The church of the future will work to bring the scriptures into contact with more and more people in more and more meaningful ways. She will gamify our devotion and share our ongoing education via open resources, nonlocal and asynchronous discussion, streaming, and public dialogue using such diverse mediums as apps, interactives, comics, films, cards, books, games, and images.

If there is a way the Story can be told, there is a responsibility the Story must be told. How? However we can. Where? Wherever we can go. When? As soon as possible.

This idea of communicating the gospel in the language of the people is an old idea. The gospel, after all, was first articulated in Aramaic (a.k.a. NOT the voice of the common people in 1st Century Rome). While the message remained in the language of one ethnicity within the Empire it remained isolated and ineffectual. It was only when the Second Testament began to be circulated in koine Greek—street slang—that it took off, and Christian spirituality began to spread like wild fire.

We must retranslate the gospel into our shared language, our koine, which is the language of pop culture.

Adapted from Then. Now. Next.: A Biblical vision of the church, the kingdom, and the future.