tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10440952.post596296919768193118..comments2023-12-27T14:54:22.671-08:00Comments on The Kew Continuum: Reflections on the 20/20 Report of 2001Richard Kewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10917359509462320976noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10440952.post-37477148763547051052009-10-26T05:50:12.328-07:002009-10-26T05:50:12.328-07:00Jim,I have thought long and hard about this very q...Jim,I have thought long and hard about this very question, and there was certainly a lot that I/we got wrong as we attempted to read the tea leaves of the future. (It also has to be said that there were a good few things that we got right -- which is always the way it is when you stick your neck out in such a way.)<br /><br />What I think we overlooked entirely in the 1990s (which was when much of the writing was taking place), was just how influential the Internet was going to be. We were making prognostications on the basis of a very different metabolism of ideas and movements. This has meant that a lot of things that could have been projected in the context of a fairly stable state pre-1995ish, have run in many different ways subsequently. <br /><br />We stand in good company. Bill Gates, with access to far more resources and research than us, got it wrong, and I don't think that any of us fully understood how the interconnectedness of the world would accelerate the process of change -- as well as eroding past stabilities.<br /><br />The left (or whatever you want to call it) have been far more savvy about using the media than the right. Add to that the reality that conservatives (or whatever) are fissiparous in the extreme. The orthodox have weakened themselves by divisiveness, inflexibility, and a tendency to 'eat their own young.' Thus, the political strategy has been lost.<br /><br />Actually, Brave New Church was much closer to the mark than anything I ever wrote, and there is a chapter in there which predicted "A Process of Radical Ecclesial Reconfiguration." That, surely, is precisely what is happening?Richard Kewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10917359509462320976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10440952.post-10230277404604848652009-10-25T05:55:08.704-07:002009-10-25T05:55:08.704-07:00Richard,
Thank you for the reflection on the 20/20...Richard,<br />Thank you for the reflection on the 20/20 Report. <br />Sadly, the latest figures show a continual decline in TEC.<br />What triggered my interest in "new" church was your book, Toward 2015. In particular, that our business was to make Christians, not just Anglicans. I later helped edit Brave New World.<br />What is striking is that these works really foretold a different future for TEC. <br />Unfortunately, yours and a few other voices are gone.<br />In 1992, we helped plant a new mission in North Carolina. By 2001,<br />we had grown to almost 400 people on Sunday, primarily reaching folks outside TEC in a contemporary style. After,2003, it never reached those previous levels. In Sept. 2009, the attendance was at 40 and the property sold by the diocese.<br />The leadership at all levels has been ineffective. Everything rises and falls on leadership tells the story.<br /><br />Jim Baker<br />North Carolina<br />USAAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com