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TechnoratiAnd as Christians have already been witnessing, the next generations of Christians will speak the Facebook and YouTube language as easily as Americans speak English today.
"The long-term trend is more technology in the Christian culture; what is missing, and what may take several generations to supply, is an understanding of the spiritual meaning of technology," Kelly writes.
Scenario Five
As culture continues to move toward a future of questioning and doubt, Christianity has to "develop a cultural practice of positive questioning, of active holy doubt, and a clear articulation of what is eternal and what is in flux," he notes.
That practice is likely to be constructed not by theologians, Kelly says, but by members of the worldwide church in a distributed social media context. "The wiki-church."
And that includes Muslims.
The Christian community is shrinking in Europe while the Islamic community continues to grow. And while Islam has turned radical and militant in other parts of the world, Kelly points to the millions of non-militant moderate Muslim communities.
"On many social issues moderate Islam and conservative Christianity agree," he contends. "They are both people of the book. They both honor many of the same prophets. They agree on many religious issues like prayer, sexuality, sin, and family.
"It is not impossible to imagine Muslims and Christians becoming allies in the inevitable culture wars of the future. It is no more impossible than imagining Christians and Jews would be allies a thousand years ago."
Kelly predicts 100 years from now, a conservative Christian-Islam alliance might be a serious global political force.
While none of the five scenarios may happen, they are presented in order to gain a firm grasp of the present trends, Kelly says.
"Sometimes it takes an exercise of extrapolating to a thousand years from now to see what is happening tomorrow. Only by extending a trend can we see if it might endure, or survive in the face of other trends, or if it might provoke an awareness of a trend we could not see before."
Correction:Wednesday, February 13, 2008:
An article on Saturday, February 9, 2008, about what the Christian church may look like in the next 1,000 years incorrectly reported that Willow magazine is a publication of Willow Creek Community Church. The Christian Post confirmed with Paul Braoudakis, executive director of Communications for Willow Creek Association, that the magazine is published by the Association and not the church.
Jon Matthew »
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