Do you like or pay attention to trends?

Being a person who grew up in the 70s and is now 53, Retro seems pretty cool to me. In fact, in a recent remodel of our kitchen, a pumpkin spice orange paint was applied to a couple of walls. With Ice Mocha as our new linoleum of choice, pretty cool.


Then there is Hipster Faith. Recently Christianity Today featured many articles on this topic. The Trends Journal - trendsresearch.com,  has some very interesting facts concerning forecasting for the future. Gerald Celente, for example, predicted the 2007 Great Recession.
Trend Hunter Magazine, on the web at trendhunter.com, would be more concerned with pop culture, technology, and fashions. I was really impressed with the turning signal backpacks for bicycle riders. People like Thom Rainer, at thomrainer.com, LifeWay Research, and George Barna - barna.org, have always provided the Christian Community and the Church with interesting facts and trends that effect the way we do church and also give us insight into Christian behavior and practices. Thom recently came out with the Five Major Trends For Churches in America.

Let's look at these and the impact they might have on all of us in Church. Since these trends are the result of American demographics, we must not transfer the implications beyond our own borders.

Trend #1

Our nation will see the emergence of the largest generational mission field in over a century. That is because only 15% of the Millennial generation (those born from 1980-2000) claim to be Christian. There are 80,000,000 of them - the first and only generation to have more people than the Baby Boomers (those born from 1946-1964) at 78,000,000.

Trend #2

The dominant attitude of the Millennials toward Christianity will be largely indifferent. Only 13% of this generation would consider spiritual matters important to their lives. Are they angry at us or the church? No, they simply ignore us because we are irrelevant and have no meaning in their lives.

Trend #3

Senior adult ministries in churches will experience a steep decline. Us proud Baby Boomers will resist any suggestion that we are senior adults no matter how old we get. Unfortunately, many churches are slow to adapt to new realities. The church will not be able to do ministry here as usual, unless they want to experience a train wreck.

Trend #4

However, the Boomers will become more receptive to the gospel. We will tend to become more interested in spiritual matters in general and Christianity specifically. This is counter to typical trends that tend to point out the older a person gets the less receptive they will become toward the gospel. This generation has  

spent it’s whole life looking for hope and joy outside of Christ and come up empty. They may be more than ready to find the only thing that could fill their lifelong vacuum, Christ!

Trend #5

Family will be a key value for both of these large generations. Family is the most important value for Millennials. Eighty percent of all Millennials would list this as the most important issue in their lives. The Millennials also reported that they have very healthy relationships with their parents, who for the most part are Boomers.

Some churches say they are family friendly, but few actually demonstrate that value. Churches that reach these two generations will have to become churches that foster healthy family relationships.

Trend projecting is a meaningless exercise unless the Church attempts to Overcome Acedia. Each church must study these predictions and be led by the Holy Spirit to best meet the needs of these two largest and most dominant generations. These two generations will determine what the church will look like for decades to come!