Top Ideas of the Last Decade in the Church

What are some of the best ideas that have come into the Church in the last decade? Leadership Network threw out a long list of various ideas/trends that have come into the Church. Which stands out to you?

• The rise of the "new" Calvinists - (Acts 29, Gospel Coalition, etc) The growth of the Reformed theological position... at the same time the Dispensationalists are declining rapidly…

• Multi Site Church

• From Pastor » Senior Pastor » Directional Leader
• Externally Focused Church as key idea for Evangelical churches
• Micro Finance as Missions

• Emergent Church
  

  
  

• The megachurch's domination of media coverage
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• The rise of Church Planting Networks as the driver of planting churches.

• Purpose-Driven Church

• Purpose-Driven Life
• Distance learning via computer
• Keeping up with missionaries and partners throughout the world via computer.
• HIV-AIDS response by churches and individuals (especially to Africa)
• The rise of African countries as missions partners.
• Pastor Blogs as communication vehicles.
• Online podcasts of sermons.
• Online video casts of sermons.
• Church web sites that are fully robust.
• Social networking tools being utilized by churches/parachurches.
• Paid bloggers for various charities/parachurch orgs.
• Shifting opinions on homosexuality - civil unions, marriage, adoption.
• Shifting opinions on many social issues in the 18-35 year old demographic that are shaping the emphases of the church
• "Branding" for churches.
• The rapid development of the church associations around Willow, Saddleback, etc.
• Kingdom Business as Mission.
• Rise of Family Foundations/ Donor Advised Funds/National Christian Foundation et al as vehicles to leverage kingdom giving.

• You Version of the Bible.
• Ubiquity of projected images during worship (dramatic increase across the world really), influencing not only the innovative megachurch but all church groups, mainline included
• The impact of giant video screens in making hymnals, songbooks, bibles, etc., redundant... contributing to the changing approaches to "reading" in the West.
• White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives
• Rise of Organic/House Church movement
• Greater awareness by US megachurches and others toward international missions and humanitarian efforts around the world.
• Rise of Christianity in China resulting in China having the largest Christian Population by 2015-2020
• The acceptance of social entrepreneurs, including faith based ones, by business leaders.
• Dramatic rise of funds raised by churches and parachurches.
• Dramatic capital expansion, (building boom) by churches and parachurches.
• Global North Churches form partnerships with Global South Churches.
• Adoption of people groups by congregations as long term partners/fields of work.

• The decline of singles ministry and the rise in number of singles in America.
• Rapid rise of recovery ministries as key outreach and evangelism strategies for churches
• The increase in books published during decline of books read.
• The rapid disappearance of dated curriculum... no longer used by large churches which are developing their own media resources.
• Video venues.
• Teaching Team.
• The circle story of evangelism replacing "the four spiritual laws."
• The evolving definition of "personal salvation" and growing emphasis on "progressive salvation-- I was saved, I am saved, I'm being saved."
• Jesus film evangelism worldwide.
• Use of wide release movies (Narnia - Facing the Giants, etc) as evangelism opportunities.
• Arena-sized megachurches.
• Rise of Latino evangelicals.
• Open sourced content freely given away for church stuff.
• End of the worship wars.
• Twitter and other text and polling technologies informing preaching and teaching.
• Moving from sanctuary, to auditorium, to worship center…
• The rise of children's ministry in megachurches, utilizing elaborate media technology and equipment.
• More and younger half-timers finding their calling in church ministry…
• The Dave Ramsey Town Hall type meeting style of distribution of event rather than TBN or other method.
• Executive Pastors.
• True Teaching Teams.
• Succession becoming reality, not just anticipated.
• Changing models of University Ministry.
• Diffusion and deeper penetration of small group models (life groups...cells...) into denominational churches.
• Birth of Internet campuses.
• Missionaries coming to the US and other western countries rather than simply missionaries being sent to "less developed" countries.
• Churches being more willing to partner with other agencies and organizations to accelerate community service.
• Multiple venues (traditional and contemporary) at a single campus.
• More interactive children's ministry resources.
• Transition from "content focus" to "content delivery focus" - this shows itself in lots of ways and is a common thread for many of the items on your list including technology and social networking.
• From "organization centric" to "network centric."
• In church planting - shifting from organization/association centric to church planting church.
• High-capacity marketplace leaders (often boomers) and young social entrepreneurs bypassing the local church to find significance.
• Scorecard for leaders is changing (how they measure success on their scorecards is evolving).
• Prevailing church (mega, multi-site, etc) as delivery system for more organic / incarnational faith communities.
• Growing void in strong student ministers. A decade ago, student ministry was the training ground for getting a solid foundation before planting churches. Today, far more leaders are skipping the student ministry role and going straight to planting. Creates a void in strong student ministry leaders.
• From Elder-led to staff-led governance.
• Expansion of Christian magazines (similar to books and conferences and movies).
• Bringing management and leadership focus to the church (new dimension for pastors).
• From "marketplace to ministry" as a strong source of staff. Far more emphasis on home grown leadership.
• Intern and residency programs rapidly increasing
• Formal staff assessment centers and tools.
• Growth and role of HR departments in churches.
• Support/Service industry of vendors has exponentially expanded at far greater rate than growth/expansion of the church.
• The ubiquity of cell phones as a primary tool to connect everything digital.
• The continued rise of Pentecostal movements around the world.
• The Passion Movement and other student movements go global.
• The belief that the world really is flat.
• Kingdom business incubators to start businesses with the poor around the world.
• Cross-domain collaboration for community building.
• Shared leadership models (from teaching teams to elder/staff combos to volunteer staffing).
• IMicro-economic initiatives by congregations (global as well as local).
• The use of orality and story to communicate the gospel - especially in developing world.
• 24/7 Houses of Prayer.