What will the Church look like in 2040?

6)      The church (like any other business and individual) is being regulated to death – literally to the extinction of churches that cannot keep up with the regulations imposed upon them.  Building expansions are red tape nightmares.  Regulations are making it more difficult to have children’s ministries, transport people to events, hire and fire employees, maintain facilities, prepare and serve meals, compensate the Pastor and staff, etc.

How will churches cope and adjust over the next 25 years?

1)      The growing trend of multi-site churches with celebrity Pastors has not yet shown what will transpire when these Pastor’s retire or are replaced.  We have seen that the mega churches of the past 50 years have greatly struggled when the founder/leader has moved off the scene.

2)      Technology has and will continue to greatly change the way we minister.  Twenty five years ago a local independent church found that half of the children attended public schools and the other half attended local Christian schools.  Today we see that half still attend public schools and the other half are home/cyber schooled and very few go to Christian school anymore.  I believe we will find the same thing happen to our local churches.  Many will begin to have church at home.  Not watching Charles Stanley or John Hagee like some have done for years – but churches will begin to have more effective live streaming and interactive services that you can attend without leaving your home.  If the growing trend today is to attend a church where the Pastor is being shown to you live streamed from another locations, than why not sit at home and have him live streamed? ** Notice the continued affect this will have on giving/tithing.

3)      Churches will find such a struggle between decreased giving and increased regulations – combined with the ease and relatively low price of advanced technology – that the church will become less corporate and more home based.  Churches will not be able to afford facilities, salaries, insurances, etc.  The home church movement will be the ‘trend’ of the day.

4)      More Pastors will become bi-vocational.  They will work a full time job during the week and meet as a small group in the home of a parishioner on Sundays.

5)      Churches that are culturally accepted in 2040 will be, by and large, churches with a weak message and are even heavier on entertainment and social gospel.  Churches with a strong stand upon the Bible and morals will be considered too radical by society and will be forced ‘underground’ (like in so many other countries today).

6) The great need (growing now and even greater in 2040) will be helping the hurting.  With the decline of God and morality in culture – relationships, children, marriages, health and more will be in greater peril with more people contemplating drastic measures such as suicide, drugs, or crime.  Helping hurting people will be the key ministry of 2040.

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