The Future is Mutual and Moving

A lot is shifting in American Christianity. Two big changes we’re seeing? Leadership is becoming more mutually submissive, and church is being seen more as a movement than an institution.

I want to briefly unpack the phrase “mutually submissive” because Doug said to me, “it doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue” and it’s important and unique. It goes beyond “collaborative” and it’s based in the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal and act, love, and lead in a mutually submissive way. There is no hierarchy within the Trinity, no one voice that trumps another. Equity and unity are key and the Trinity only moves in a unified manner. 

Leadership Is Mutually Submissive > Leadership Is Hierarchical

In the past, church leadership often looked like a pyramid. One person—usually a man—stood at the top. He made the big decisions, preached every Sunday, and carried the vision. This setup mirrored the religious patriarchy and the corporate world (think CEOs and boards). It was seen as strong, biblical, and efficient.

But there were problems. It put too much weight on one person. It didn’t leave much room for shared wisdom or for the full diversity of gifts in the community (women need to be leading!) And it often led to burnout, abuse, and echo chambers.

Doug’s Thoughts: “This also led to a lot of church abuse. Look leading a big church where you are the lead pastor is a lot. And the truth is those leaders are human. They aren’t perfect. Add on cancel culture and it creates an environment where these leaders and churches are too big to fail. It’s led to a lot of people experiencing church trauma at the hands of leadership. In the last decade, I’ve seen a lot of church planters I’ve worked with who would be pretty effective hierarchical leaders reject it for this reason. Oh and the Bible is pretty clear about the plurality of leadership. Let’s not pretend that just because a church has a board, that this equates to plurality.”

A new way is emerging.

Dechurched Christ-followers, especially Gen Z, value teamwork, shared leadership, and inclusion. They’re asking: Why does one person get all the power? In the Bible, we see pictures of mutual leadership—like the Trinity, where Father, Son, and Spirit lead together. Or in Ephesians, where leadership includes apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers (APEST)—not just one role.

Mutually submissive leadership isn’t just trendy. It’s faithful. And it helps protect against the dangers of solo power. 

Church as a Movement > Church as an Institution

For a long time, church meant buildings, budgets, and bylaws. That made sense in a world where institutions were trusted and stable. Churches followed the same model as schools and businesses to stay legit. Church buildings were designed to catch attention with steeples and bells, symbolically revealing a centered place in a town or neighborhood. 

But times have changed.

Today, many institutions feel slow, out of touch, or broken. Many of us have watched governments, banks, and even churches fall apart. So it’s no surprise we’re less drawn to the old ways.

And we’re more drawn to Movements—flexible, relational, grassroots efforts that spread through people, not programs.

Think of the early church in Acts. It didn’t look like a church board meeting. It looked like a spiritual startup—full of passion, purpose, and people who lived out their faith in experiential ways.

That’s the energy that’s coming back.

We don’t want to climb the church ladder. We want to make an impact. We’re starting small communities and often times, heavily involved in multiple communities that are built around faith. We’re leading from the margins. We’re becoming bi-vocational (working both in ministry and the marketplace) or co-vocational (seeing their everyday job as their ministry). For them, church isn’t a building you go to. It’s a movement you’re part of.

The future of the church isn’t about bigger buildings or stronger personalities. It’s about shared leadership and Spirit-led movements. It’s slower. Messier. But it might just look more like Jesus.

Doug’s Thoughts: “This week in my church planting class at Asbury, we talked about how the church emerged in Acts. In Jerusalem, the church emerged around the temple court (think large gathered church). However, as the gospel spread into Gentile communities it most frequently emerged in homes (micro church). In those Gentile communities having household idols and shrines were common. So what we see is that the church emerged in places where people expected to have spiritual experiences. Older generations expected spiritual experiences in a church building. Younger generations don’t. The challenge for us then is to ask the question, where do younger generations expect to have spiritual experiences? That will give us a good idea of what shape the church should take.”

For any readers who want to dive deeper into what this looks like in practice, checkout https://thev3movement.org/. Maybe you should consider joining one of our cohorts?