What Will the 21st -Century Church Be Like?

At the beginning of the third millennium, a common question is, "What will the 21st-century church be like?" Will it be large or small, low or high-tech, denominational or nondenominational, worship in houses or church buildings, stronger on evangelism or social action, spiritually dead or spiritually alive, growing or declining, racially integrated or segregated? The answer is, "Yes." Just as the church of Jesus Christ has greatly varied in the past, it will greatly vary in the future, only more so.

Various churches around the United States and the world demonstrate the wide variety of congregations. Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, is famous because more than 1 million people have come from around the world seeking the supernatural in the famous Brownsville revival. People by the hundreds stand in line hours before the service begins hoping to get in.

The Southeast Asian house church is vibrant, but illegal. In one church, the pastor is a government-paid teacher. The congregation is less than 20 people. It is part of an amazingly evangelistic network of house churches that would be closed immediately if the government found out about them.

In the Pentecostal church in Romania, the women sit on one side and the men sit on the other side. All women wear head coverings; no jewelry is allowed, not even a wedding ring. Men do not cross their legs while seated or put their hands in their pockets while preaching because Christians don’t do such things.

New African denominations are starting up almost every day. Missiologist Ralph Winter states that many of these churches and denominations are riddled with theological heresy. Winter believes the churches that hold the Bible as the source of authority will, as they mature, eventually outgrow their initial heresies.

There is no single design for 21st-century churches. We will see greater variety, new expressions, novel structures, and ways of doing church that we would not have previously imagined. Just as previous generations used innovative ways to meet their needs for buildings, Sunday schools, committees, organs, pianos, hymnals, and choirs, so the next generations will develop innovative ways to be effective in the third millennium.

Here are some interesting trends that indicate what we may expect to see among 21st-century North American churches. Read more