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Champions Fax ArchiveMillennium Fever – Sometimes We Are Wrongby Kevin Martin Volume 3, Number 7 April 6, 1998 As we approach the next millennium, we are hearing a great deal about the Church in the 21st Century. These projections contain some fairly bold statements about what changes churches will face. Leadership Network has taken an active role in challenging leaders to think about the implications of many of these trends. We hear a great deal about GenXers, the virtual church, demographics and the like. While much of this information is helpful, we might want to stop and ask if some of these projections could be wrong. Some have been!In 1991, at The Church in the 21st Century Conference sponsored by Leadership Network, two of the main speakers agreed that "denominations as we have known them will cease to exist by the year 2000". As a clergy person and consultant for one of the historic mainline churches, (Episcopal) I remember the impact of these words. It is not yet the year 2000, but it now seems clear that these far-sighted speakers were simply wrong. I would like to suggest three reasons for the way they missed the mark and what we can learn from their mistakes. First, the speakers were reading the future with their own set of filters, not just from cultural trends and projections. Both speakers came from non-mainline, denominational traditions; in fact, from traditions that historically have been at tension with those traditions. One can’t help but wonder now how much their predictions were based on "wish" rather than the actual data. Second, the speakers forgot about one of the basic points of their own talks, namely that the Church in the U.S. is a volunteer society in which people are free to choose. Of course, they thought more people, especially the young, would choose large, seeker-friendly, non-mainline, non-historic congregations. What they forgot is that many mainline pastors might choose to attend more seminars put on by such teachers learning new skills and adapting their tradition to the changes in culture. This has certainly been my experience. The dynamic churches of my Diocese share in common the willingness to learn from others. The speakers forgot that what they were selling could be bought by anyone. In Jurassic Park, we learned that "life would find a way". Perhaps this was just as true for the dinosaurs of American denominations. Third, the speakers overlooked the presence of people who worked with mainline churches. We were willing to learn and to resource the congregations using new models. In Lyle Schaller’s workshop during the ‘91 Conference, he was asked what he thought of these predictions. His response, "There are over 1,200 denominations in the U.S., while it does look like their role may diminish in the days ahead, I think it’s premature to pronounce that denominations will cease to be one of the major players for the 21st Century." What can Church Champions learn from all this? Many things; among them I would suggest:
Next time we pronounce what the 21st Century Church will be like, we might want to use qualifying phrases and lots of prayer. Kevin Martin is the Congregational Development officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Want to talk about this column? Log into the new Church Champions web site for discussion at www.churchchamp.org.
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