Creation Project

7 Mega-Trends Facing the Church

By | August 8th, 2009 | Category: Missional Church | 8 comments

As a church planter, it can be difficult to find time to read good academic missiology. With the surplus of half-baked missional ideas floating around the blogosphere, we can get tripped up on digesting statements that have very little support or merit. I hope to avoid making these kind of statements and posts. There is, however, a place for winsome dialog about planting best practices, church methods, and preferences. My Tools for Missional Church is an attempt to contribute in this way.

Seven Mega-Trends

However, I find that my passion, insight and practice are most helped by reading deeply. Fortunately, I’ve had time to read some good missiology lately. Naturally, I have drifted to my missiological mentor, Dr. Timothy Tennent now President of Asbury Seminary, and to his mentor, Dr. Andrew Walls, “the most important person you don’t know”. I have the good fortune of reading an advance copy of Tennent’s Invitation to World Missions: A Missiology for the 21st Century (Kegel, 2010). In this work Tennent outlines Seven Mega Trends affecting missions in the 21st century. These 7 trends reflect major shifts in Global Christianity that must be addressed theologically and practically. Tennent does just that, drawing from his rich understanding of church history, theology, and missiology. The 7 Trends are:

  1. The Collapse of Christendom
  2. The Rise of Postmodernism
  3. The Collapse of the West Reaches the West Paradigm
  4. The Challenging Face of Global Christianity
  5. The Emergence of a Fourth Branch of Christianity
  6. Globalization
  7. A Deeper Ecumenism

How we engage and address these seven trends will inevitably shape the theology and character of Christianity and the advance or decline of the gospel in our context. Some books have been written on these Mega-Trends; however, the issues are proving increasingly complex, requiring more thoughtful reflection and attention. For instance, how does he re-centering of Global Christianity to the South and the East affect the way we think about missions and theologizing? For some great insight on this, check out Tennent’s Theology in the Context of Global Christianity. In the weeks to come, I will be blogging through some of these issues and look forward to some healthy interaction to learn and grow with you all.

8 comments
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  1. pjtibayan August 8th, 2009 4:40 pm :

    What is the 4th branch of Christianity? Is it Pentecostalism?

  2. Jonathan Dodson August 8th, 2009 5:33 pm :

    The emerging “fourth branch” is Independent, a product of rapid growth of the Majority Church in Asia and Africa. The various churches have no claim or historic connection to Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox tradition. These independents range in theological orthodoxy and cultural expression. According to the World Christian Enyclopedia, in the opening decade of the 21st century there are 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, 432 million independents, followed by 386 million Protestants and 252 million Orthodox. Tennent points out that, although it is early to detect a theological center or commonality among independents, they undoubtedly will organize at some level this century, exercising an inordinate influence on Christianity.

  3. Paul Wilkinson August 9th, 2009 11:12 pm :

    Hmmmm. In the Catholic, Mainline Protestant (and I suspect Orthodox) traditions, one isn’t raised with the expectation that some day they just might wake up and decide to start their own church. The majority of church-planting initiatives tend to be Evangelical in flavor, even if they borrow elements from the other traditions.

    I know it defeats the purpose if someone says, “We’re independent;” to inquire further with, “Yes, but independent what? Nonetheless, I suspect most of these are independent-Evangelical in one form or another.

  4. The Critical Cleric August 11th, 2009 2:24 pm :

    Thanks for these insights. Would it be correct to say that the majority of the “independents” are actually individuals of the pentecostal/charismatic persuasion. I’ve heard statistics that pentecostalism (evangelical and otherwise) is the fastest growing Christian group in the world, so thats why I’m asking the question? Also, I wonder if the non-institutional structure of the “independents” has something to do with their appeal? In my assessment many institutional structures are often to rigid and lack the fluidity needed to have impact globally. I could be wrong though.

  5. Thoughts on future trends that will face the Church… :: Controlled Chaos - Todd Terry’s Personal Blog August 11th, 2009 7:36 pm :

    [...] http://churchplantingnovice.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/7-mega-trends-facing-the-church/ Categories : Uncategorized [...]

  6. Jonathan Dodson August 13th, 2009 2:50 am :

    Many have been influenced by teh Charismatic movement, though not all.

  7. Timothy Tennent September 18th, 2009 7:09 pm :

    Greetings, Jonathan from Asbury Theological Seminary. We are announcing a major initiative here to Asbury to “engage the world.” It is exciting stuff. I think Asbury is on the way. You might want to check out the stuff I am writing on my blog. It is subscribable (my twitter, too) but you can get to it right off of the home page of http://www.asburyseminary.edu
    May God bless you in your work. It won’t be too long before Jonathan Dodson will be “the most important person you don’t know.”

  8. Jonathan Dodson September 21st, 2009 12:27 am :

    Thanks, Tim! I have bookmarked Global Talk and will do a post on it soon!