The church in the West has seen a number of significant changes and innovations over the past decade; what further changes is it likely to see in the next ten years? Brady Boyd, senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, has made four predictions about what the church will look like in ten years. He says that the church will become smaller, the church will become more missional, the church will become more ancient, and the church will become more supernatural.
On a global basis, the church has been getting bigger, with rapid gains in Asia and Africa offsetting any losses in the West, and I think that trend will continue. In America, the church has been getting bigger and smaller at the same time, with the number of megachurches increasing at the same time the number of mid-size churches has been decreasing. Many people are disillusioned by the “stadium worship experience”, but many are not.
I think it remains to be seen whether the significant decline in doctrinal teaching over the past decade will result in the church becoming more “missional” in the next decade or just less biblically literate. If “more supernatural” means that the church will become more reliant on God, then that is certainly something to hope for, but if it means claiming more fake miracles and healings, then that would be a serious step backwards.