Had a call from a friend and colleague last night at home…a church leader who mentored me in my early years as a pastor and who provided all kinds of good counsel.
He’s probably 10-15 years my senior, and we were chatting about his church (a big building campaign in their future), and he had lots of questions about Connexus. He happens to be Presbyterian — my former denomination — and we were talking about what the church would be like in the future.
I have a hard time answering that. I know things are changing even as we speak. In the comments on my last post, Allen talks about being just on the edge of the Gen X/Buster generation, like I am (I’m 42). I sense the differences (and the similarities) between me and the next generation. Hey, I’m old enough to be the father of the youngest staff member of the Connexus staff (yikes), and I don’t think of myself as that old. But still, I see the generational differences coming.
What will the church of the future look like? I told him I didn’t want to race into a big building campaign because I don’t want to build some huge cathedral for this generation that will be vacant when the next generation arrives. I like portable church right now, because it is so flexible. I imagine a network of many, smaller gathering spaces (maybe under 1000 seats each) closer to where people actually live, then some huge 5000 seat auditorium in some central place we ask everyone and their cousin to drive to on Sunday morning.
Qualitatively, I see the church as being far more
- Relational. If it really is about loving God and loving others, let’s get on with it. Community groups are the heart of congregational life.
- Authentic. Dump the masks and the suits. All of us are screwed up. Let’s just admit it and make room for lots more broken people. There’s a word for people who think they have their morality sewn up: Pharisee.
- Missional. Gone are the days when the church is about satisfying the needs of its members. We just grow fat and inactive when that happens. Most Christians are 2000 bible verses overweight, and most of what those who are "learning" need to learn can be gleaned through beginning personal study, community groups and weekend services. It’s not hard to find the basics of Christianity. The challenge is to live them out. The church, as an outward focused organization, finds its life when we focus not on ourselves, but on others. And in that is the mystery of life — that when we lose our lives, we find them — when we give our lives away, we gain them.
Thanks to my friend and colleague Terry, for some great conversation.
What do you think?
