Signal Café Podcast with Chris Forbes
Brought to you by Forbes Nonprofit Strategies and Incite Futures Labs, Signal Café, hosted by Chris Forbes, explores the signals, trends, and drivers shaping the future of ministry. Each episode invites pastors, nonprofit leaders, and faith-based strategists to think ahead, discern cultural shifts, and respond with clarity and conviction. It’s a space to scan the horizon and prepare faithfully for what comes next.
At Signal Café, we apply the best practices of strategic foresight to spark meaningful conversations about the church’s future. Episodes cover topics such as digital discipleship, spiritual formation in a fragmented culture, rebuilding trust in institutions, generational transitions, the rise of global Christianity, and emerging models of funding and cooperation.
This podcast is for those called to lead with wisdom in uncertain times. Whether navigating denominational change, rethinking missions, or anticipating what’s next for ministry, Signal Café helps you see what’s emerging and respond with grounded hope.
This isn’t just another ministry podcast. It’s a curated foresight lab for leaders ready to engage complexity with vision and courage. If you’re planting churches, leading networks, or stewarding resources for lasting impact, Signal Café offers future-focused insight for faithful leadership.
To learn more about Strategic Foresight for Faith-based Nonprofits, visit: https://www.forbesstrategies.com/
Signal Café Podcast with Chris Forbes
Ministry-Embedded Foresight in Action with Future Commission 2050 Leaders
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"The sons of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do" (1 Chronicles 12:32). That same wisdom is needed today as ministry leaders face a changing world.
The Future Commission 2050 Project (FC50) cohort, comprising Matt Tullos, John Kyle, Rusty Gunn, and Doug Rogers, explores how foresight transitions from workshops into everyday ministry practices. They share how the Incite Futures Labs experience helped incite conversation and thinking, prompting them to recognize signals of change already shaping their current leadership and the context of future ministry.
Together, they explore seven drivers of change already shaping the future: economic instability, demographic shift, educational revolution, technological evolution, spiritual malaise, radical individualism, and institutional distrust. Each guest shares how these forces are emerging in their own contexts and what faithful leadership requires when the future feels uncertain.
It’s a grounded conversation about building foresight into everyday ministry, leading with clarity, and discerning what God is doing in the times we’re living in.
You can download the report and book from their project The Next Era of the Cooperative Program and The Future Commission 2050 Executive Summary for free during October at ForbesStrategies.com/book
Keep exploring the signals, trends, and drivers shaping the future. Take the next step by engaging your ministry team in a conversation about what this future could mean for your context through Incite Futures Labs from Forbes Nonprofit Strategies. We help leaders anticipate change, navigate complexity, and explore faithful possibilities together. Let’s collaborate!