Is your church future-focused?

I believe the best days of the church, and more specifically, your church, can be ahead.

My coauthors, Kara Powell and Jake Mulder, and I know that no two churches look the same. Having spent over a decade leading extensive training and listening to over 1,000 churches worldwide, we’ve written Future-Focused Church—a new book packed with practical principles and tested practices that have been effective in leading change. Future-Focused Church can help you craft a plan that will take your church from where it is now to where it longs to be.

We believe this is a season in which leaders need to attend to what the Holy Spirit is doing in new ways and in local contexts and to develop skills and systems for ongoing adaptation. While change and moving into the future aren’t easy in this reality, there are insights and lessons that can make them easier. That can save you from spinning your wheels and make it more likely you’ll be effective.

That can help you lead a future-focused church.

What exactly is a future-focused church?

Our collective research and experience yield a definition of a future-focused church as a group of Jesus followers who seek God’s direction together. In order to arrive at that future, we’ve found that future-focused churches intentionally pass through three key “checkpoints:” relationally discipling young people, embracing kingdom diversity, and tangibly loving our neighbors. We believe these three checkpoints reflect values outlined in Scripture, offer the best hope for your church culture, are grounded in recent research, and have disproportionate importance given the dynamics of US churches and our world today.

Want to lead your church into an era of reimagining and renewal? Ask yourself, or perhaps a few members of your community, how you’re doing in these three areas:

Checkpoint #1: Relationally discipling young people
As you focus on the future, the faith formation of young people does not need to be your only or top priority, but it needs to be one of your top priorities. Research and experience consistently demonstrate that we can best form the faith of young people through a supportive journey, incorporating empathetic peer and intergenerational relationships, that meets young people’s significant need for identity, belonging, and purpose.

Checkpoint #2: Modeling kingdom diversity
God’s kingdom is inherently diverse (Rev. 7:9). In fact, this was one of the shocking hallmarks of the early church (Acts 2:5–11; 10:34–35; 13:1–3). The gospel broke through dividing lines to turn strangers and enemies into friends and family, including those set in opposition to each other along ethnic and cultural lines. Outsiders noted the diversity and were both appalled by and drawn toward it. Today’s young people are the most ethnically diverse generation ever, and the US is more culturally diverse than at any other previous time, and yet many of our churches do not currently reflect this diversity. While good and valid reasons for ethnic and racialized minority churches to exist, by and large, the majority of churches need to work towards embracing the diversity of God’s people in their local churches. We think churches can and should be the premier examples of the vibrant variety God intends.

Checkpoint #3: Tangibly loving your neighbors
People from diverse ages and cultures want to know how the church is responding to the deepest needs in our world—with particular attention on those who are marginalized. We believe churches are at their best when all generations are focused on how to tangibly love their neighbors (near and far) by seeking reconciliation, righteousness, and shalom.

How future-focused is your church?

Given our definition of a Future- Focused Church (a group of Jesus followers who seek God’s direction together—especially in relationally discipling young people, modeling kingdom diversity, and tangibly loving our neighbors), on a scale of 1–5 (with 1 being “not at all” and 5 being “very”), how future-focused is your church?

Change is not easy, but it’s worth it. It will take a lot of humility and commitment, but we believe too much is at stake not to change. The emerging generations, the public witness of the church, and the flourishing of our neighborhoods and broader society are at stake.

Adapted with permission from Future-Focused Church: Leading through Change, Engaging the Next Generation, and Building a More Diverse Tomorrow by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Raymond Chang, published by Baker Books. Releasing in March 2025.

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