Megashifts
October 1, 1995
LEADERSHIP recently asked its editorial advisers, "What changes are you observing in ministry?" We filtered their answers and added insights distilled from conversations with researcher George Barna and pastor Leith Anderson, two respected observers of the contemporary church. The result was a list of seven broad "megashifts" in church ministry. Many of these shifts are not sudden; pastors have been feeling their effects. Taken together, however, these seven shifts map out the terrain of ministry in the late '90s and beyond. 1. Church attenders want choice. In "Christianity in the Twenty-first Century," Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow writes, "In the past century, denominationalism was … a very large part of what it meant to be Christian." Now, says Wuthnow, "people belong to the Presbyterian church, not because of deep loyalty to the denomination at large, but because they like the pastor, they feel comfortable with the people, the building fits their architectural tastes, the church is not too far way, and it provides activities for their family." This shift is illustrated in the way pastors speak of their churches. Churches used to be measured in terms of membership--how many are on the rolls. Now they're measured by attendance--how many show up this Sunday. Membership has been downgraded to the point of irrelevancy. What's more, when people attend a church, that doesn't mean a final commitment to that church. They still want choice. They represent a new strain of church attender: the "multi-church members." The parents go to one church on Sunday morning; they send their kids to a different church for the "happenin'" youth program; and they visit other churches for special events. One leader told of a couple who ...
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