1. A reflective spirit will come over evangelicals, initiating several years
of serious self-examination resulting in the discovery of just how far we
have drifted from the shores of orthodoxy.
2. The 80's style up-tempo-cheerleader-performance pace in worship music
will fade faster than Sunday school bussing, and be replaced by a more
pensive, reflective, mellow, (soulful, almost blues) 'balm in Gilead' style
of music.
3. Promisekeepers will rally more than a million men for their gatherings,
but the February ministers conference will be an attendance disappointment
falling far below initial estimates of 70,000 ministers.
4. The latest idea among awakening churches will be a newly scheduled
service designed for 'nothing by prayer.'
5. Evangelical pastors will bury the remains of the success movement, sending
the surviving success 'n leadership entrepreneurs scrambling for new product
lines.
6. The now-in-charge boomers will rapidly become the conservatives,
attempting to cling to the 'gains' of our revolution becoming very much like
the traditionalists we overthrew.
7. The term 'church growth' will all but disappear, being replaced by the
newer phrase, 'church health'
8. Books on doctrine and theology will dominate the marketplace as the
church seeks to rediscover what it really stands for, if anything.
9. Few people will care about what is happening in the 'superchurches' --
and the coming Millennial babies and younger Xers won't know the name 'Bill
Hybels' any better than they know 'Jack Hyles'.
10. Alan Keyes won't win any Republican primaries even though he should.
11. Evangelicals will half-heartedly support Bob Dole as he loses next
November.
12. 40% of professed evangelicals will vote for Bill Clinton as they chuckle
their way home from refinancing their home and church mortgages at a 6%-fixed
rate.
13. Evangelicals will forge a new peace with Roman Catholics not only
officially but [more so] through adopting Catholic role models to admire
(Mother Theresa) and absorbing the writings of influential Catholic authors
(Neuhaus).
14. Middle-aged boomers, now able to see the 'end of the row' will now
decide that a simpler life, smaller house, lower salary, and less famous
pastorate would be a good thing, leaving those who scrambled to the 'top'
perplexed that they are no longer envied.
15. The number of Americans on the net will double to 50 million by the end
of the year, 'flattening' organizations and denominations, and changing
forever the nature of publishing.
16. Increasing tensions with Russia will raise specters of a 'cold peace'
after Boris Yeltsin is not elected in June.
17. The latest push in church planting will be 'Xer churches' but the
boomers will resist the notion saying, "What's wrong with the way we do
worship?' (Once the revolution is over most revolutionaries become
conservatives.)
18. There will be a resurgence of interest in the devotional classics, the
early church fathers, fed especially by their easy availability on the
Internet.
19. The 'Christian contemporary music industry' will make its contribution
the America's GNP of $1.2 Billion (that's 'B').
20. The home school movement will usher in the home college movement as
universities and colleges scramble to be first on the net - by the end of
this year you will be able to work on every degree except a doctorate
on-line, (and a Ph.D. too, if you're satisfied with a bogus one).
21. Denominations will follow the Southern Baptist's lead as para-church and
profiteers increasingly perform th