I don’t know about you, but it seems that lately, I have more questions than answers:
What does the post-pandemic church look like?
Is the Sunday morning service where I need to continue focusing my energy?
How can the church get ahead of, rather than always being behind, the curve of innovation and creativity?
What trends do I need to be paying attention to?
Are there new mindsets we need to adopt, innovations we need to consider, paradigm shifts we need to make?
What type of leaders do we need to lead us into the future?
These are challenging questions, but ones that need to be asked as leaders. We must discern what types of changes and shifts we need to make to lead FROM the future not just move forward into the future.
We must discern what types of changes and shifts we need to make to lead FROM the future not just move forward into the future. #oaktreeleadership Click to Tweet
In his excellent blog on Leadership, Carey Nieuwhof, states that “even without the emergence of another global crisis or virus variant (both of which are plausible), 2022 will be a year where the new 'normalized' world will further emerge.”
So what is new normal?
Nieuwhof identifies 12 trends that he is watching and suggests that leaders consider and watch themselves:
1. The demise of the old model of church
2. Growing churches will innovate beyond weekend services
3. The vision for the future will become clearer
4. Attendance will normalize (and you’ll have a new church)
5. Hybrid church will simply become church
6. In-person will become more personal
7. Information will move online and transformation will move to in-person
8. Location-independent church members will increase
9. Pastors will sense a diminished authority
10. The brain drain will become acute
11. The exit of uninvested investors (a recalibration in giving)
12. Less predictability
You can read the explanation for each of these trend here.
Let’s talk about it.
What are your thoughts about this? Are there trends you are seeing that are not mentioned here? How are you and your team responding to the trends you see?