Springfield | Preparing for the coming demographic cliff and what it means for churches was part of Tuesday afternoon’s keynote speaker Kelly Kannwischer’s discussion at the Illinois Leadership Summit. The January 21-22 summit focused on building future ready churches by recognizing trends and differences in generational leadership in light of the timelessness of the gospel message. Just over 200 church leaders from across the state attended the event held at the IBSA building.
The meeting included four keynote addresses and 21 breakout sessions. Worship was led by a team from Gospelife Church in Wheaton.
An immediate concern for future-conscious leaders is the coming demographic cliff Kannwischer described. Just beginning to impact the U.S., it is a population of drop-off of 15%. It’s a global phenomenon already effecting countries like Japan and South Korea where “they are not having enough children to replace the population,” she said.
Such a decline in population leads to eventually not “having enough adults to sustain our infrastructure,” said Kannwischer.
She listed contributing factors as the high cost of living. “Housing costs, education costs… people are saying, ‘I can’t afford to have children.’ Unfortunately, I think theologically, there’s also some aspect of the choices relative to (they) just don’t want to sacrifice that much to have kids.”
Kannwischer said, “The data is showing that the people who choose to have children anyway are people who value community and family. By and large, those are people of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith, belief, (and) traditions. Because you have to have some reason to sacrifice for a greater benefit, which we would say would be the community and the family that God’s given us.”
The church can’t turn attitudes around on its own, but there are things it can do, she told summit goers. “Yes, the Lord says, be fruitful and multiply,” Kannwischer noted. “The Lord also says you should do good work. You have a responsibility as a follower of Jesus Christ, as one of God’s children, to have a vocation and bring value to the world. You have an obligation to be a good steward of resources.”
However, doing all those things can be complicated. “One of the ways that the church could be more encouraging of families is not as an institution,” she said, “but as those of us who are part of the church, that we actually show up for each other’s kids.” She provided an example from her own church where they don’t do small groups based on age, but by families. As the children age, they become more involved in the reading and discussions with the adults, plus they all pray together.
“No one feels really alone raising their kids,” she said.
In addition to Kannwischer, an expert in non-profit and coaching strategy, summit keynote speakers included author and National Director of Churches of Welcome at World Relief Daniel Yang, Pastor Paul Cooper of Marshall Baptist Church, and Lead Pastor Tyler Sterchi of New Hope Church in Effingham. It also included several breakout sessions on topics relevant to the theme. Watch for additional coverage from the Illinois Baptist.