Christianity has evolved in various ways since it began two-thousand years ago- sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. In its purest form, the message of Christianity never changes, only the method in which the message is transferred. The first decade of this new millennium was no exception as the Church witnessed many monumental shifts in its culture.

THE EMERGING CHURCH

As the decade began, many young Christians in the post-modern world started to feel disenfranchised by the Modern American Evangelical Church Culture and its penchant for consumerism.

So in response, there was a strong push to get back to the roots of New Testament Christianity. This was done somewhat successfully as these young progressive Christians turned their attention towards authentic community, responsible stewardship of resources, compassion and justice for the poor and oppressed, and the importance of the words of Jesus.

But the ‘hard to define’ movement became more known for their candles, prayer labyrinths, and doctrinally vague leaders prone to relativism than their desire to grow closer to Christ; and has now been confusingly divided into two classifications: The Emerging Church, and the Emergent Church. It will be interesting to see what the new decade has in store for this mysterious trend in Christianity.

MULTISITE CHURCH

One surprisingly successful and pleasant trend of the 2000’s in the church world was the emergence of Multisite Churches.

As churches began to grow and were hungry to reach others for Christ, instead of launching large giving campaigns and erecting enormous fortune-costing buildings that could seat thousands of people only to find out that they would have to add more services or build larger buildings as they continued to grow, they began to open up medium sized campuses all over the metro areas where their ministries were based.

This has enabled churches to reach more people in more areas of their cities for less money. They reach more people because it’s easier for people to invite their friends to church if the church is in their own neighborhood, and the church can do that in multiple neighborhoods at the same time. It’s cheaper because they can rent a facility on Sundays to hold their worship gatherings in various neighborhoods or can erect many smaller buildings on smaller pieces of property versus a giant building on a humongous piece of property, and can centralize their leadership and administration in one location.

Technology has allowed this to be possible in recent years. One pastor can deliver one message to multiple campuses and tens of thousands of people at one time through relatively cheap satellite or internet broadcasting. Or the pastor’s message during the church’s first Saturday evening service can be recorded and then shown to the following services during the same weekend at several locations. Throw in a local campus pastor to shepherd the people and a live campus worship band and you have yourself an authentic church service. And the strange thing is – studies show that the congregations prefer to watch their pastor via video versus in person.

HIPSTER PASTORS

Another interesting trend in Christianity during the past decade was the emergence of Hipster Pastors. In the past, pastors were expected to dress formally wherever they went so that they would be distinguished from the rest of the world. Inevitably, this caused people to see pastors as individuals who were elevated above the rest of society and, subsequently, they became totally unrelatable and irrelevant to the very people they were trying to reach out to.

So a few progressive leaders across the Evangelical world starting dressing down, and starting dressing hip so that they would be seen as culturally progressive within their unchristian communities in order to be relatable and relevant to the new world they now found themselves in.

Pastors like Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, Ed Young, and Steven Furtick have become almost as well known for their urban-progressive-yet-casual-fashion-sense as they have their theology.

And now on Sunday mornings all across America you are more likely to see your pastors wearing jeans, untucked shirts, bulky glasses, tight t-shirts, fashion-forward boots, and even flip flops than polyester suits, ties, sweater vests, and nicely polished oxfords.

A LOOK AHEAD

While this has been merely a brief snapshot of the past decade, it will be fascinating to see what the teenage years of the New Millennium will have in store.

Here’s to hoping for less plastic ‘spinner’ hubcaps, Facebook Farmville requests, and guys wearing pink shirts with popped collars; and more awesome ‘As Seen On TV’ products like the Snuggie and the ShamWow, Fail Blog, YouTube Videos, and of course – world peace.

“Peace Out!”- Another expression I hope we can leave in the past!

This is the 5th in a series of 5 articles to be posted this week.

Part 1: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: September 11th
Part 2: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Communication
Part 3: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Money and Environmentalism
Part 4: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Entertainment
Part 5: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Christianity

Anthony Trask is blessed with an incredible wife and two awesome kids. He currently co-pastors Fellowship Church in NE Salem. You can listen to his weekly messages at www.fellowshipsalem.com or read his blog at www.anthonytrask.com.

TELEVISION

During the 2000’s, Survivor started a Reality TV revolution. It spurred on countless other Reality Shows with topics ranging from ‘Home Remodeling’ to’ Talent Shows,’ from ‘Normal People Living in a Big House’ to ‘Dating Shows,’ and from ‘Plastic Surgery’ to ‘Dumb Celebrities Living in Small Town America.’

The 2000’s saw the complete and total destruction of MTV as it transitioned from being a cool channel that showed music videos all the time, into being a channel that showed trashy Reality TV about teens living very abnormally wealthy lives and grown men hitting each other in the crotch with hockey sticks – on purpose.

But there were some amazing things that happened to television in the 2000’s: flat screen TVs and the DVR.

Big screens became affordable, packed amazing high definition pictures, and could now easily be hung on the wall as their weight radically decreased.

And no longer would you be forced to watch commercials or be a slave to the time slot your show was on. All you now have to do is tell your cable box to record the shows of your choice, watch them on your schedule, and fast forward through all the Snuggie commercials.

CELEBRITIES

The 2000’s were a decade of celebrity obsession. The masses waited with baited breath to find out the status of Brad and Jennifer, Brad and Angelina, Nick and Jessica, and John and Kate. It was big news when a young starlet thought that ‘Chicken of the Sea’ was chicken, not tuna. And everyone stood in awe whenever a celebrity came out of the closet. But probably the most tragic example of America’s celebrity worship over the past decade was the rise and fall, and rise again of Brittany Spears.

MUSIC

This past decade saw the total evolution of the music industry as people stopped buying CDs and starting listening to music on the mega successful iPod. The iPod hands-down was THE gadget of the decade. This meant complete acceptance of illegally downloading music instead of paying for it at all. And now instead of relying on millions of dollars in revenue from record sales, artists have to be creative in their money making, heavily relying on concert ticket and merchandise sales in order to make a buck.

And sadly, an overall snapshot of the world of music during the 2000’s cannot be given without mentioning the death of music’s biggest superstar, Michael Jackson.

FLIM

Batman movies are cool again. Enough said.

This is the 4th in a series of 5 articles to be posted this week.

Part 1: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: September 11th
Part 2: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Communication
Part 3: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Money and Environmentalism
Part 4: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Entertainment

Anthony Trask is blessed with an incredible wife and two awesome kids. He currently co-pastors Fellowship Church in NE Salem. You can listen to his weekly messages at www.fellowshipsalem.com or read his blog at www.anthonytrask.com.

MONEY

As the decade and the millennium began, the economy was soaring high off of the last remnants of the dot-com boom. And as people were freely spending money, banks were freely lending it without doing their homework to make sure that it could actually be paid back.

Because people were borrowing so much money so freely, they were investing in real estate like never before – buying big houses that only a decade earlier they would not have been able to buy. Then the prices of homes sky-rocketed.

And as the decade drew to a close, people’s interest rates on their loans rose along with the prices of the homes. People, who were barely scraping by with lower interest rates, could no longer afford their mortgages. House were in foreclosure like never before, property values began to take a nose dive, the stock market plummeted, employers laid off record numbers of employees, and before we knew it we were in a full-on recession.

ENVIRONMENTALISM

One thing became apparent quickly in the New Millennium; Green was the new Black.

Now saving the environment, once reserved for liberal hemp-wearing hippies in towns like Eugene and Berkley, was hip!

Words like ‘Carbon Footprint,’ ‘Global Warming,’ ‘Eco-Friendly,’ ‘Clean-Energy,’ ‘Bio Diesel,’ and ‘Hybrid Car’ became as common as reruns of the Fresh Prince of Bell Air on Nick at Nite. And Al Gore, who once was seen as the boring robotic Vice President for Bill Clinton, was now the global superstar for environmentalism.

This is the 3rd in a series of 5 articles to be posted this week.

Part 1: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: September 11th
Part 2: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Communication
Part 3: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Money and Environmentalism

Anthony Trask is blessed with an incredible wife and two awesome kids. He currently co-pastors Fellowship Church in NE Salem. You can listen to his weekly messages at www.fellowshipsalem.com or read his blog at www.anthonytrask.com.

One of the most notable technological and social changes that took place during the past decade was the ways in which we communicate.

TEXTING

The decade started with almost every adult in the nation owning a mobile phone, and people talked on them proudly – some even sporting new high tech ‘secret service’ish’ headsets to gloat in their new self-found importance.

But almost overnight, text messaging became THE way for young people (specifically) to communicate. No longer would you have to have obligatory small talk with someone when you wanted to tell them what time you would be home for dinner. Now you could simply type a short response and have it sent in no time and get back to playing that critically important video game without ever having to hear the sound of a human voice.

Texting has fundamentally changed the way we talk and type. Abbreviation has become the new grammatical norm; as we regularly use phrases such as, “LOL, WTH?, TTYL, BFF, and OMG” in order to spend even less valuable time actually communicating with someone.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

About midway through the decade a new behemoth of communication broke onto the global scene: Social Networking!

Almost immediately, two websites emerged as THE way to connect with friends old and new on the worldwide web: MySpace and Facebook. You no longer needed to actually communicate with your friends, now all you have to do is check their status updates to see what they’ve been up to. Wanting to meet your best friend’s new girlfriend, but don’t have the time? No worries, all you have to do is send them a friend request and check out a few pics and your good.

Facebook and MySpace make things like keeping up with long-lost high school friends, and annoying relatives, seamless and instantaneous.

Throw in Twitter to the mix, with its on-the-fly microblogging that simultaneously updates your Facebook status, and you have a system that in less than five years has revolutionized the way we connect and communicate with others. And there’s only room for this new medium to grow and evolve.

With all seriousness though, Texting and Social Networking can be used to keep in contact with more people, more often, in less time. My only fear is that, if we are not careful, real face to face intimate relationships will suffer and turn into mere virtual connections.

This is the 2nd in a series of 5 articles to be posted this week.

Part 1: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: September 11th
Part 2: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Communication

Anthony Trask is blessed with an incredible wife and two awesome kids. He currently co-pastors Fellowship Church in NE Salem. You can listen to his weekly messages at www.fellowshipsalem.com or read his blog at www.anthonytrask.com.

“The instinct to challenge the process is a fundamental quality of every leader. When God created leaders, he equipped them with an unsettling urge to unpack, undo, and unearth methods. This explains your tendency to question everything around you. It’s the reason you have such strong opinions – and such a strong desire to share them. God wired you that way. Deep in your heart you may feel that if you were in charge, things would not only be different, they’d be better. This is not a problem of arrogance or pride. It’s simply the way God wired you. It’s a good thing.”

Thanks Andy Stanley, for those words.

My own biggest critic – Me. The person with the greatest power and influence to slow the forward motion of my progress with God – ME. God created us. God put dreams in our hearts. God placed talent in our hands and vision in our soul. He can’t show us all at once how awesome a plan He has for us – we wouldn’t believe it if He did. We would doubt. We would most likely run in fear. We are our own greatest critic, greatest limitation. Yet we are God’s handiwork. We exist to be God’s fingerprint on His creation.

People will doubt your call. People will even hate you because of your call (sounds like something Jesus said). People will fear you. People will tell stories about you and try to hurt you.

Our responsibility is to wake up every morning not worrying about who is against us or who is on our side but rather whose side we are on. Are you on God’s side? Are you following His lead? Are you worrying about making your mark or making His mark? Are you concerned about the rumors? The doubters? The haters? Or are you concerned with knowing that you are on the side of the Creator? Really, what does it matter who is for us? What does it matter who is against us?

I am for God. God is for me. And this is just the beginning.

Chad has spent the last decade as a youth pastor and worship leader. In the past few years, he has successfully led and developed of one of the largest and fastest growing youth and college ministries in Northwest Ohio. Chad lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife Katie and two daughters, Morgan and Macy. He is co-founder of the Columbus Church Project and leads a growing team of 20-something young people committed to planting a new church in the Columbus area in 2010.