"This could spell trouble for churches whose growth is tied to the turnover rate."

I challenge this assumption, why does a church have to grow?

This is a good list of trends to watch. Not all of them are good trends in the end.

I really wonder about the theological significance of several of them. Particularly with the internet church and multi-site business. There is some deep theological drilling that needs to be done. The immature, rash reaction by many of the innovators in this area (some eisegeting Acts 2 to attach a NT mandate for multi-site) in concerning. I am concerned about the distance we create where an entire generation will grow up without ever having meaningful interaction with the pastor-teacher (they are linked) in their midst. To abdicate authority to a guy on a screen hundreds of miles away is dangerous imho.

I do think more churches need to be considering greening their facilities. It is too important for us to do this and help lead the way. Installing greener roofs, solar panels, and such will do wonders for our bottom line financially and impact into the community.

I'm not sold on some of the other trends but think this is a good article to help keep us tracking. The female teachers thing is interesting as well as the changes in funerals.

My major question for any of them is how do they promote life change in your people? If its just hip for hip's sake than it is a waste of God's resources. We must be careful about following fads and trends without careful consideration of their meaning and impact.

BTW, I am a firm believer that a healthy church is a growing church.

You are the Church!
Robert Angison

A church that isn't growing by definition is dying. It's simple biology. My in-law's church in the St. Louis area isn't growing, and over the last few years their members have aged. In 5-7 years, at the current rate, they won't be a viable congregation anymore and that story could be told about thousands of churches all across the US.

Everything that's wrong with the American church summed up in two words: "Turnkey solutions."

Maybe Jason. But isn't that what hymnals have always been?

If this article is true, I'm really depressed. Apparently discipleship, spiritual maturity, Jesus' methods, and the Kingdom of God will not make the cut in any of these churches. Did anyone give an ear to "hear what the Spirit says" to the churches? Oh yes, Scripture missed the cut as well. We might start at Revelation chapters two and three.

R.A=> "BTW, I am a firm believer that a healthy church is a growing church."

Mark=> "A church that isn't growing by definition is dying."

Very well, I challenge the mathematical construct of the assumption
a= healthy
b= growing
which comes translate to a=b=a

There are plenty of churches who spread the gospel, and don't grow. In fact, many people come to christ only to go to churches other than the one that brought the good news to them.
And yet you two would classify them as failed churches with your logic, Why?

P.S. "It's simple biology."
Mark, the discussion is not simple biology, and your comparison is an injudicious non-sequitor. The two are mutually inequatable.

Sheerahkahn - good to see you engaging in the subject of the post as always.

to others - don't think of this as an exhaustive list of trends, more a list of specific things to keep an eye on, translation - relax - we in the younger generation haven't abandoned the gospel.

I am excited about having missionaries from other countries planting churches here! Should be exciting!

"Going green adds credibility in the community. I would have thought more churches would have embraced this opportunity by now."

So would offering yoga and pilates classes.

And Sheerahkahn is right - The only "growth" we need to be worried about is the spiritual growth of those in the pews, not swelling numbers, swelling bank accounts, or swelling website hits. That's the kind of market-oriented pop evangelical thinking that is creating giant, dead churches across the continent.

We should be cautious about whether our church is truly alive or merely has a good reputation (Rev 3:1). We must not trade Scripture for spectacle, nor exhortation for entertainment. God doesn't care how many seats you fill if you're not filling the spiritual needs.

Things that shouldn't be changing, but are:

1. The Gospel - if it is offensive or hard, ignore it/change it

2. Discipleship - as long as numbers are up, we're good

3. Church - forget the people, come to church on the internet

4. Giving - "Forget" to tithe last week? Click here!

Declining Mobility Rate: This is huge. The relationship between the mega-churches and American mobility is huge. Most mega-churchs develop in suburbs, where mobility has, by definition, characterized the people that they attend them. Mobility mixes up different Christians, and has a homogenizing effect on churches. This is often lamented by traditionalists (see above comments), but I think that these critiques sometimes miss the way the American economic system, with its emphasis on a mobile workforce, contributes to the problem structurally. A declining mobility may make for a return to church forms that are more rooted in community and active in their neighborhoods and cities, which seems to me a huge move in the right direction.

Also, churches should be going green. As Christian, the environmental movement offers us a great opportunity to explain the biblical notion of stewardship to our non-Christian neighbors. As long as we can articulate "green" values in a distinctively Christian way, than we have not only an opportunity, but a duty to explain and then act on those values. That's good discipleship. :)

I understand the urge to put an emphasis on growth, but surely it isn't the priority some of these comments have made it sound like.

Isn't a Church's primary focus on helping its parishoners serve God better and be better Christians?
And then secondly reaching out and helping neighboring Christians and especially non-Christians?
Though growth may help a Church do both of these betters, it's not a necessity.

What do all the trends matter if they're not directly related back to those goals?

I said that a church that is not growing is dying, and you said that by logic, it's a failure. I said no such thing-nice straw man you set up there.

The Lord decides what constitutes failure, not internet experts.

Churches, like people, will die in time, but that doesn't mean they were failures.
Another reason why I usually wind up regretting posting anything on Out of Ur. G

"I said that a church that is not growing is dying, and you said that by logic, it's a failure. I said no such thing-nice straw man you set up there."

My mistake, I should have clarified your definition of what "dying" meant before I assumed my definition was what you were referring too. By my definition, a dying organization indicates failure.

So no, it wasn't a strawman, just a misunderstanding of definitions.
As for the spirit and intention of your post I will only say that we have something in common...we're both poor judges of character.

the church should grow.

people should meet jesus.

people should grow in their faith.

the gospel should be advanced.

Odd how church growth (one sentence in this) generated the most comments.

As an X-er, and someone who truly loves technology and science, I actually find the first 3 of greatest concern, for it is a sign of the sickness of the church (not the culture). Many of these people only find the love and community they (all humanity) needs online, because the relationships within their immediate physical space are broken.

Lastly, during one of the Acts29 meetings, planters were challenged (paraphrased), "do you want a church with lots of people, and growing bigger; or do you want a church the never grows larger than 50, but is always sending." I'm for the latter.

I find it fascinating that 3 of the 5 things that are changing now are related to the internet. To me, a list that recognizes this in 2010 seems a bit behind the times. Or rather, it shows how slow the church can be in keeping up with change.

Then, in things that WILL be changing, is women teaching pastors. Again, why is the church the last place to fully accept women? Now, I'm not saying it's every church. And I'm not saying we should change quickly with every social / cultural whim. What I am saying, is that as a woman, I never felt like I was treated differently or looked down upon, UNTIL I went to seminary. If the church should be a place of grace, healing, and love - why are we so slow to welcome racial or gender equality, etc?

The church has far more authority and power than she usually recognizes. We should be leading social changes, not reluctantly falling behind.

1. Women as teaching pastors. Travis: "Currently, only 8 percent of churches have women teachers. They'll soon be part of multi-teacher teams."

Says who? Prove it. Seriously, I need to know. I want to believe it but I need more info.

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