Ed Bahler’s Blog…To Enhance Ministry

Last month “Rev” magazine ran a cover story questioning, “Is the American Church In Crisis?” And Australian Al Hirsch, respected pastor and author recently commented: “The U.S. in the last hope for Christianity in the Western World.” Add to that Barna research in 2007 revealing the 16-29 year old age group in America has a bad or very bad impression of evangelicals and view the church as judgmental as well as hypocritical.

Something has changed. The old patterns don’t seem to work. So how can we understand the “Underlying Movements” behind this pervasive shift in culture?

“Underlying Movements” are those unseen influences lurking below the surface that provoke people to act differently. Through years of research and conversations with ministry leaders around the country we at the Cornerstone Knowledge Network (CKN) have identified “Six Underlying Movements” we must understand. But not only understand…we must learn to navigate in this rapidly changing world if we hope for a ministry that connects and transforms lives.

The Digital Age is Underlying Movement #1. In this digital age young people process their world so very different. They’re bright, worldly (in the sense of exposure beyond their community), want to be engaged, participating, connected, and demand answers without the varnish and protection. They want it straight (see the thumbnail).

It was different in the previous ages. Rex Miller in his book Millenium Matrix illustrates the four distinct ages of communication:

• Oral
• Print
• Broadcast
• Digital

This thumbnail lays them out with the events that triggered each new one in red.…. and the associated church/leadership characteristics :

- Worship….. from Liturgical to Meeting to Event and then Gathering

-Influence…..from Position to Credentials to Impression and Connection

-Faith………..built on Trust to Logic to Emotion and then Pragmatism

You’ll see them illustrated for each age shown in the circles of the thumbnail. It’s fascinating how these attributes of church change so dramatically as we move from age to age. And how they impacted everything….Worship…..Influence…Faith Building….and even the architecture of the age.

It is a different day in this dawning Digital Age. A day that will require more intentional ways of connecting, building influence, and telling the story in open and transparent ways. The Digital Age is an underlying movement we cannot ignore to be effective Kingdom builders. Nor can we ignore the other five.