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 Jan. 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.
Immediate concern
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.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Lisa Misner and originally published by the Illinois Baptist.
