There will always be the temptation to go backwards to where God was. I love history. I have read and studied history for most of my life. I believe that we can learn much from the early Church. But, I do not believe that the past is where we are meant to live.
God and His plans are moving forward. Things have changed a lot over the two thousand years of Church History. The early Church did not get everything right. In fact, they really had some major issues that they had to sort through. The modern Church does not get everything right. We have our own set of issues that we are sorting through. Every generation of Christians is building on the foundation of those who went before them. As we are building, however, we come to see that the blueprints have some gaps in them. The New Testament leaves us with many unanswered questions about the Church, its organization, and how we can most effectively reach the world that we live in. It seems that God lets each generation of Church Leaders wrestle with the challenges that are particular to their generation and design a blueprint to overcome those challenges.
I am incredibly excited about the present and the future for the Church. My church, The C3 Church (www.thec3church.com), is part of a Church planting movement that is focused on adding another 800 or so new churches by 2020. We do not have all the answers but we know that those answers will be found as we move forward.
What do you think the Church will look like in ten years? Twenty years? What are some of the challenges that the Church faces today?
