Dawn Of The Third Millennium Church by Dr. James O. Davis

According to Webster, a movement is “an organized effort to promote or attain an end.” There are cycles to movements and usually movements overtime become the opposite of what they started out to be. The first cycle generates, the second motivates, the third speculates and the fourth dissipates. If one’s movement is not moving, then it is, in effect, more like a monument. Dr. Leonard Sweet says, “The Church must return to the original operating system,” The Missional Church, Global Church Divinity School (GCDS.tv).

History is replete with conservatism giving way to liberalism and light giving way to dark. It is not that the darkness has become stronger, but rather the light became weaker, which is one of the major reasons why the Great Commission has not been completed. Instead of the Church remaining as a thermostat regulating temperature, over time it became a thermometer that only reflects temperature. The goal should be to win souls for Christ so that the spiritual temperature will rise and the world will be transformed. The only way out of decline is an upward vision to lift the Church.

The Old-World View

When we launched the Global Church Network (www.GCNW.tv) in 2002, I shared with Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, our vision for online training vision based on the innovative technology platform our team was building. He immediately replied, “In the future, more students will be trained online than all of the current universities and seminaries in the world.” Together, Dr. Bright and I launched the Billion Soul® Harvest and gratefully achieved this goal in November 2019.

When Dr. Bright and I launched the Global Church Divinity School (www.GCDS.tv) not long after, we predicted, “In the years to come, online training will be the major way that leaders are taught for ministry and professional work.” I remember several leaders saying, “That will never work. We will never see the Internet in our lifetime in every place on earth.”

When I get an email from my friends from Oceania or now Zoom with them, I still think of the early conversations with leaders who at that point did not see the tidal wave of technology coming their way.

As the Church approaches the Third Millennium, we have been afforded another opportunity to get out front and on the cutting edge of evangelism, discipleship and vision-casting. The Lord is not calling us to live in the “was” but in the “is.” He is not pushing us from the back but pulling us forward into the now. Old maps will not work in the new land. How do we read the map now?

With respect to training, while the world has been moving toward a “go and teach” paradigm for more than 20 years, the Church has largely remained in the old attraction model “come and hear.” One of the main reasons that Church attendance is down, is because most of the Saints have stopped bringing the lost to the House of God. Nowhere in the New Testament are lost people commanded to “go to church.” However, time and again the saved are commanded to go, share and compel the lost to come so that “My house might be full.”

Jesus said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself…” (John 12:23, ASV). He is the greatest magnetic force of all time. We have not been commissioned to make our local churches more attractive, but instead to lift Jesus higher. He is the attraction; He draws all peoples unto Himself. Instead of being more seeker sensitive, I suggest we become more Savior sensitive. Of course, we need excellent lighting, great sound systems and friendly ushers in the local church. Yet, we live in a time when it is going to take a lot more than a state-of-the-art building to attract the lost to walk inside. If leadership does not grasp and take ownership of this fundamental, biblical principle, then then as we enter the Third Millennium, the Church will be further behind the curve.

Between Two Worlds

As we move from the Second Millennium to the Third Millennium Church, it is imperative that we realize that the world is now our campus. When the previous generation went to college, they went to a “where” for their education. Today, the important question is not, “Where did you study?” but “who taught you when you studied?” In time, the old scholastic system will collapse due to cost and complexity. I am willing to predict by 2030 to 2035, the old models will be gone. Just think about it: a private Christian college education today averages $120,000 or more. Ten years from now, a faith-based higher learning degree will cost in excess of $200,000. Do we really think that parents and students are going to continue to pay those enormous sums?

For the last twenty years, the old Gutenberg model (print, cement classrooms, and professors) has been giving way to the new Google model (digital papers and books, access to information without authority figures). Today, students need authority figures to process, rather than merely access information.

Instead of adopting the accreditation model, the world is gradually moving to a credentialing model. In the past a recognized organization trusted[JS1]  institutions by making them “legitimate” to give degrees to students. Yet, distance died with the birth and expansion of the Internet. We live in a whole new world.

 [JS1]We were hoping to clarify this sentence. Could we change to “qualified”? We could say “In the past a recognized organization qualified institutions and made them “legitimate” to give degrees to students.

The New World Vision

As the Church enters into this new reality, we are going to have let go of old world paradigms. When the COVID pandemic hit technology did not slow down but rather sped it up. For example, I know pastors who had intentionally chosen not to ramp up their technology in support of their website, online streaming, etc. Yet, the coronavirus disruption forced them to do so or to close their doors permanently – adapt, or die. What is amazing is that they knew the Internet was increasing every year, but they chose to do nothing to get ready, until the tsunami hit.

As we move into the future, third-millennium-church-evangelism will be extremely important. Pastors will have to make fundamental decisions as to how the technology is utilized in the Church. The temptation will be, “What got us through the pandemic is now the new model.”

First, strategies should be deployed to reach the lost. It is imperative that believers utilize this new world vision to build bridges to their friends who do not know Christ. Creative approaches should be developed and vetted regarding how bring the unsaved to the local church, and ultimately to Christ. Simply streaming a worship service is not a strategy. Every pastor should give careful thought as to how to protect their Christ-centered preaching, so that it cannot ripped from the Internet simply because Big Tech does not approve it.

Secondly, as we step into this new world, third-millennium-church-education is a must for success. Since distance is no longer a factor, the world is our campus, and the local church now has a renewed in-house opportunity to train and disciple both young and seasoned believers. Insourcing will replace outsourcing and become common place. Every local church can become a training campus, where members are trained onsite by the best minds in Christendom. The Global Church Divinity School (www.GCDS.tv) was built to empower the local church to open its own campus, establish a low-cost threshold and multiply their leaders like never before. We live in time when students don’t have to be sent away to learn; but can learn by the best leaders, where they live today.

Currently, there is a cataclysmic battle between Big Tech and cable companies, and the tech giants are winning. A recent Forbes article stated that the number of people who cut the cord from cable television in 2021 has more than tripled since 2014, going from going from 15.6 million to a projected 50.4 million. Except for certain special events, for the most part, viewers do not watch programed television but rather consume media they want to watch, when they want to watch it. You may ask, “What does this have to do with local church education? Everything! This shift that distance is dead and the world is our campus has already begun, and will further accentuate and accelerate.

In addition, we have entered into third-millennium-church-expansion. In the past when solid members left our churches, we simply prayed for them and said goodbye. Yet, today, missional consideration should be given as to whether or not individuals, couples or families who are leaving could become ambassadors for their church. In other words, instead of simply saying good-bye to them, consider whether or not the Lord of the harvest would desire for them to begin a house church, where they go. Think about it. Since the Internet does not know distance, members could be missionaries as to they go to different places around the world. In time, any local church could have tens, if not hundreds, of multisite locations around the world. We must move from addition to multiplication.

The Uncharted World Before US

While in Lisbon, Portugal, some years ago, I arranged for a Spanish speaking driver to take me to Palos, Spain, located three hours away. When I arrived at this small sea town, I went to a very old monastery, where I looked at the old-world artifacts. As I walked into “The Vision Room,” I read the words above the entrance, “The Birthplace of America.”

I sat in the actual chair used by Christopher Columbus in 1491, when he met with a Franciscan Monk, who was a close friend to the King and Queen of Spain. Columbus proposed using a new trade route, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean instead of around the tip of Africa. The Franciscan Monk bought into that vision and shared it with the Queen, who communicated it to the King, after which the King and Queen funded Columbus’ journey to The New World.

Columbus had previously outlined the same vision with leaders of Portugal, but found no purchase, as they immediately dismissed it. I have often wondered, if Portugal had the opportunity to think about it again, if they would have chosen differently? They missed one of the grandest paradigm shifts in human history.

After my visit to The Vision Room, I went to the actual location where Columbus’ original boats – Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria – were anchored, which today is a lovely grass lawn with a fountain. As I stood there, I prayed, “Lord please double the size of the Church in my generation and make it harder for people who live on the earth to not hear the Gospel.”

I submit to you that we have a new world before us. It is time for the Third Millennium Church to set its technological sails into the ocean of evangelism, education and expansion or we will have missed one of the grandest opportunities of this generation.