- The move from teaching scripture to actual discipleship (includes teaching scripture but goes further)
- The move from attractional (come to us) to missional (go to them)
- The move from institutional church toward organic/simple community
- The move from tradition back to scripture
- The move from youth ministry toward family ministry
- The move from debating doctrine toward preaching the larger narrative & social issues
- The move from segregation by age to intergenerational ministry
- The move from complementarianism to egalitarianism
- The move from isolation & insulation from the world to integration (the church being salt in a decaying world has to come into contact in order to have a preserving effect. When taking to an extreme this can turn into cultural accommodation)
- The move from distinct denominations (brand loyalty of the past) to a more unified view of Christianity (by erasing the lines that used to bind and divide us as people get less interested in fighting those old fights and defending denominational territory)
What would you add or take away? By the way, this post is meant to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. In other words, I don’t necessary agree with all that comes with every single move…just describing what I see going on out there, most of which is good.
3 Responses
I’d probably say that the last one is true in a lot of ways, but younger Evangelicals who have grown up in non-denominational churches are finding the value of landing in a tradition with some actual tradition to it. I know for myself, I’ve actually found some peace moving from generalized Evangelicalism to the Reformed tradition and a church with some roots reaching back past 1970. This might be a minority trend set within the larger trend, but that’s something.
Very true. The pendulum swings both ways and the direction you swing it has everything to do with which “side” you have been on.
I don’t know if it would be true of the church, but it would be great to see a move from prayerlessness to saturated in prayer. That’s a personal struggle as well.