THE CHANGING CULTURAL DYNAMICS: FIVE MEGATRENDS

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THE CHANGING CULTURAL DYNAMICS FIVE MEGATRENDS

• Vital Ministry in Resort and Recreational
  Settings
• The Keystone Lodge, Colorado
• October 21, 2008

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People Groups

• Short-stay Vacationers
• Regular Seasonal Visitors
• Long-time Residents
• Affluent Retirees
• Business and Service Industy Executives and
  Managers
• Seasonal Student Workers
• Migrant Workers

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The Gospel is a Contextualized Message

• Different Images and Vocabulary
• Good News of the Kingdom to Jews
• Jesus is Lord to Greco-Romans
• Different Starting Points
• Addressing Different Issues
• Legalism and Ritualism
• Pluralism and Promiscuity

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Mainline Church AttendanceDavid J. Olson,
The American Church
in Crisis, 200855

• Numbers in 000s
• 1990 2000 2005
  2010
• Episcopal Church 826
  849 787 726
• Evangelical Lutheran Church 1,583
  1,562 1,432 1,299
• Presbyterian Church (USA) 1,349
  1,304 1,198 1,092
• United Methodist Church
  3,492 3,516 3,403 3,260
• ChristianChurch (Disciples of Christ)
  350 316 300 283
• United Church of Christ
  668 569 495 421
• TOTALS
  9,688 9,503 8,839

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Average Weekly Church Attendance
Attendees, made up of members, non-members, and
visitors
Members absent from church70
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1. From Modernity to Postmodernity

• A comprehensive questioning of the facile
  assumptions of modernity
• Benefits in terms of unprecedented scientific and
  technological progress
• Confidence inflated into arrogance
• Unleashed destructive powers
• Modern warfare
• Damage to eco-systems

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Missional Challenge

• Sustainability of our consumer-driven society
• Social Consequences rootless and fragmented
  lives escapist mentality
• Rationalistic approaches in interpreting, or
  defending the authority and inspiration of the
  Scriptures enter into the Biblical Story
• Personal holines and corporate revival
• Cause and effect relationship
• Distinguish between correlation and causation

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Realizing Our Potential

• Develop a Biblical Understanding of Church

Dont GO to Church
BE The Church
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2. From the Industrial Era to the Information Age

• Industrial Revolution vast internal migration in
  order to work in the coalmines, foundries and
  factories
• The Civil War
• World War II
• Entrepreneurial, competitive capitalism

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Information Age

• Democratization of knowledge
• Exponential spread of the Internet powerful
  search engines
• From hierarchy and control to networks and
  empowerment
• Flattening of Structures ensure appropriate,
  flexible and prompt responses

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Missional Challenge

• Denominational leaders preoccupied with fighting
  flare-ups and downsizing strategies propping up
  the institution
• Primary task of leaders is to discern and
  describe reality
• Initiatives from the ground level up, not top
  down Fresh Expressions
• Missional Monasticism

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Archbishop Rowan Williams

• It is not the Church of God that has a mission,
  but the God of mission who has a church.
• Sequence KingdomMissionChurch

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3. From the Christendom Era to Post-Christendom
Contexts

• First 250 years followed by 16 centuries of
  Christendom
• Crumbling from the time of the Enlightenment
• The Great War in Europe
• Vietnam era in the United States
• From church tradition you are born into a local
  congregation you choose to join
• Separation of ecclesiology from missiology
• Parochial Come to us mindset

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St. Andrews Mount Pleasant. South Carolina
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(No Transcript)
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Ministry Focus of Christendom Churches (Ephesians
41-16)
ApostleGround Breaker
Prophet Truth Teller
Evangelist Story Teller
Teacher Light Giver
Pastor Soul Healer
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Ministry Cluster of Missional Churches
ApostleGround Breaker
Prophet Truth Teller
Evangelist Story Teller
Teacher Light Giver
Pastor Soul Healer
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Restore The Fivefold Ministry
ApostleGround Breaker
Prophet Truth Teller
Evangelist Story Teller
Teacher Light Giver
Pastor Soul Healer
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Kairos, Los Angeles
J.R. Woodward
East Hollywood Church
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Missional Challenge

• Learn to operate from the margins of society with
  humility, boldness and grace
• From consumer attraction to incarnational
  presence
• Church structured for missional dispersion as
  well as for worship gathering
• Move from the point of decision to the process of
  discipleship

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4. From Consumer Demand to Creative Participation

• Change in attitude from conformers to
  consumers
• Challenges of choice and mobility
• Churches developed marketing techniques rather
  than missionary strategies
• Casual, contractual or covenant relationship with
  the church
• Gospel defined by personal needs materialistic
  and therapeutic

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Karen Ward
Abbess of the Church of the Apostles
And Fremont Abbey, Seattle
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Missional Challenge

• The Gospel is primarily about God
• Relate my little story to Gods Big Story
• Mediated by the churchs story
• Churches that invite creative participation
• Christians that demonstrate the robust joy of
  life before death
• Worship and witness that embrace the whole of
  life

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5. From Religious Identity To Spiritual
Exploration

• In the 1960s the demise of religion widely
  predicted
• Aggressive atheism of the present time a symptom
  of frustration
• Suspicion of institutional religion
• Spirituality is alive and widespread
• Why people are leaving churches

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Missional Challenge

• Belonging in order to Believe
• Provide an inspiring worship environment
  mystery, transcendence and intimacy
• Eclectic spirituality enrich our experience yet
  discernment needed
• Making ourselves accessible

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Evangelizing in a Churched Culture
CHURCH
EXTERNAL CONSTITUENCY
SOCIETY
CHURCH
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Evangelizing in a
Post-Christendom Society
Church
External Constituency
S O C I E T Y
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The Morphing Process

• DeconstructionRe-Imagination
• Reconnect ecclesiology and missiology
• The Morphing of the Church
• Denotes form or shape
• External features
• Essential characteristics and qualities
• Denotes costly, radical and comprehensive change

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Morphing of the Son of GodPhilippians 25-8

• Let this mind be in you that was in Christ
  Jesus, who, though he was in the form (morphe) of
  God, did not regard equality with God as
  something to be exploited, but emptied himself,
  taking the form (morphe) of a slave, being born
  in human likeness. And being found in human form,
  he humbled himself and became obedient to the
  point of deatheven death on a cross.