It happens every year about this time. The National Enquirer and all the other tabloids round up all the "psychics" in town to make predictions about the coming year. The headlines are pretty much the same: "Elizabeth Taylor to Wed for 23rd Time!" "President Clinton Actually Child of Aliens!" "Michael Jackson Will Admit He Had Facial Surgery!" -- stuff like that.

A whole different group of prognosticators will be on the political talk shows and offer their own projections of the year ahead: "Bush Will Win Big!" "Bradley Will Upset Gore!" "Giuliani and Clinton Will Have Spitting Contest!"

With the poor track record of such pundits, it seems difficult enough to predict events just twelve months away. So I'm going to skip the short-term stuff and make predictions for a century away. While that may seem a bit ambitious, there is a very good reason to take the 100 year mark as a standard: none of today's readers is likely to be around to find out if I was right or wrong. Therefore, I can bask in the aura of undiminished prognostication for the next fifty years or so, confident that my grandchildren will eventually learn of my predictive prowess.

(Of course, all these predictions assume that the Left Behind book series has not actually become reality over the next one hundred years.)

Here, then, are some predictions for the year 2100:

1. Preaching will continue to be a central part of the worship of the church.

Can you imagine standing on the brink of the twentieth century and trying to make predictions about the next hundred years? In a time when the "horseless carriage" was in its early stages, who could have imagined television, airlines, space travel, personal computers, genetic research, and so much more that has appeared over the past century. Yet there is one thing that took place in the first century, was around at the turn of the first millennium, and is still thriving today: preaching.

When God ordained that His Word would be proclaimed by the "foolishness of preaching," a legacy was established which has stretched through two millennia and will continue until the Lord's return. Preaching has had its difficult eras and its periods of remarkable influence. Yet no matter what is happening in the surrounding culture, preaching has had and will continue to have a profound influence on the lives of God's people.

Certainly preaching will undergo changes, much as it has through the ages. Yet I feel confident that a century from now, if the Lord tarries, preachers will stand before congregations and proclaim the truths of God's Word under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

2. Preaching will feel the impact of technological change

Even while I believe that preaching will survive and thrive through the coming century, I also recognize that it will be influenced by changes taking place in society, particularly in the area of technology.

I remember the day, just three years ago, when I spoke to a pastor's group composed of ministers from rural congregations in West Tennessee. Afterward, on the way to lunch, I sat in the van and listened to two rural pastors discussing web sites they were using! I knew then that something remarkable was taking place among preachers, as the personal computer finally carved out a significant place in the preacher's study, no matter the size of the church.