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From Issachar

2/22/06

Dear Leadership Team Members:

Our goal over the next three months or so is to be, by God’s grace, like the “men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (I Chronicles 12:32). Having just passed a major church milestone (our 50th anniversary), it seems wise to devote ourselves as the leaders of Calvary Church to a fresh vision for Calvary’s future amidst rapidly changing times. Our tendency, I’m sorry to admit, is sometimes to react to immediate needs rather than respond out of principle and vision.

So here is the plan. Last week we identified a large group of people in the body who are up-to-date with what’s happening in their field and would be in a position to discern trends of the future. Yesterday, we started inviting people on the list to attend a meeting on Sunday, February 26, at 7:30 (or after the gathering with Dr. Craig Blomberg on “The Bible and the Da Vinci Code”) in the Fireside Room. At this meeting the overall plan will be presented including the goals, plan, timetable, and anticipated results. We will try to make it clear what we are, and are not, asking the participants to do.

We will ask the heads of each sub-team to get his or her group together to map out a plan of action. We want each team to come up with a concise set of bullet points (I will distribute Faith Popcorn’s Predictions as a template). These bullet points should succinctly state some of the future trends we see on the horizon and what potential impact they may have on the church and its mission (be sure to include not only foreboding signs, but also hopeful ones).

We are hoping to have all of the gathering, synthesizing, and summarizing of the information done by the middle of March (about a month from now). Obviously we are not expecting a Ph.D. dissertation. All we are looking for are relatively well-recognized trends. We will also ask each group to suggest an article or book that best explains the future of their particular discipline. For example, The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins seems to be a ground-breaking tome on what the future of the church will look like if present trends continue.

Whether you are on the list of participants or not, you are invited to attend. Thank you for your participation in this hopefully invaluable exercise for this body of Christ.

Tom Hovestol

Trend Categories and Suggested Names: (Please Note – These trend categories are somewhat arbitrary and they overlap quite a bit.)

1. Cultural Trends (Includes: Art; Entertainment; Media; Music; Television; Etc.) Paul Andrews; Jim Deeming; Kara Guggenmos; Neil Guggenmos; Jeannine Hansen; Joe Kinkel; Scott Phillips.

2. Demographic Trends (Includes: Longmont; Boulder County; Colorado; National; Global; Singles; Etc.) Ruth Dameron; Alex DelCid; Mike Ide; Gordon Pedrow; Sarah Rebman (works with seniors); Lynn Wing (works with seniors).

3. Economic Trends (Includes: Business; Debt; Disparities in Wealth; Flattening Playing Field; Money; Retail; Savings; Shopping; Work; Etc.) John Andrews; Lacey Bostick (IBM); Damon Carson; John Conrads (John Deere); Kirk Dameron; David Finnegan; Bob Hartz (IBM); Brad Harvey; Mike Ide; Bob Lenehan; Anahid Logue; Walt Logue; John Medvetz; Ron Morrow; Dave Swenson; Jeff Teebken; George Wood; Frank Zartman.

4. Educational Trends (Includes: Higher Education; Public; Private; Standards; Etc.) Brad Bartels; Pat Brunner; Sara Hamlin; Doris Mati; Tino Mora; Barb Moore; Shari Morrow; Denise Rominger; John Weeks.

5. Moral Trends (Includes: Sexuality; Values; Worldview; Etc.) Lorne Bandy; Clint Clark; Jeff Giles; Carl Rider; Meg Robinson; John Vahlencamp.

6. Political Trends (Includes: Church and State; Globalization; Government; Polarization; Public Services; Etc.) Jay Harbour; Ryan Hodgin; Bill King; Tom Moore; Dan Smith; Annie Snyder.

7. Psychological Trends (Includes: Depression; Homosexuality; Suicide; Etc.) Lorne Bandy; Pam Pedrow; Sharon Rout; Kyle Vaught.

8. Religious Trends (Includes: Fundamentalism; Missions; Pluralism; Proselytizing; Spiritualism; Stewardship; Trends in Christianity; Etc.) Dan Aschmann; Dick Bunger; George Divirnak; Marc Faulkner; Tom Hovestol; Bob Lenehan; Jerry Meyer; Ralph Shepard.

9. Science Trends (Includes: Bioengineering; Energy; Environment; Genetics; Etc.) Alex Bonjour; Gabe Chou; Jeff Glover; Steve Gonzales; Goeff Gorbold; Brian Hansen; Stephanie Hodgin; George Koh; David Lu; Richard Runkles.

10. Sociological Trends (Includes: Family; Food and Drink; Health; Health care; Leisure; Marriage; Social Services; Etc.) Doug Dewey; Larry Forrest; Carol Gerke; Tom and Barb Fletcher; Jan Kyner (works for city); Cynthia Mannering; Barb and Larry Mattes; Dave McCarty; Sharon Rominger; Diane Wetterstrom (works in prison ministry).

11. Youth and Technology Trends (Includes: Communications; Gadgetry; Media; News; Etc.) Jeremy Hall; Ryan Hodgin; David Shattuck.