Program for the Future Church

Church and community leaders are facing near-constant crises leaving inadequate time to anticipate and address emerging or pressing challenges. This constant struggle often leads churches and other types of Christian organizations to  be reactive and struggle to flourish when challenges arise.

February 1, 2023

“I am most excited about the impact we will have 10 and 20 years down the road–to be able to see the fruit from our labor.”

Tatum A. Miller, graduate assistant

Church and community leaders are facing near-constant crises leaving inadequate time to anticipate and address emerging or pressing challenges. This constant struggle often leads churches and other types of Christian organizations to be reactive and struggle to flourish when challenges arise.

Dustin D. Benac, ThD, leads the Program for the Future Church at Baylor’s Truett Seminary, with a mission to provide a “harbor for hope” as churches look for connection, collaboration, community, and imagination. “One of our primary hopes for the Program for the Future Church is that it will be catalytic by virtue of the spaces we create, the resources we produce, and the ways that we convene people,” Benac said.

Established in July 2021 by Benac and former Truett faculty member Angela W. Gorrell, PhD, the Program for the Future Church was founded as a collaborative community that pilots solutions for those emerging and pressing challenges confronting the church.

“The Program for the Future Church really has two different components of what we do,” Benac said. “First, it is a research hub. We are situated in an R1 university, and we are a research hub where we do research on complex and pressing challenges that confront the church and the church’s leaders.

"I wanted to be a part of the creative and hope-filled work the Program is doing with and alongside the church. Offering resources and providing support so that others know they are not alone in their work and ministry is something I am passionate about."

- Juli Kalbaugh, project manager

“Second, we are a resource center. Using that research, we are developing and intend to develop resources that are targeted, specific—oftentimes, open access—and available to church leaders and those who support ministry in various ways.”

Since its founding, the Program has been focused on building the groundwork to allow for growth and expansion by:

  • Listening to local leaders, learning about their understanding of the challenges that they face, and getting an understanding of the complex needs that exist in their communities;
     
  •  Building capacity in terms of partnerships and the team that will advance this work;
     
  • Piloting solutions to begin connecting pastors and church leaders with resources; 
     
  • Grant-making to offer subgrants to faculty who are working on complex challenges that confront the church;
     
  • Writing in various forms, including Benac’s book, Adaptive Church: Collaboration and Community in a Changing World; and,
     
  • Convening by launching catalytic collaboratories to welcome 15 church and community leaders alongside two thought leaders to provide opportunities for nurturing soul-care, relationship-building, naming challenges, and designing experiments for Christian ministries and congregations.

As the Program now looks towards the next phase of growth and scaling to public programming, resourcing, ongoing convening, and granting, the focus will expand out to a broader audience, but the true mission of the Program remains highly localized within each church and community it partners with.

Although its name—the Program for the Future Church—might imply a concrete solution or definite answer, Benac notes that the future of the church is rooted within the hearts and hands of local congregations.

“We will certainly do good, meaningful work that will enrich local communities, serve local pastors, and elevate the collective imagination,” Benac said. “But ultimately the hope for the future church is not housed in a singular institution. It’s always local. It’s always rooted. It’s always carried forth by local pastors and local community leaders, who are working in churches and also beyond congregations.”

For more information on the Program for the Future Church or to support its mission, visit baylor.edu