Theologian and futurist Leonard Sweet has announced what he sees as the top 5 future trends that religious leaders need to know.
From Christian Post:
First, size does matter, he stated. Sweet believes the next big thing is the next small thing.
"My recommendation is to be sensitive to how people are doing ‘little large.’ For example, any Internet blogger may never be on radio or television but still find fame."
Second, in the next 10 years, the "well curve" replaces the "bell curve."
"Opposites are happening at the same time," Sweet stated. "They [are] not contradictory, so give up the middle. Start looking for those who are bringing the extremes together. You don’t build a bridge starting in the middle."
Third, EPIC rules.
In Sweet’s The Gospel According to Starbucks, the futurist calls the church to master the "EPIC" living that Starbucks has mastered. EPIC stands for Experience, Participation, "Images that throb with meaning," and Connection.
"The culture helps the church become more of an epic community," he said.
Fourth, everything in this culture is becoming more digitized. As a result of the Internet being the new "skin" for the world, Sweet believes everything is becoming decentralized and some, hyper-centralized.
"If you digitize, you decentralize."
And fifth, Sweet points to "Crusade Nine," which he calls the growing conflict with Islam.
"We’ve had eight crusades in the past. The difference with this one is that it is global. This could well become the biggest story of the next ten years."
I just read an article the other day about the "well" curve, and how it shows that we are polarizing rather than congregating around a median (bell curve). Something about the vanishing middle.
The question is, how are we supposed to respond to these trends? Sweet doesn’t give much understandable response. Maybe he’s got a book on it?
1. Doing little large
His explanation of this trend is kind of ambiguous. I suppose he is referring to thing like hyper-localization on the web (such as Gothamist) or twitter. Kind of “think global, act local.”
OUR RESPONSE: Being excellent in the small things we do, and perhaps creating models for community life that are modular, copyable, and scalable, fitting into a bigger picture. For example, we ought to have small group structures and forms that also lend themselves to participation in our larger church community, our larger community, and the worldwide church. I dunno, just brainstorming here.
2. The Well Curve
Of course, this phenomenon was noted as early as 2003 in Wired Magazine
This curve, also described as the phenoemon of the “disappearing middle”, is seen in
– Business, with micro-companies with no employees showing up, mid-sized companies on the wane as mergers make mega-corps even bigger
– Geopolitics, with huge mutlinational federations (NAFTA, EU), and “tiny secassionist movements and small independent states”
– Population, with some countries bursting, while others are losing population
– Consumer electronics going really small and really big, and no one really wants midsized anymore
Some cite a growing income gap between rich and poor too, but this is disupted as socialist, anti-capitalist rhetoric by conservatives. Even today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke responded to such a claim from Democrats, saying that “different studies that show middle-class Americans are generally much better off now than they were two decades ago.”
OUR RESPONSE: Sweet suggests that, rather than trying to rebuild the middle, we try to build bridges directly from the twin peaks of the well curve. What does that mean? Giving the rich ways to directly help the poor. Connecting mega corps with entrepreneurs. Buildling political coalitions between polar opposite parties on the things we DO agree on, and buildling balanced solutions.
To some extent, however, I wonder if this “ignore the middle” approach is really just wordsmithing – I mean, when we build such bridges, aren’t we just buildling a middle ground, or is it something else? And to ignore the middle class as if they don’t exist, that’s silly too. We don’t expect the poor to become rich and skip being in the middle, do we?
3. EPIC Community
Experience, participation, images, and connection. These are great values to build community on.
OUR RESPONSE: I think the “living” churches (one’s that aren’t spiritually dead) have been doing this, in the following manner:
– Experience: via dynamic contemporary worship, skits, multimedia, and dynamic preaching
– Participation: via service projects, and believing that we all have a part to contribute in ministry and mission
– Images: I’d say this is an area where we have fallen down, in part because protestants eschew the type of idolatrous use of sculpture and art we see in pagan religions, not to mention in Catholicism. But the Emergent Movement has recognized the importance of liturgy and symbols. Good for them.
– Connection: This is what small groups are all about. We still could do a much better job of this. I’ll write on that another day.
4. Digital Culture
Sweet says that digital culture has caused things to at once become more centralized, and in other ways decentralized (the well curve again?). At the very least, digital culture has gotten us used to certain things:
– Free services: The prevalance of free software and services, at least to gain marketshare initially, has really created a brand new business model, and has gotten consumers used to getting basic services for free, while paying for upgraded services.
– Instant information and commentary: Providing and getting instant feedback really provides those of us with an interest in improving our services a valuable feedback mechanism. It also provides consumers with an instant outlet to get changes made that suit them.
– Specialized communities: We can now find and communicate with others who have very specialized interests, whereas before, we may have been isolated.
OUR RESPONSE: We need to think about how many of the functions of the local church can be digitized to take advantage of digital culture. How many of our services can be offered online? How can we facilitate and benefit from feedback to our preacher, and to our other ministries? How can we facilitate community for our members, and especially for those who have unique problems, needs, and interests?
5. The Growing Conflict with Islam
I have thought about this a lot, and I think that we need to really consider how to reach Muslims without offending them – and they are often easy to offend. As much as we are convinced that Islam is demonic in origin, and that Mohammed was a violent man, a pedophile, and false prophet who taught hatred and violence and racism, we probably need to put those convictions in the background and focus on building bridges for the gospel. Ex-Muslims who are now trying to reach their former brothers for Christ often give this advice – don’t bother insulting Mohammed, and preach the gospel of grace to them, because they live under a graceless soteriology.
And of course, I already outlined a 7-part response to Islam, which includes legislation, infiltration and prosecution, cooperation with reformers, ideological battle, spiritual battle and evangelism, suffering, and self-defense when necessary.