Four Trends

Back in April, I wrote to you about a 1-day conference that talked about the "Squishy Middle" and the shifting trends in America, especially in regards to the church. Recently, Ed Stetzer (the speaker at the conference) put those words on paper in a short article called MissionTrends: 4 Trends for Churches to Consider. These four trends are:

1. The Word "Christian" Will Become Less Used and More Clear - "The trend is that less people are calling themselves Christians and those who are will take it more seriously."
2. The Nominals Will Increasingly Become Nones - "As the Nones rise in their number, Christian influence on culture will begin to wane. As people no longer claim to be Christians, Christianity will be further marginalized, which should change the way we think about engaging culture."
3. Christians Will Increasingly Change Cultural Tactics - "The next 20 years are going to be a challenge for convictional Christians and churches in many places. We will be engaging in cultural conversations often as the minority we truly are. In biblical terms, we may experience what it means to be salt and light in the midst of an adversarial culture."
4. More Robust Churches will Result from the Death of Nominalism - "Christianity will become more of a minority in culture, but more refined, more biblical, and more missional churches will be the result." 

(If you'd like to read the entire article, you can read it here.)

For us, these four trends are playing a significant role in a myriad of ways - from our strategy (Missional Communities) to how we view ourselves (missionaries in S. Minneapolis) to how we steward our finances (bi-vocational with VERY low overhead) to everything in-between.

PS - here are a couple of quick updates of what's happening in the plant:

• I was hired by Minneapolis Parks and Rec for maintenance and groundskeeping. I hope to start later this week.
• We started using The Table. I would love for you to sign-up to see what's happening at Genesis on a regular basis.
• At the end of this month we will be mailing out our annual summary. If you would like a copy, please shoot me a quick email with your address.
• We are on track to launch our next Gospel Community in the next month or so.
• We have a total of 9 potential Gospel Community leaders who are on our radar. This doesn't mean they will all become leaders, but we are praying over the possibility.

Invest in us and our work in S. Minneapolis - Click Here

Pray for us and our work in S. Minneapolis - Click Here

Participate in the life of the Community - Click Here or Here

#PlantTheGospel