Carey Nieuwhof, lead pastor of Connexus Community Church, recently shared his thoughts on how the church will evolve over the next decade. Nieuwhof identified 11 traits that he believes will be common among those congregations that have a significant impact over the next ten years:
- The ability to say no
- Outsider focus
- Quick decision making
- Flexibility
- A willingness to embrace smaller to become bigger
- A quicker, lighter footprint
- Valuing online relationships as real relationships
- An openness to questions
- A high value on experimentation
- Prioritizing a for you not from you culture.
- A tailored experience, not a tailored message.
So What?
I am intrigued at the significant overlap between his list and my list of the ten changes most likely for the future church. My list is in rank order whereas Nieuwhof does not make any such claim about his. In an attempt at a basic comparison, I have created a chart listing his ideas and mine side by side. In each case, I selected the element from my list that was most closely related. As such, some items are nearly identical, some have significant similarity, and others have limited overlap.
|
Nieuwhof |
Smith |
|
The ability to say no (1) |
More about following, less about membership (8) |
|
Outsider focus (2) |
More collaboration, less competition (10) |
|
Quick decision making (3) |
More egalitarian, less hierarchical (2) |
|
Flexibility (4) |
More scalable, less fixed costs (9) |
|
Smaller to grow bigger (5) |
More Jesus centered, less focused on tradition (6) |
|
Quicker, lighter footprint (6) |
More egalitarian, less hierarchical (2) |
|
Value online relationships (7) |
More connected, less geographically dependent (4) |
|
Openness to questions (8) |
More about questions, less about answers (7) |
|
Value experimentation (9) |
More innovative, less predictable (3) |
|
For you culture (10) |
|
|
Tailored experience (11) |
|
|
More begin by belonging, less begin by believing (5) |
|
|
More about deeds, less about creeds (1) |
In a few sentences or less, state the vision of the church of 2023 based on the shared elements of these two lists.
- Is this a future you believe is healthy? Why/why not?
- How likely do you believe this future is for your congregation? for most of American Christianity?