Cultural Trends That Will Impact the Church

One of the more interesting conversations I had while at the National Outreach Convention came during the Leaders 100 Dinner hosted by Outreach on Wednesday night.  I was talking with Dave Browning of Christ The King, Lynne Marian of Outreach Magazine and Chris Brown from North Coast Church. The topic of conversation was about cultural trends that will impact the church in the next five years. Here are the two trends that seemed to rise to the top:

The Age Wave.  We are just about at the point where there are more people who are over the age of 65 than there are children under the age of 12.  With the aging of the baby boomers this will bring an unprecedented number of seniors who have discretionary time and resources.  It seems as though there will be a shift from primarily reaching out to young families with children to reaching out to the growing senior population.  Our Carillon Campus is a glimpse of what more and more churches will be doing in the next few years.

The Bono Effect.  I would rather call it the Jesus effect, but it was Bono's name that was used when referring to a renewed interest in social justice and meeting the physical needs of people.  This perfectly paves the way for us to force churches out of the dichotomy between evangelism and social justice and focus on accomplishing the Jesus mission of reaching whole people with the whole gospel.  Those churches that only focus on "saving souls" will become obsolete.  Those churches that reach out to whole people will see whole communities find their way back to God! Our Community 4:12 ministry is an example of what more churches will be doing in the future.

Comments

[Scott]

Interesting insight on the culture shift many ministries are currently undergoing. It will be interesting to see how things progress or regress.

I think the key part of your comments is that we reach out to people do so for the purpose of accomplishing Jesus' mission - not just for the sake of being culturaly relevant.

[pastor chuck smith]

I am sure your highlight of the day was being with one of our top Calvary Chapel planters. The great Chuck Mussleman. How was your time with him? I bet you learned much from this incredible church planter. He always tells us how great and awesome he is.

[Brian Epp]

Who is Chuck Mussleman? Is he at the conference? That post is too funny.

[KathyJ]

Does the church shift to meet the needs of the majority (increasing senior population)or does the church meet the needs of the generation a pastor exists within? Doesn't a pastor draw a like-community to him/herself in regards to age. I am thinking that the church at large, culturally, may shift as the younger leaders move into the roles of leadership and attempt to reach out to their generational culture. Will a young leader forsake his generation to meet the needs of the senior population? Will our senior population generate more pastors to meet the demand? Our current pastors will be equipped to minister to the seniors as they move into that age bracket as well (that's indeed the Carillon model)but most likely they will use familiar methods which in fact isn't a shift but rather a natural church life cycle. I guess I'm using the term shift to carry a connotation of innovation. Just thinking.

[Kirsten]

I am working with another church right now to help them develop a C412 type ministry. They have suggested I write a book to help more churches understand the hows and whys of developing communities through this wholistic ministry you are talking about. Do you want to co-author another book with me? I can't imagine I'll make the time to make it happen on my own!

[david]

What about the cultural trend of more diverse communities?

[Robert]

Seniors will want to relate to someone who best understands them. A 30'ish pastor may be able to lead them. But in small groups or in discipleship they will want someone their own age. Mind you, this person best have the heart and culture of the church in their heart and be pro-pastor too. As the greying of America takes place, it will be filled with people of great expectation who may get a bit critical due to rising health care and being marginalized in the work place. They must be included in the local church and seen as valuable and given leadership but also moved into a servants role.

[Matt Branaugh]

Dave,

Interesting conversation. Pastor Ken Gosnell recently wrote some articles discussing the challenges ministry must address regarding seniors. Some of his insights included some startling revelations about increased sexual activity among seniors, and increased occurrences of seniors living together while not married. I think churches need to be at the forefront--today--in thinking of ways to minister to seniors beyond the typical Sunday coffee or the mid-week nursing home trip to the local shopping mall. The call doesn't stem only from the pending population wave among the 65+, and what it means for churches to survive by reaching that demographic. It's the call each of us have to reach and minister to all, the least of these, the most of these, and everyone in between.

Matt Branaugh
offtheagenda.com
BuildingChurchLeaders.com

[Dave Ferguson]

Kirsten, once we get this campus started in East Aurora - then I would be interested in writing about it. I think there is a lot to that story that will need to be told. Thanks!