We don’t often think about the future of the church. We talk about children in church as ‘the next generation’ when they’re a vital, hopefully integral part of today’s church, and we don’t seem able to think much further. Why is that, do you think?
My own reflections say it’s because we’ve inherited a mindset of short-term-ism. Our politics and economics are all short-term – we need to see results before the next election. Football world is worst of all: Chelsea fans baying at the heels of the new manager for not having popped the team on top of the Premier League after four months in post. Planning beyond the next twenty years doesn’t seem to occur to most people, with the possible exception of environmentalists.
Our church worldview has an effect too. Some of us are infected with the idea that the end of the world is very near, so there’s no point planning for the future. Others think the church has always been ‘like this’ and always will be; others think it’s on the point of dying out and there’s little we can do to save it. Personally I think God is unlikely to have spent billions of years creating the cosmos only to wrap it up after a few hundred thousand years of developed sentient life, and unlikely to pull the plug on the church only 2,000 years after he came to live among us in Christ.
If the world and the church are looking forward to another several millenia of life (and in Advent it would be daft to make any predictions about ‘the day or the hour’ when the whole enterprise will be wrapped up) then it’s inevitable we’re in for radical change. We need a church that improvises an ongoing dance with God, shifting easily between the shuffled tracks of each new generation and era of history. We need a flexible, bendy, shock-absorbing church, like a well-engineered tower block or bridge. We need a speedy, easily deployable, rapid-response church like emergency response teams or fast attack craft. Agree? If so, what does this look like in real terms?
Hi Tina,
Agree ref shuffle! Your choice of a twenty year barrier to thinking coincidees with the twenty year change-point that Graeme Coddrington proposed in his presentation to our Diocesan Conference in September. In short, every twenty years things happen on the world scene that change radically the value system of those growing up in that society. See http://www.tomorrowtoday.com or read his “Mind the Gap” book. It means we need a church that understands the language and value system of each generation too, and is comfortable to provide for ALL generations. That will mean we must also know how to use our resources better over a wider range of churches. But there we are – preaching to the converted again!
Blessings,
Mike
Hi Mike
Thanks very much for reading, and for your link. I’ve had a read and will be posting some of Graeme’s thinking in a little while. Just read one of his posts where he quotes Peter Drucker “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday’s logic”.
Drucker was right.
Yet so often I find that we ignore this insight and when the going gets tough it seems we become even more reliant on experience, past solutions and the battle cry is to work harder…something that often results in simply doing more and more of the ‘wrong thing’. Yet somehow looking back brings a sense of security, familiarity and even control.
Isn’t that fab? It’s what I’ve thought since reading Dallas Willard’s ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ where he talks about the system being perfectly designed to yield the results you are getting. If you aren’t getting the results you want, you can’t keep doing things the same way :). Will read the ‘Mind the Gap’ book and have a look round the site. Thanks for launching the ‘inter-connected’ aspect of this site!
Everything is quick fix, rushed and designed for immediate gratification. I feel too small to do anything about it and am fed up with bashing my head against a brick wall (metaphorically of course). I was rather hoping God would be doing something about it soon
Lucie
Hi Lu
Lovely to have you aboard. We need to gang together, those of us who think this way – increase the volume of our voices!
Look forward to lunch and chat soon.
Tina