Winning the World

Session 4: Sanctifying the Present by Embodying the Past, Preparing for the Future 65

f. Trend #6: Participation in reality – insistence on being personally involved in the systems and issues that affect their lives, a “hands-on” approach, pp. 46-7

g. Trend #7: Finding true meaning – Americans accelerated openness to understanding themselves in terms of sacrifice and surrender, p. 47

3. These trends have unleashed a “massive shift in emphasis . . . Specifically, I expect that only about one-third of the population will rely upon a local congregation as the primary or exclusive means for experiencing and expressing their faith; one-third will do so through alternative forms of a faith-based community; and one-third will realize their faith through the media, the arts, and other cultural institutions,” p. 49.

a. (Note: The family will remain the central conduit for faith experience and expression to only about 5% of the population!)

b. “You don’t have to like this transition, but you must deal with it,” p. 50 (either defensively and negatively, or with the hope of learning, breakthrough).

4. God is active today in the midst of bringing about transformation through spiritual mini-movements .

a. They are reaching literally millions of people, p. 54.

b. They are diverse (e.g., home schooling, house churches, biblical worldview groups, marketplace ministries, spiritual discipline networks, Christian creative arts guilds, etc.).