Do You Know Where You're Going To?

By Kiersten Rose, Institute for Modern Worship

This article is part of Discipleship Ministries’ Modern Worship and Music series.

That line from Diana Ross's Theme from Mahogany has been stuck in my head since a recent conversation about the future of worship. It's the question so many of us in traditional and mainline churches keep circling back to, and lately, I've found myself circling back to something else, too: hope.

Yes, we see the for-sale signs on church buildings. We see the obituaries in our weekly announcements. Music written to soar now limps along without the musicians to carry it. The mortar is crumbling on beautiful old churches downtown, and the membership rolls are shrinking along with the giving that used to seal the cracks in the foundation. I don’t want us to pretend that weight isn’t real.

But I keep meeting worship ministry leaders who are finding something on the other side of that grief: churches that are changing, growing, and coming alive in ways that surprise even them. So, while we still ask the difficult question, "What is worship now?" we no longer need to ask it out of despair. We should ask that question because we’re standing at the edge of something worth walking toward.

A Question I Hear Everywhere

For three years, I've consulted with pastors and church leaders across the Midwest, and I have heard this same grief repeatedly. My in-laws attend a small-town Missouri church now shared by a pastor who is stretched across three congregations. The downtown area around it is mostly boarded up, and the church has had very few new members in years.

Just this week, a fellow worship leader asked me, in the same tired voice, "What is the future of worship?"

Here's what I told him: the future of worship looks a lot like its history. Acts 2:42 describes the ekklēsia — the called-out ones — gathering to be taught, share meals, build community, and pray. The early church met in homes, public squares, wherever people were. The church was never the structure. It was always the people — a priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9).

So, what does that mean for us in 2026 in the churches we're trying to keep alive?

What Growing Churches Have in Common

Growing churches continue to evolve and ask the question, “What is worship?” I've watched my home church grow while others nearby struggle, and I keep coming back to a few observations:

Their leaders take chances. They're willing to change the order of service, the look of the room, even the leadership team, or step back and let someone else drive. Change is the price of a future. Yet our churches often change more slowly  than any other institution around us.

Their mission is compelling. What makes someone leave their couch to sit with strangers for an hour? We already do this for concerts, ball games, and good dinners out because those experiences give us something we can't get alone; they put us near people who love those experiences too. What's compelling enough about your church to get people off their couches on a Sunday morning?

Changed lives change lives. My church runs on one line: My seat at the table shouldn't cost someone else their seat. People show up who've been shut out elsewhere because of who they love and old wounds from other churches. They sing like they mean it because they know what it's like to not be welcome. And they bring their friends. That's why we're growing.

Authenticity matters more than style. What actually draws people in is humility in the pulpit and a congregation free to be exactly who they are, without judgment. It’s not a polished performance that attracts people; rather, it’s hearts committed to using what God gave them, however imperfectly, for God's glory rather than their own.

Let's Keep Asking the Question — Together

These questions are big and a little heavy. That's exactly why we're gathering at Fusion: Worship Music Conference, September 24–26, 2026, at Belmont United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.Come and address these questions alongside leaders from different backgrounds and contexts, and walk away with tools you can use, not just ideas to think about. We'll worship together, learn from one another, and labor for the sake of the good news.

Come find your people. Come ask the questions. And let’s find the destination together.