future

Church

ministry in a post-seeker age

jim L. wilson

nashville, tennessee

© 2004

by James L. Wilson

All rights reserved

ISBN 0-8054-3134-9

Published by Broadman & Holman Publishers

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 262.7

Subject Heading: CHURCH

An earlier version was published by Serendipity House (2002).

Scripture quotations are identified as follows: KJV, King James Version. MSG, The Message, the New Testament in Contemporary English, © 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson, published by NavPress, Colorado Springs, Colo. NASB, the New American Standard Bible, © the Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977; used by permission. NIV, Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. NLT, Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

I dedicate this book to two pastors

A few years ago a retired pastor who was a part of the congregation I was serving stopped by the office to pray for me. Though I don’t remember everything he said in his prayer, one phrase does stick in my mind. He prayed, “Lord, bless our pastor as he stands on his Father’s shoulders to minister to us.” Until that day I never really thought about the advantages I have because I grew up in the home of Larry and Barbara Wilson, but since then I’ve never forgotten them.

So I dedicate this book to the man on whose shoulders I stand, the Reverend Larry Wilson of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He is more than my father; he is my pastor and my mentor.

I also dedicate this book to the late Reverend Jack Miller. Jack has always been a great encourager to me. A few weeks before he went to be with the Lord, he and his wife Peggy sat in my living room and listened as I read portions from the book I was working on at the time—this book. Discussing Future Church was one of the final conversations I had with Jack before he died. Jack was more than a father-in-law to me—he was my friend. I miss him.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction: Moving the World

1. Get Creative

2. Get Spiritual

3. Get Radical

4. Get Real

5. Get Truthful

6. Get Multi

7. Get Connected

Conclusion: The Lighthouse

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Foreword

by Sally Morgenthaler

The new church is here. It came imperceptibly, like a waft of first spring musk at the tired edge of winter: barely distinguishable yet blowing into the subconscious a sense of much-longed-for visitation. Ah, something new, something that we did not create!

Thus the new church arrived—unannounced and unstrategied. How ironic. After two and some decades of trying to manufacture the new church with the wind machines of formula and program, it came anyway, and with it, a deep and humanly resonant reexamination of American Christendom. From theology, anthropology, and ...