WHAT WILL THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE LOOK LIKE IN 2043?

When I was in seminary, I sometimes wondered if Luther, Calvin and Wesley were all such geniuses or if, instead, they were simply capable, talented people whose lives came along at pregnant moments of history when Reformation was bound to happen anyway.  Now that I am living through a real-life Reformation, I am leaning more toward the latter idea.  None of us chose to paddle the rapids of this fast-changing post-Christendom era, but like it or not, God has placed us here: in the middle of white water with a Bible and a paddle and an assortment of characters on the journey with us, ranging from the bold and brilliant to the timid and the panicky.  

THINKING ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is one of the key words of this still very young century. We will be thinking about it more and more in days to come.

We are learning how to live so that there are adequate resources left for the other seven billion people. We are learning how to reduce our carbon footprint, so as to curb global warming and keep the planet healthy and habitable for centuries to come.   We are learning how to offer excellent and reasonable healthcare to an aging populace in ways that do not bankrupt our society. And we are learning how to live in faith community in a far less cash-intensive manner, making possible a lighter, more agile Christian movement, with a greater ability to invest beyond our own internal buildings and management.

THE SURPRISE FACTOR

Abingdon Press is releasing my newest book this month, one of their first titles of 2013.   The Surprise Factor: Gospel Strategies for Changing the Game at Your Church. Kim Shockley and I co-authored this book as a conversation between a clergyperson and a layperson, exploring ten key strategies that Jesus utilized as a change agent in a long-existing faith community. In each case we asked what Jesus' strategy looks like in a twenty-first century North American congregation. The project has been a lot of fun.

PAUL NIXON’S FAVORITE FORMULAS FOR CHURCH ASSESSMENT

When I work with congregations, I come loaded with all sorts of formulas, which arise from the composite trends in the many other churches where I have worked.   Sound formulas allow me to process a church’s situation and its possibilities faster.   Here are four of my favorites.  (I should warn that there are plenty of contexts that require us to adjust these ratios a little, this way or that.  But these numbers represent a good starting place for some of you who are just wading in to the work of coaching and consulting with local churches.)

THE DEMOGRAPHIC TIPPING POINT

 

Being a compulsive statistics nerd, I spent far too much time studying the Electoral College map over the last six months.  In October, I was reading the polls on my i-phone twice a day.  When asked to predict the election outcome the day before November 6, I got it right except for Florida.  The major reason that I felt Obama would win the election finally was a steady demographic shift that has been ongoing for most of my life.  Basically every four years, non-Latino white people represent about two percent less of the electorate from the previous presidential election.   This is just something that we statistical nerds have quietly noticed.

WHY DO SOME NEW CHURCHES GET LABELED AS FAILURES?

Early in their lives, some children and some young churches get labeled as failures. Once so labeled, there is almost no chance of their fulfilling the dreams that once surrounded them. In the world of new churches, once we label them as failed, we may quickly pull all resources and close a project, effectively saying to the people gathered, "Thank you for your time. Don't call us we'll call you. Here is a list of other xyz churches in your county. Have a nice life." Many of these folks were taking intentional personal risk to trust anything related to organized religion. By our actions, we are then insuring that they will never go near any church again in their lives.

TOO LATE FOR TWEAKING

A quarter century ago, as a local church leader in my 20s, I was already forced to rethink the ministry paradigm that worked in my childhood. I would attend workshops offered by the national church, the conference, the teaching church or the independent writer/gurus - and the question was always very simple: "What will it take to make church - as we know it - attractive to and effective with baby boomers?"