Sources: Barna and others
Have you been asked to address a group or write an article about the future of missions, missions and the next generation, or missions in a post-pandemic world? There seems to be a lot of that going around!
Some of the conversation circles around the recent 100-page report released by Barna. The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention commissioned Barna to research how young Christians’ perspectives on missions are different from older believers’ and this is the result. The Future of Missions: 10 Questions About Global Ministry that the Church Must Answer with the Next Generation. But there are several ways to explore the findings besides reading the report.
- Attend the IMB’s online summit The Future of Missions on Thursday, October 29, 7-9pm Eastern. The two-hour presentation will feature Barna President David Kinnamin and a “panel of experts” talking about diversity in missions, implications of urbanization, the state of the American church, and what Gen Z thinks about missions.
- Listen to Barna’s Savannah Kimberlin on The Future of Mission Mobilization, interviewed by David P. Jacob on the Missionary Mobilization podcast. Google can help you find other places she is discussing this content.
- Read three blog posts discussing the report’s findings and implications at A Life Overseas, written by Rebecca Hopkins, and/or three more posts from UK missiologist Eddie Arthur (who finds the report seriously flawed and raises some helpful points).