What Is Trending?

Dear Pastors

What Is Trending?

On the 7th January I wrote a short post on my personal Facebook page (see below). It attracted quite a bit of comment that included some very insightful thoughts about the future shape of the church in NZ. What I thought I’d do for my first two pastors blog for 2023 is to share my post and a few of those comments this week and then next week add a few more thoughts that I have been reflecting on over the last 6 weeks or so.

But before I do that let me share a few thoughts about ‘trends’. A trend is a ‘general direction in which something tends to move’. For example, social trends are a fascinating study in sociology that looks at how communities and societies change and adapt to new ideas, new technologies and new innovations. Sometimes you will hear words like, fad, popular, fashionable and vogue when people talk about what’s trending. Culture is dynamic and forever evolving and changing and the study of this is nothing short of fascinating to me.

Trends are different to predictions and significantly different to prophesy. A prediction is essentially an extrapolation of a current trend into the future both short term and longer term. It’s a bit like a weather forecast if you like. Based on what we know we can ‘predict’ this or that happening with a fair degree of certainty. In everyday conversations we share predictions all the time. Prophesy, as far as Christians are concerned on the other hand is usually entirely separate to any current understanding that we may have about the future or even a relevant cultural context. It is God announcing what is going to happen in the future. It is foretelling¹. The issue around ‘accuracy’ of prophetic announcements are a completely separate discussion with quite some difference of opinion amongst believers. That would be an interesting conversation to have another time.

So with that said, I would like to say this. What I am doing here is offering some commentary on trends that occasionally may also be predictive. Though I believe in prophecy that is not what I am doing here.

So here is my post:-

Church Trends 2023

I see many trends in the NZ church scene. Here are three: -

1. Church attending people asking (perhaps demanding) a more transparent and participatory leadership style. A call for greater financial disclosure.
2. More pastors needing to go bi-vocational because their churches (many of which are declining) can’t afford them full-time anymore.
3. The ageing (greying) of the pastorate as 'baby boomer' pastors hold on to their positions to the frustration of the millennials in their midst. This continues to be a vexing issue.

What do you see?

Some comments were:- (Please Note: I have taken the liberty to shorten some comments. If you are interested, you can read all 75 comments in full by going to my personal Facebook page here]).

Popular culture is now (for the first time in living memory) divorced from the very concept of the church. The challenge, therefore, is partly cultural. Fortunately, there are good historical examples of how churches can engage with largely non-Christian communities. The best example, of course, is the first-century church.

I agree with your three trends in broad terms however wonder whether there is also a decline in the number of millennials seeking to take on the pastoral ministry?

Churches struggling to fill their volunteer roles as people's personal mental/emotional/spiritual reserves are low. 2) Few gains for female leaders in the church across NZ, especially at the most senior leadership levels. 3) The divide between conservative and liberal Christians to widen, especially as election issues loom. 4) Growing public pressure that churches should not have charitable status without being able to prove in genuine terms that they are indeed conducting themselves as charitable entities and not for personal or corporate gain.

So much I want to say but so little I can without sounding negative & critical but I can’t help but wonder whether so much could be alleviated if we transferred focus from the church institution back on to the church mission.

Attractional church model still has its place, but this type of model (which still dominates) does need to face some hard questions - how can ‘church’ offer an alternative life to neoliberalism’s (consumer church) and find its radical roots again. We also tend to forget that God is already at work in our neighbourhoods (He doesn’t just turn up on Sunday), so maybe a more localised/neighbourhood expression of church (where everyone walks to church, to each other’s houses, joins neighbours in community groups and shared life with other neighbours) is needed to rethink what church is about - if we ask the questions: where is God dwelling on our neighbourhood and how can we join Him in His work, the out working would be very different.

I think there is another. It is something about the lack of an apostolic voice in NZ giving broader leadership across the Christian community. In NZ there is no voice unless you want to follow some flashy Dan down the rabbit hole of Freedom Movement etc. I think this frustration at the lack of genuine apostolic voice will grow in 2023.

Blessings
Alan

¹ The New Testament also uses the word ‘prophecy’ as forth-telling. In other words sharing words (verses) from scripture and/or promptings from the Lord that are for the encouragement and edification of believers individually or corporately.