Feb 19

What will the Christian church look like in the next 1,000 years?

If a devout Christian from the year 1000 A.D. were to be dropped into a mid-morning service at a 21st century progressive church, the medieval Christian wouuld not recognize the Christian faith, says Kevin Kelly in the latest issue of Willow magazine – a publication of the influential Willow Creek Community Church.

So it’s “reasonable and responsible to expect tremendous change in the Christian church” in the next millennium, he writes.

Besides the end of the world happening in this lifetime, Kelly offers five other scenarios – or plausible stories – for what the church may look like in the year 3,000 A.D.

And he cautions, “If Christians don’t seize the future, then unbelievers will.”

Scenario One

The center of Christianity will continue to shift west. Since the time of Christ, the center of gravity for the global Christian church has steadily moved west from its epicenter in Jerusalem. It has shifted to Armenia, Greece, Rome, then into Europe, and further west into North and South America.

Many reports indicate that the center of Christianity is now in Asia and Africa where the Christian population is booming.

But Kelly says it won’t stop there.

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