Friday, June 05, 2009

Top Ideas of the Last Decade

From Learnings@Leadership Network blog, Dave Travis gave some ideas about The Top Ideas of the Last Decade

Here’s the list:

  • The rise of the "new" Calvinists - (Acts 29, Gospel Coalition, etc) The growth of the Reformed theological position... at the same time the Dispensationalists are declining rapidly…
  • Multi Site Church

  • From Pastor » Senior Pastor » Directional Leader
  • Externally Focused Church as key idea for Evangelical churches
  • Micro Finance as Missions
  • Emergent Church

    Lightbulb1

  • The megachurch's domination of media coverage

  • The rise of Church Planting Networks as the driver of planting churches.
  • Purpose-Driven Church

  • Purpose-Driven Life
  • Distance learning via computer
  • Keeping up with missionaries and partners throughout the world via computer.
  • HIV-AIDS response by churches and individuals (especially to Africa)
  • The rise of African countries as missions partners.
  • Pastor Blogs as communication vehicles.
  • Online podcasts of sermons.
  • Online video casts of sermons.
  • Church web sites that are fully robust.
  • Social networking tools being utilized by churches/parachurches.
  • Paid bloggers for various charities/parachurch orgs.
  • Shifting opinions on homosexuality - civil unions, marriage, adoption.
  • Shifting opinions on many social issues in the 18-35 year old demographic that are shaping the emphases of the church
  • "Branding" for churches.
  • The rapid development of the church associations around Willow, Saddleback, etc.
  • Kingdom Business as Mission.
  • Rise of Family Foundations/ Donor Advised Funds/National Christian Foundation et al as vehicles to leverage kingdom giving.
  • You Version of the Bible.
  • Ubiquity of projected images during worship (dramatic increase across the world really), influencing not only the innovative megachurch but all church groups, mainline included
  • The impact of giant video screens in making hymnals, songbooks, bibles, etc., redundant... contributing to the changing approaches to "reading" in the West.
  • White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives
  • Rise of Organic/House Church movement
  • Greater awareness by US megachurches and others toward international missions and humanitarian efforts around the world.
  • Rise of Christianity in China resulting in China having the largest Christian Population by 2015-2020
  • The acceptance of social entrepreneurs, including faith based ones, by business leaders.
  • Dramatic rise of funds raised by churches and parachurches.
  • Dramatic capital expansion, (building boom) by churches and parachurches.
  • Global North Churches form partnerships with Global South Churches.
  • Adoption of people groups by congregations as long term partners/fields of work.
  • The decline of singles ministry and the rise in number of singles in America.
  • Rapid rise of recovery ministries as key outreach and evangelism strategies for churches
  • The increase in books published during decline of books read.
  • The rapid disappearance of dated curriculum... no longer used by large churches which are developing their own media resources.
  • Video venues.
  • Teaching Team.
  • The circle story of evangelism replacing "the four spiritual laws."
  • The evolving definition of "personal salvation" and growing emphasis on "progressive salvation-- I was saved, I am saved, I'm being saved."
  • Jesus film evangelism worldwide.
  • Use of wide release movies (Narnia - Facing the Giants, etc) as evangelism opportunities.
  • Arena-sized megachurches.
  • Rise of Latino evangelicals.
  • Open sourced content freely given away for church stuff.
  • End of the worship wars.
  • Twitter and other text and polling technologies informing preaching and teaching.
  • Moving from sanctuary, to auditorium, to worship center…
  • The rise of children's ministry in megachurches, utilizing elaborate media technology and equipment.
  • More and younger half-timers finding their calling in church ministry…
  • The Dave Ramsey Town Hall type meeting style of distribution of event rather than TBN or other method.
  • Executive Pastors.
  • True Teaching Teams.
  • Succession becoming reality, not just anticipated.
  • Changing models of University Ministry.
  • Diffusion and deeper penetration of small group models (life groups...cells...) into denominational churches.
  • Birth of Internet campuses.
  • Missionaries coming to the US and other western countries rather than simply missionaries being sent to "less developed" countries.
  • Churches being more willing to partner with other agencies and organizations to accelerate community service.
  • Multiple venues (traditional and contemporary) at a single campus.
  • More interactive children's ministry resources.
  • Transition from "content focus" to "content delivery focus" - this shows itself in lots of ways and is a common thread for many of the items on your list including technology and social networking.
  • From "organization centric" to "network centric."
  • In church planting - shifting from organization/association centric to church planting church.
  • High-capacity marketplace leaders (often boomers) and young social entrepreneurs bypassing the local church to find significance.
  • Scorecard for leaders is changing (how they measure success on their scorecards is evolving).
  • Prevailing church (mega, multi-site, etc) as delivery system for more organic / incarnational faith communities.
  • Growing void in strong student ministers. A decade ago, student ministry was the training ground for getting a solid foundation before planting churches. Today, far more leaders are skipping the student ministry role and going straight to planting. Creates a void in strong student ministry leaders.
  • From Elder-led to staff-led governance.
  • Expansion of Christian magazines (similar to books and conferences and movies).
  • Bringing management and leadership focus to the church (new dimension for pastors).
  • From "marketplace to ministry" as a strong source of staff. Far more emphasis on home grown leadership.
  • Intern and residency programs rapidly increasing
  • Formal staff assessment centers and tools.
  • Growth and role of HR departments in churches.
  • Support/Service industry of vendors has exponentially expanded at far greater rate than growth/expansion of the church.
  • The ubiquity of cell phones as a primary tool to connect everything digital.
  • The continued rise of Pentecostal movements around the world.
  • The Passion Movement and other student movements go global.
  • The belief that the world really is flat.
  • Kingdom business incubators to start businesses with the poor around the world.
  • Cross-domain collaboration for community building.
  • Shared leadership models (from teaching teams to elder/staff combos to volunteer staffing).
  • IMicro-economic initiatives by congregations (global as well as local).
  • The use of orality and story to communicate the gospel - especially in developing world.
  • 24/7 Houses of Prayer.

read more

anything to add?

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