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245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 194 194 Future Church sion have thought about that future and reflected on possible scenarios, the better prepared they will be to face what actually does come. If you had really believed in what you tell us is the Christian message, you would have been here long ago. 4 —response of a man in China It is quite clear that paradigms developed in the Industrial Age and the Enlightenment period are being superseded and discarded. Much of the human race now lives in a postmodern period that has been called the third wave or the information economy. Even that information age has begun to wane with Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer, authors of Future Wealth, predicting that a bioeconomy period is now getting underway that will hit full stride by the 2020s. In a TIME magazine article, Davis and Meyer talked about what they expected in the near future: Generation Xers born after 1964 . . . will experience two major economic shifts: first, from the crunching to the connecting halves of this information economy and, second, from a microwave-based connected universe to the cell-based world of biologic and bionomics. Those of you in Gen Y may have to go through three! 5 Radically new paradigms of church and mission may or may not now be germinating in the soil of these global changes. To be sure, the Church is centuries old and while it has experienced some enormous changes through the centuries, some things that people thought would change have remained the same. About three-quarters of the way through the 20th century, some predicted that preaching was about to radically change and maybe even disappear. For most pastors, even very successful ones, it has not. Without a doubt, some new ways of doing old things will come along and be embraced. The fact that people change jobs and even careers several times during their lifetime is affecting how people view missionary service. Missionary candidates used to think in terms of spending the rest of their lives on a mission field. Now, people applying for missionary service are willing to commit for 10 to 15 years and then reevaluate where God may be leading them. Some other changes will be in the area of how financial support is given. Already people in some countries give to mission organizations by credit card or automatic bank withdrawal. Some changes will be in communications with <strong>missions</strong> organizations likely doing more and more communicating with supporters through electronic rather than printed means. In the early 1970s some people predicted the demise of large churches and the disappearance of denominations by the year 2000. Neither of
245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 195 those things happened. In fact, there are now more megachurches than ever and little in the way of denominational merging has gone on in the last 30 or 40 years. Thus, dealing with what seem to be new trends requires discernment so that in the rush to be on the cutting edge leaders do not blindly embrace scintillating fads that turn out to be ephemeral. For example, not long after the Internet arrived, believers began gushing about how it would revolutionize evangelism. However, no effective models of that being done have emerged. While the Internet is a great communication and information-disseminating tool, it has not become an evangelistic powerhouse. Future = New Future Church 195 Trends coming into focus for the immediate future include even more cooperation among churches and mission agencies, a renewed emphasis on prayer, new inspiration from key pastors, new questions begging to be answered, and new expansion. New Cooperation There is a growing sense among churches and mission agencies that networking, cooperation, and partnering will be hallmarks of future Great Commission efforts. Phill Butler has reported, “Denominational groups like the <strong>Southern</strong> Baptist and interdenominational ministries like Campus Crusade . . . with reputations for ‘going it alone,’ have taken dramatic steps to reach out and link with other ministries.” 6 One example of such cooperation is the development of JE- SUS film partnerships between Campus Crusade for Christ and various groups. Such collaborative efforts can integrate the strengths and ministry strategies of differing groups into goal-reaching coalitions. In local churches the gifts and abilities of individual believers complement each other to create healthy body life and effective outreach and discipleship ministry. In similar fashion at the level of organizations, the gifts and strengths of various groups can complement each other in the cause of world evangelization. New cooperation will also be expressed through short-term mission teams from multiple countries working together on projects. Renewed Emphasis on Prayer Facilitated by new forms of communication, worldwide prayer networks are springing up. The Window International Network, formerly the Christian Information Network, has reported huge numbers of people committing to pray specifically for unreached people groups. It has been estimated that more than 50 million Christians regularly pray for the unreached peoples of the world. Leaders like David Bryant have been instrumental in encouraging concerts of world mission prayer in a variety of global venues.
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