May 16, 2024

By Rev. Rick King

After the pandemic, Carey Nieuwhof, the Canadian pastor I often turn to for surveying trends on the religious and social landscape, identified five faulty assumptions about the future church to be aware of. Some of these may sound familiar to you because we’ve discussed them before:

• What worked before is going to work again
• The building will be the center of ministry
• We don’t need to take online ministry that seriously
• The future will be linear; and
• Running really hard is the only way to fix this.

All of these are based on the way things have been in the past, and we live under the illusion that the church is basically unchanged from past eras because we believe God does not change.

But in fact, many things have changed, in the church and the world around us—both since the pandemic, and before it. And these assumptions lead to expectations that may have been realistic in the past, but no longer are.

These can be what you might call mega-assumptions, like those I quoted above, or micro-assumptions, which predictable and efficient lives and occupations depend on.

These micro-assumptions are justified and helpful. Until they aren’t.

Recently, some of our long-standing partners with whom we share our building had difficulty scheduling spaces or nights that have been easily available to them for years. What felt like a personal slight was actually the result of the reality that our building is even busier this summer than last. In one case, a group that had been meeting at our church on a specific night of the week was unable to schedule on their preferred night because another group scheduled that night before them. As you can imagine, this was a big deal for those whose commitment to this group depends on that predictable meeting night.

So–please check the building calendar, email Katie at [email protected], and get your room requests in early. But also beware of assuming a date, time, or space will be available now simply because it’s always been easy to book in the past. Things are changing quickly, and we’ll need to get really good at managing our expectations and responding to changes in the future, if we move forward with our merger with New Life.

As your pastor, I commiserate with you about the fact that change is the only constant. But I also believe in everybody’s capacity to adapt, be curious, and extend one another grace, so we can get through this transformation together.

May all your surprises this summer be pleasant!