5 Hopes For The Church In The Next 10 Years

As fallible human beings who by extension lead fallible churches, there are always things we can be improving on. This certainly includes myself and New City Church where I lead.

Because of that, here are five hopes I have for the Church that I would love to see improved upon in the next ten years.

1. More women on church staffs

Statistically speaking, women make up at least slightly more than half of those engaged in a local church. However, many churches don't have a single female staff member. That number is even higher if you don't include administrative or support roles (which of course vitally important, but are not typically leadership roles).

Here is the problem; not enough women have a place of leadership, feedback, and input on church staffs.

To be clear, I am not arguing that anyone change their theological convictions. For those more theologically-minded, I am a complementarian. But that doesn't take away from the fact that women are just as gifted and valuable to the church as men (which also means women are gifted leaders too).

If I were to be totally honest, my assumption (coupled with my anecdotal experience) is that many churches that have plateaued or are in decline also don't have nearly enough (or any) women on staff. This shouldn't be a surprise. How are you going to effectively reach half the population when that half of the population has no one helping guide the church to be a place where both men and women are growing in their faith?

2. More cross-denominational/network support

This is not a shot at the numerous denominations or networks that exist. New City Church where I lead is itself part of a church planting network. There are good reasons why denominations and networks are valuable and important and why there are so many of them.

But what I have also too often seen is church leaders (myself included) looking down at those that run in slightly different tribes.

I'd love to see pastors and church leaders praying for and hoping for the best for churches that are different than them. Of course, many churches and pastors do this, but many also do not. On my own prayer lists I have been more intentional in praying for and celebrating churches that do somethings differently than New City does. And I need to do this even more.

In the end, we need many different types of churches to reach different types of people.

3. More churches planting churches

Church planting is the most effective way to reach new people with the Gospel. It is also the most effective way to help followers of Jesus take steps in their own faith journey as they fill in the gaps that are created when churches send out people and resources to plant new churches.

There is nothing that shows people that Jesus, and not growing our own churches, is the goal more than actually planting and supporting other churches.

It's hard. It costs money. It costs people. It costs people. It costs. But in the long term, it creates more opportunities for people to hear and experience the Gospel.

4. Better online engagement

I know there are no perfect churches, and New City certainly has its flaws. That being said, I am still continually saddened in some cases and baffled in others at the number of churches who don't take their online presence seriously at all.

I've been rather surprised at the number of large churches with the staff and budget who have a very poor social media presence. It's not that these churches must be amazing at engaging people online, but it comes across as if they don't even care. Maybe because they don't.

On the contrary, I know there are many small churches or church plants that don't have the money or people to have a robust online engagement strategy. At the same time, not doing anything also reveals that it isn't even a priority.

For me, the issue is a lack of desire or effort churches can some times give (or rather not give) to engaging people online. No, it's not the most important thing a church does, but if people don't think churches care about engaging with them where they are at, they will be much less likely to allow the church to engage with them with what truly matters.

5. Less Politics

This is tricky because there are certainly times when churches and leaders should speak out against injustices and wrongdoings. At the same time, many political persuasions and preferences are things that faithful Christians can and do disagree on.

This isn't to say church leaders shouldn't vote (they should) or be well informed (they should) or have thoughts about what would bring the most amount of good to their communities (they should).

But far too often, churches and church leaders can promote their political ideology at the expense of the Gospel. To be clear, this is an issue in white and black churches and happens for both churches of conservative and liberal-leaning political persuasions.

You may not be aware of this, but even Jesus' disciples had radically different political ideologies. Simon the Zealot was a zealot, meaning he was essentially an anarchist an extremely anti-Roman government. Also included in the 12 disciples was Matthew who was a tax collector for the Roman government. I can't imagine the political debates they got into. And yet they found something even greater, Jesus and the Gospel, that united them.

I would love to see churches (and of course, there are a plethora of churches who do this so well) speak into issues that the Gospel speaks into, and not turn people away because of their political involvement.

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