There are people that make their living just looking at patterns. On Wall Street, technical analysts discover and then exploit patterns in stock and bond prices. They discover correlations between the timing in the corrections in the marketplace and security prices that become resistant at certain strike points. What is interesting about these patterns is that often they are unexplainable....they just "are". However, ignoring these patterns produces results that are contrary to the results that were intended, but which are totally inline with the patterns that have been established.
Patterns are found all through society. We sometimes think of these patterns as 'trends' but they are likely more predictable and have more social impact. For example (and to the point) in the last twenty to thirty years what we thought were trends were fully developed patterns that affected most of our lives. Families have become much less traditional with fewer people deciding on marriage, more marriages ending in divorce, fewer children raised in two-parent homes, and traditional parenting roles being transfered from mother and father to other care givers and impersonal institutions.
As a person that belongs to a traditional church you may have accommodated some of these societal changes but you are likely still holding on to very traditional methods to minister to these individuals and families. Assuming that children have traditional homes with two parents and that the mom is the stay-at-home caregiver not only alienates all of those children and parents that don't fit the pattern, but also decreases the effectiveness and the ministry of the local church.
People that attend church today and in times past do so to a great extent because they have needs that they find the local church able to meet. This was true in the 60's and 70's where most churches were centered on the family and provided safe environments for children and teens.
Today, our churches need to be just-as-relevant and continue to meet the needs of the redefined family as well as the non-traditional parents and caregivers. We have updated our technology since the 60's and 70's and it's time to update our ministries.
