Years come and go but 2024 may be a significant year to remember. It may be lumped in with 2016 (and the election of Donald Trump in the US) as the end of the “long twentieth century.” Now nearly a quarter of the way into the new century and a nascent new millennium, old assumptions are falling rapidly.

My attempt to review 2024 looks like the list below. I muse on things related to us as individuals, some things related to politics, and finally some things related to the most important institution in the world, namely the Church of Jesus Christ and her confession.

Individuals

1. We are losing the ability to focus. With multiple apps, and the ubiquitous phone-computer, our attention is segregated constantly into various channels, each competing for the market-share of our attention spans. It is hard for us to distinguish between productivity tools and attention sappers. For Christians this requires diligence in developing biblical literacy, skilled biblical interpretation and careful theological reasoning.

2. Natural connections matter again. The rise of populisms, nationalisms, and financial hardship has made people return to prioritizing their own families, their own extended families and their own communities. Local is in and global is out. For Christians, this means that large parachurch organizations, denominations and foreign mission agencies will lack support. But local churches will be hard pressed to form deep fellowship as people prefer family or individual autonomy. Marriage and family will gain precedence which is a welcome shift.

3. We can just say things. After decades of political correctness and DEI language policing, people are finding the freedom to speak up and speak out. They are free to notice things, despite formerly being coerced to ignore the obvious. For Christians the necessity of “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15) is as urgent as ever. With the greater freedom to speak, the sins of the tongue can accompany it. At the same time, the long under-developed muscles of truth-telling, gospel witnessing and exhorting need to be strengthened in this new era of freedom.

Canada

1. Canada is losing its ability to be a nation. With mass immigration but little assimilation there appears to be the fulfillment of Justin Trudeau’s vision which he stated in the New York Times article from 2015:

So it is no wonder that the cohesion of Canada is crumbling, while tribalism of various kinds is imported or emerges unbidden from the secular vacuum. Donald Trump’s musing about annexing Canada comes at a time of national weakness. For Christians the re-evaluation of patriotism will continue. Although Christians may wish to act above the fray and ignore being viewed as simply one more interest group, the reality is that if Christians won’t advocate for the public benefit of Christian virtues (which Trudeau unwittingly referred to) then no one else will.

2. What is federal and provincial is up for grabs. Into the disintegrating sense of nationhood, and the realization of Trudeau’s “first postnational state” there are jurisdictional battles over lines which Canadians thought were long settled. Are the natural resources the domain of the provinces? Is health care the responsibility of provinces? Can provinces negotiate with foreign governments (eg. Danielle Smith and the Trump team)? Can provinces erect trade barriers to other provinces? For Christians the doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate becomes relevant for determining whose jurisdiction is being submitted to. At the same time, the competing jurisdictions make it unclear where the proper scope of authority lies in the state. Old assumptions don’t always work anymore.

3. Alberta is tenuously providing a vision for the future. Although it is still affected by the illusion of a secular middle ground, the Danielle Smith premiership has attempted to impose the barest of limits on the transgenderism social experiments and the grift of paradoxical climate saving initiatives (solar and wind). Smith’s assertion of true provincial rights within Confederation sounds like a new idea given the extremes of federal overreach on one hand and separatism (Quebecois or Albertan) on the other. Smith also thwarted the attempt by the NDP to remove the uniquely Alberta phenomenon of Christian (Protestant) schools in the public system. For Christians, there is much encouragement in Alberta as churches grow, with the promise and challenge of the multi-ethnic character of these churches. Many Christians are moving to Alberta from other regions and countries. This has brought spiritual vitality to Alberta’s Christian witness.

4. The GTA is a city-state. When the national media speaks about Canada or the Canadian perspective, it is the default perspective of Toronto and the GTA. Recognizing that the GTA functions more like a city-state can clarify how Canada really works. Understood this way, it becomes clear that the GTA (not surprisingly) acts for its own interests in the main. Those interests can be described as Canada’s interests, but the rest of the country is included by assumption only. This is why the future of Canada as a nation is tied to whether the GTA will aim to reverse the “postnational state” vision for Canada, or will accelerate it by reducing its patriotism to what matters between the 401, 427 and DVP. For Christians the tensions that arise between town and country and between cities and regions can often be explained by the different social settings we find ourselves in. So long as the GTA has the city-state role in Canada, the Christian witness in that city will have a major influence on the witness of churches throughout the rest of the nation. Pray for Toronto.

Churches

1. Churches with Robust Theology are Growing. My evidence is anecdotal from the many pastors I’ve spoken to. The reality is that churches that are robust in theology are growing. This robustness is found in being consciously Protestant, with strong teaching and preaching ministries, intentional ecclesiology with emphasis on clear church membership and the exercise of church discipline as a corollary to discipleship. Churches that are serious about what they believe have dismissed the fears that “doctrine divides”. These churches have intentionally taken positions, often against the prevailing headwinds of the culture, and their boldness has been magnetic for many wandering sheep looking for a church home.

2. The Seeker-model churches are adopting a “Community Center” model. The churches that still fear that “doctrine divides” have switched slightly from the Seeker-sensitive model of Willow Creek and Saddleback in the 90’s. Instead they are developing a Community Center approach. They offer new immigrant programs, concerts and hosting for community user groups. The assumption is that attendees at these programs will populate the church. However the relative gospel-lessness of these programs ensures that attendees will be accepted by unsaved, or that the gospel will be re-defined as a sociological support. The “Community Center” model is a leading indicator of ‘salt losing its saltiness’ (Matt 5:13).

3. The Empty Pulpit crisis will accelerate. The search for pastors is becoming more acute as each year passes. The plethora of Boomer-aged pastors are entering retirement after holding on as long as they can, so that the fewer Gen X pastors are now considering retirement. Though crisis of pastoral training has been discussed for over three decades, there has been little to show for it as MDiv enrollments are still low. Already churches are adjusting themselves to bring women into the pulpit as the Anglican and United churches have long done. Speaking to a rep from a historically conservative denomination, he said half of the churches had women elders, even though they restricted the senior pastor role to men only. This untenable position will give way to women pastors when churches cannot find male candidates anywhere. A mitigation for this crisis (not a solution) will come from churches identifying godly male candidates and investing in their development with mentoring, training and (in an unprecedented way) financing. If churches pay pastors like “hired hands” they can only expect to get “hirelings” circulating through their pulpits (John 10:12-13).

Theology

1. Complementarianism is being redefined. Whether out of perceived necessity (see above) or because of culture shifts, the concept of complementarianism (equal status of men and women, but differing, complementary roles that are sex specific) is being redefined. Formerly, complementarianism in the church assumed that church leadership and the office of the pastor-elder-overseer was limited to qualified men only. Now, there are those who only limit the senior pastor role to men. But they will call themselves complementarians. The irony is that this senior pastor for men only position is actually inconsistent and discriminatory because the office of pastor-elder-overseer is of equal rank. Though distinctions may exist functionally between a senior pastor of first among equals or staff pastors and lay pastors, the reality is that only qualified men are eligible to be in the pastor role. And their leadership is their functional role as well as their office. Part of the role of the membership of the church (men and women) is to submit to their leadership (Hebrews 13:17). Has egalitarianism co-opted the complementarian position? Possibly so among those who are either agnostic or elastic in their definitions.

2. Sacramentalism is being considered as a way of re-enchantment. Protestants are being inundated with appeals to be sacramental in their outlook as a way of resisting the soul-less void of secularism today. Calls for re-enchantment often include selecting rituals and tokens and spaces which are invested with sacral meaning. This is being done in the individualistic way which can pick and choose what is used from ancient history or global spirituality. So the Christian Missionary Alliance college intentionally meshes third-wave Charismaticism with Medieval Roman Catholicism. Consistency doesn’t matter, and the implications of Roman Catholic sacramentalism (cf the Mass) can be “re-imagined” in the way that Hindu yoga was repackaged for Western self-improvement seekers. The new sacramentalism will lead many weak (professing) Evangelicals to become committed Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox, or to descend into a gnostic form of pseudo-Christian panentheism.

3. Deconstruction narratives say more about the consequences of Arminian theology in churches rather than a rejection of orthodoxy. Time reveals much and the spate of so-called “deconstruction narratives” reveals the state of the churches people were raised in. What has been exposed is that Arminian, man-centered theology in churches (youth groups, Sunday schools and pulpits) has left many young people with a concept of Christianity as sociological conformity in performance. In other words, they learned generic do’s and don’ts, without any clear understanding of the gospel, nor of a sound embrace of Christ as their Lord and Savior. Later, as trials come, like the parable of the soils, the performance conformity is not a deep enough root to withstand hardship. Disillusioned, the folks who ‘grew up in church’ reject Christian faith, though they end up rejecting a gospel they have never known. All of the expenditures for entertaining the youth culture vanish as a gospel-less sociology fails to save and so fails to retain in the faith.

4. Public Theology. The division between observation and antithesis or between evidentialists and presuppositionalists or between Aristotle/Aquinas and Van Til/Bahnsen appears to be splitting the ranks of Reformed public theology advocates. This division occurs in apologetics (older debate), Christian Nationalism(s), and Protestant retrieval. The irony is that many of the debates simply miss each other, or they used different vocabulary to describe the same things. For example, the two-kingdoms doctrine of vocation applied to the realm of politics can appear very similar to the sphere sovereignty of the Abraham Kuyper transformationalist view. But because of emphases and edges, many people are committed to tribal affiliation rather than careful definition and differentiation.

Each age must face its own challenges. The fight against the world, the flesh and the devil is perennial, even as the call to abide in the vine (John 15:1-5) continues. We can look with hopeful expectation for what the Lord may do, and in the meantime, wait patiently for God to glorify himself even through the weakness of his people, for when we are weak, he is strong, his strength is perfected in weakness (cf. 2 Cor 12:9).