I fly to Chicago in the morning. The weather does not look good, but we shall see if I make it.

I will be spending the day with some of the missions and pastoral ministries faculty at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Trinity has a great slogan about "studying with the ones who WROTE the books," so I am looking forward to spending time with these great leaders and thinkers.

While I am off to one meeting, let me point you to a story from an earlier meeting.

You can see a good recap here (as always, done well by Mike Ebert from NAMB and Polly House from LifeWay) about a joint strategy meeting with our SBC state conventions, NAMB (my former employer), and LifeWay (my current employer).

There are several interesting items in the story, including Geoff Hammond's comment that, "This is not your father's North America... What used to be a melting pot has become a mixing pot. Cities like New York have 500 people groups represented."

Also, Anthony Jordan, Oklahoma State Exec, echoed the hope of many that, "This may be the beginning of a Great Commission resurgence..." calling on our denominational leaders to work together.

Also, Thom Rainer explains some megatrends in the church. The article listed:

-- The disappearance of the 18-24-year-old in church. Rainer said LifeWay Research has well documented the dropout trends of this age group, and while the church has always seen a drop as young people transition from school to the workforce, "there are solutions emerging."

-- The growth in the multi-venue and multi-campus church.

-- The desire for deeper biblical doctrinal studies. "Those in our churches are asking for preaching with biblical depth in addition to life application," Rainer said.

-- The slowdown in the growth rate of mega-churches. "Not a decrease in the number of mega-churches," Rainer clarified, "but a slowing in the rate of growth."

-- The shortage of pastors. Seminary graduates "don't see themselves in rural, white collar or traditional churches," Rainer noted. "Some states are already seeing a crisis" among traditional churches.

-- The increasing demand for processes. "Churches are asking for help to put resources together," Rainer noted. "Churches are saying: 'Don't just give us products, show how I disciple this young believer.'"

There is some (intentionally) vague reference to some research I presented at the meeting. The reason it is vague is that we plan to do a full release later.

More soon...