THE DISRUPTION IS JUST WARMING UP

One thing that liberals and conservatives, Americans and Pakistanis, privileged and marginalized folks can all agree upon: we are dealing with unprecedented disruptions in the world.

The pandemic was a universal disruption, even as it was experienced and negotiated in vastly different ways, depending on specific values and life conditions.  In my relatively privileged existence, the pandemic meant more family time, great TV, dancing to world renowned DJs at our daily happy hour, as we transitioned from work to downtime in the same quarters.  It meant delightful road trips that minimized human contact while immersing us in the vast beauty of the continental US.  It meant “going to church” on a yoga mat parked in front of the TV.  I actually miss much of this now.  Weird disruption often came with unexpected blessings!

For others, it meant death. It meant catastrophic losses economically and personally, along with profound reshaping of the economy and how we make a living.  For many, it meant cost of housing moving beyond reach, possibly forever.  For some pastors, it meant losing half their Sunday parishioners on any given week.

All that was just the disruption of a nasty coronavirus. Ongoing geopolitical challenges, culture wars, the resurgence of autocracy, and the exploding development of Artificial Intelligence portend future disruption that will make Covid look like child play.

What is the future of church in a world experiencing so many earthquakes? Hard to know the future but…

1. The 20th century paradigm of church is nearing its death. The longer we cling to the cultural trappings of pews and organs and aging real estate, the more certain our churches will expire in this century.  Middle class life of the post WW2 era no longer exists. Sears and Roebuck bit the dust. The Presbyterians are not far behind

2. Meaningful, life-giving relationship is the hottest currency of this new era. Acts 2-intensity community is something deeply desired and rarely associated with the industry that grew up around Christianity in the last century.

3. In a world where the economy is increasingly going to be transactions with and between networked computers, where most of our current jobs evaporate, we can hope that the computer networks remain harnessed to work for the common human good - and we all get universal stipends from the vast machine.  This is hopeful thinking. But human life could become less about scrambling to work two jobs to survive and more about caring for one another and responding creatively to God’s deep Calls upon us. The church can help resource this.

4. Or in a more likely scenario, the church’s best work may be urgently prophetic in seeking to help people and governments to abandon unhelpful political ideologies, prejudices and antiquated notions that will bring misery and despair to the masses in a world that runs on AI.

5. Ancient wisdom and practices (far preceding the modern era) are more interesting than ever. Look for a lot of new monastic iterations in the years ahead.

I write this on an airplane as I go to help a renewing congregation with the chance to construct a new ministry center and to let go of its fixation on fixed pews and a new organ.

Let’s have a funeral for the twentieth century, shall we?  For if we can just get untangled with that era mentally, the church has a future of amazing possibilities in the world that is fast becoming.