"What's Next": Reflections on Travis' little book

Dave Travis’ What’s Next? A look over the next hill for innovative churches and their leaders published by Leadership Network is an intriguing look at how current sociological dynamics may possibly impact the church, especially large churches, in the future. Rather than giving you a summary of his main points, I want to consider this statement, “What about theological foundations? Some readers will look for doctrinal justification for each observation. These are always valid questions, of course, but this report is designed to be concise and factual. Other organizations actively pursue those debates, which fall outside our purposes” (pp.11-12).
I find it interesting that he equates theological foundations with doctrinal justification. How one sees, interprets and makes sense of the facts is informed by the theological foundations (commitments) with which one is working. In fact, Travis is socialized into a way of seeing the world that is primarily Western and leads him to value some types of information more than others. His theological foundations are implicitly present and inform his understanding and interpretation of the data. To equate theological foundations with doctrinal justification is sophomoric and allows him to avoid the hard work of theological reflection.
His lack of attention to theological foundations leads to a glaring omission; the centrality of the gospel in his projections is absent. At times his descriptions seem to view the church as another social service agency (I am overstating my point). In reality, the church has nothing to offer the world apart from the gospel; the gospel is the thing which distinguishes it from all other social service agencies or NGOs.
Travis’ ideas were interesting though there is nothing distinctive about them. He merely applied futurist ideas and sociological principles to the church without serious theological reflection.