Future trends

I have just been to a conference in Edinburgh looking at how technology will shape our future, lots of food for thought, one Guy Peter Cochrane, a futurist and Guru on all things future and Technical was particularly interesting particularly looking at how social networking and Web 2.0 is shaping the future and how big businesses are starting to sit up and take notice.

 

He also spoke about the positive effects that the increase on gaming is having on young people. One point that struck me is how the gaming generation are able to think more strategically due to the new skills that they have developed.

It got me wondering how prepared we are as Church for the changes that are ahead

look ahead or get left behind

Around about twelve years ago I was in a meeting of Youth leaders in the South Wales Valleys. I remember it for two reasons, firstly it was the first time Deb and I had met with a chap called James Galloway, a young cocky chap, skinny with a mop of blond hair, in the last twelve years we have grown ugly together, increased our waistlines, lost our hair and been involved in a fantastic adventure doing life together, working with South Wales Youth alive, Selah youth network, concept ministries and now at Bethel the awesome 21^st century church in Stoke on Trent.

 

The second thing I remember from that night is being involved in a heated discussion concerning the internet. I had proposed that the youth network I belonged to should set up a web page; I was shot down in flames by a number of people who thought the internet was only for pornography, a fad and would never catch on or be of any use whatsoever. Thankfully attitudes have changed and people like lifechurch.tv with their excellent swerve and open sites, church relevance and Catalyst to name just a few now supply great resources and information for churches and pastors looking for a web presence.

 

That said things move quickly, facebook is the new thing, I wonder how many Churches and Christians are pursuing this avenue? What about blogs, since we have set up the suite of Bethel blogs we have seen an amazing amount of traffic access our sites, and then there are online worlds like second life and WOW where there are no Christian representation as far as I am aware. It would be dangerous to look at such things as fads or passing phases, take second life, an on line world where you create little characters and wander around. It would be easy to see second life as a gimmick a flash in the pan until you realise that the BBC, CNN and FOX news all have an online presence there. There are millions of users and you can buy property inside the game for thousands of (very real) dollars. Major companies are queuing up to be part of it. I fear that the Christian community could yet again be caught cold and be forced to play catch up once more.