FUTURING

I know I talk about this kind of stuff a lot, but it is on my heart a lot and in my head a lot. And as I try to learn via people smarter than me, which is almost EVERYONE, I find my heart beating just a little faster when I read certain things. Like about 'futuring.'

Recently I was reading something by a man named Cecil Murphey, who started his journey in his twenties after spotting a book in the window of a Waukegan, Illinois used bookstore. The book was "Magnificent Obsession" by Lloyd Douglas. From there, his journey took him to the U.S. Navy, public school teacher, missionary to Kenya, Columbia seminary, pastoring in Georgia, and eventually writing full time.

And when I write this kind of thing, I don't write it to raise any hackles or be controversial at all. It is quite simply how my heart is beating - and what I believe. If it is edgy, it is not the intention.

Murphey reminds us that we're asking questions people haven't asked before. Not til now.
Twenty-five years ago, how many churches acknowledged that some marriages between believers didn't last 'until death us do part?'

In your grandma's church, how many members seriously debated issues such as euthanasia and homosexuality?

A generation ago, how many churched people expressed real concern about the environment or questioned whether there would be enough fuel for our grandchildren's generation?

Society has changed; we have lost the stability our parents enjoyed and took for granted. Studies indicate that most people with college degrees aren't working in the field of their educational major. People used to go to work for a company, stay with that company forty years and retire with a watch and a good-bye party.

However, one research study predicts most people in this country today will hold at least seven different jobs. The editors of The New Millenial project that those who enter the job market after 2020 will change jobs ... EVERY ... YEAR.

What does all of that mean to me - or to you - or to the church? Just this. That despite all the changes, basic human needs have not changed. People still hurt. They need to know they are loved and especially that God loves them and wants to have fellowship with them. Sunday school teachers no longer focus on what David did with the four unused stones when he slew Goliath. Now, they teach about the role of prayer in coping with major stress or how to have real inner peace when the company downsizes.

And forty-five minute messages? I'm less sure these days. SOME people are doing that - and with relative success. But the remotes are out there clicking away, tuning us out probably before we've reached the 20-minute mark. So ... FUTURING must be done as the church moves forward by finding new ways of presenting the old story - before we're tuned out by the mental remotes - or worse - declared obsolete by the culture.

Pray for us.

And be blessed.