put together the West Ridge School of Church Planting that trains men that feel called to plant churches. Liberty University has been a wonderful training ground for many of the leaders in church planting.
Church planting has revitalized many communities by offering innovative new ways to reach people. As Christians, we are challenged to come up with ever-changing ways to reach an always-changing society with the never-changing gospel. What an exciting calling!
Church planting and a call to social action work together to create a community of Christ-followers that are meeting people where they are at to walk them into a relationship with a loving Savior who wants nothing more than to equip them to change the world!
I read a blog the other day with some interesting predictions on the future of church planting. This was written by Drew Goodmanson that is a pastor of Kaleo Church a church plant in San Diego. I will leave you with these thoughts.
Five Trends for the Future of Church Planting:
1. A move from denominationalism is going to radically alter church planting. Local smaller churches will partner together to plant churches. Larger churches will follow in Redeemer’s footsteps and be more concerned with planting gospel-centered churches, than churches of their own denomination. Already, our church in San Diego has leaders as well as partners from multiple denominations.
2. Church planting networks will merge, collaborate and partner to more effectively plant churches. For example, Todd Wilson, behind the 2006 National New Church Conference started a Church Planting Network, whose aim is to, “help champion an explosive expansion of new reproducing churches through an alliance of collaborative church planting networks.” He has already seen this shift begin in a couple networks. Even next years New Church Conference states the goal of, “helping church plant leaders to the next level of collaboration. Together we can experience exponential growth of new churches in our generation.” At last years conference, Bob Roberts of Glocalnet gave an impassioned plea to the leaders of many of the church planting networks in this regard at a dinner for church planting networks and sponsors of the conference.
3. In America, churches will be planted at a faster rate in the next twenty years than we have witnessed before. God, Technology (see #5 re: video venue), technique (mutli-site) and theological urgency will drive this. More and more of the pastors will come from the laity. In this same period, established churches clinging to methods will die at a faster rate than ever before.
4. Philosophy/worldview, world events and a renewed focus on kingdom/gospel/mercy ministries will contribute to a revival in America. First, in America postmodernism (particularly the view of truth being relative) will be replaced as people are confronted with radical and extreme views. Second, the increase in chaos in the world and a shift in our economy will drive people away from worldview complacency. Lastly, expressions of mercy and a greater gospel cooperation (1 & 2) will create a greater witness of the church. Those who hold to the gospel and focus on gospel ecumenism will thrive; liberal churches will lose their identity trying to be relevant.
5. More churches will be planted without the role of a preaching pastor. Many church plant organizations will promote the use of ‘best of’ or license videos from top preachers across America. Already there have been churches who have licensed Willow Creek material for tens of thousands (I heard $50k) a year. Others will simply pick series that they believe will draw the biggest crowd. There already is one church plant that has grown to over 600 within a couple months using this method. (Someone could probably make some good money by contacting all the ‘big name’ pastors and create a company that licenses their work to churches.)
Sources: http://www.goodmanson.com/
http://www.westridge.com
http://www.barna.org
Good Post! It will definitely be interesting to see how the church planting movement develops over the next 5-10 years!
so 4.5 years later The Religious History of America is still asking the same question for thier final discussion board…it must be a good question. This is how I came across your post. I had a list of ideas but was curious what other people thought. I really liked your church planting point. Absolutely, church planting networks have taken off and have impacted the church drastically. Denominational allegiance isn’t what it used to be and many people are just interested in spreading the gospel of Jesus. Anyways, thanks for the thoughts, I’m working on my post right now and look forward to wrapping up the class and having teh summer off! 🙂