Seldom a week goes by without someone asking me,
"What's new with you?" Or
"What are you working on these days?"
The answer for Epicenter Group is four-fold. There are four areas of adaptive challenge
for the 21st century church where we are spending a lot of focus in 2018.
1. The tectonic shifts in worldview within American culture. We framed that shift in our book Weird Church (Pilgrim Press 2016) in Spiral Dynamics language as a shift from a culture of Blue-Orange to a culture that includes tens of millions of persons in the Green space (think Bernie Sanders). Add to this the political environment which is going through a cycle of reactivity and inviting millions to slip back into Red - and you have the most complex social dynamics we have ever seen in North America for doing anything - church included! One deepening awareness for me, since the writing of Weird Church, is that many of us shift back and forth between multiple worldviews from moment to moment: depending on whether we are in the office, at church, at home or watching our favorite news channel! I am convinced that the Blue worldview space (Moses, Jesus, law and order) must be more fully developed in all of us in order for us to proceed gracefully into the future that God desires for us, both as individuals and as a society
1. The tectonic shifts in worldview within American culture. We framed that shift in our book Weird Church (Pilgrim Press 2016) in Spiral Dynamics language as a shift from a culture of Blue-Orange to a culture that includes tens of millions of persons in the Green space (think Bernie Sanders). Add to this the political environment which is going through a cycle of reactivity and inviting millions to slip back into Red - and you have the most complex social dynamics we have ever seen in North America for doing anything - church included! One deepening awareness for me, since the writing of Weird Church, is that many of us shift back and forth between multiple worldviews from moment to moment: depending on whether we are in the office, at church, at home or watching our favorite news channel! I am convinced that the Blue worldview space (Moses, Jesus, law and order) must be more fully developed in all of us in order for us to proceed gracefully into the future that God desires for us, both as individuals and as a society
2. The digital revolution. Epicenter Group is currently coaching two young online-faith communities, pioneering on behalf of all of us. Technology is making it possible for persons to do one small group on five continents without people constantly freezing up or getting bumped off line. As smart TVs begin to take over entire walls in our living rooms, virtual interaction is feeling less virtual and more like just another way that we gather. The church is about a decade behind the curve, and I do not see most churches awakening to this opportunity (or to the danger of sleeping through it). In a digital church, we are less in the business of broadcast and more in the business of setting a platform in which people converse and try on Gospel ideas in an infinitely customized manner. The internet is Gutenburg on Steroids. Neither the Pope nor any church lead team can control the ideas that our people are encountering. If a church is not able to work comfortably with social media and web-based platforms, its future will likely be bleak.
3. The challenges of the world of Multi. My next book will deal with this in detail. But we are moving into a time where almost every church will be juggling more than one people group, more that one location, more than one theology and life narrative, and so forth. What are the spiritual practices and capacities necessary for us function well as Multi churches? I think more about this than any other question this year, as I am writing on the subject. Stay tuned. Lots more to come on this front!
4. The shift in the paradigm of church itself from a people gathered IN HERE to a people in ministry OUT THERE. The major venue for our ministry is shifting to OUT THERE. If we are to stay engaged with a culture rejecting church as they have experienced it or perceived it, we have to go to the people outside the walls, outside the bounds, and to learn how to partner together, to explore together, to bless our neighbors together and to discover the hope of the Gospel together OUT THERE. The 'fresh expressions' stuff going on around us (whatever that term means to you) is but the tip of the iceberg here.
Epicenter Group is partnering with Leadership Edges to offer eight ministry seminars for church leaders across the country this year focused on practical steps forward in each of these four areas. We are calling it Mobilize Your Church for a Better Ministry Story. We will be in Dallas/Fort Worth (April 10), Houston (April 17), Toronto (June 5), Buffalo (June 6), Williamsport PA (June 7), Virginia Beach (July 24-26), LA (August 20) and Ocean Beach (Sept 11-13). To learn more about the first event in Dallas/Fort Worth, click HERE. If you would like to invite a friend who lives near one of these locations, you could start by sending them this VIDEO LINK. And of course, if you would like to see such an event near you, let's talk! You can email back to this newsletter.
Blessings for fruitful ministry this year!
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