In this episode of Signal Café, we delve into how to identify and utilize legal signals in strategic foresight. Legal developments often shape the future in subtle ways, but with a trained futurist eye, they can provide early indicators of larger shifts. To help us think more clearly about this, Dr. Joel W. Harder joins us.

Dr. Harder formerly served as the Chaplain of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He is also the founder of Capitol Culture, an initiative dedicated to shaping the culture among policymakers and influencers through non-lobbying, non-political engagement. An experienced leadership consultant and innovator, Dr. Harder brings unique insights at the intersection of law, leadership, and culture. He is the author of When Leaders Matter: How Civility, Integrity and the Leaders We Need are Possible (Insight International Press, 2020). Additionally, he is currently studying for the bar, which gives him a fresh perspective on how legal and cultural trends intersect.

Together, we’ll discuss why legal signals are often difficult to track, how to become more legally savvy in foresight work, and what ministry leaders and organizations can learn from watching the legal horizon.

The next ten years will change everything. Is your ministry ready? Economic instability, cultural shifts, technological disruption, and institutional decline are reshaping how churches and mission organizations serve in the world. The question is not if change will come, but how ministries will respond with wisdom and faith.

Foresight gives leaders tools to see what is emerging, steward resources wisely, and act with conviction. Thriving ministries will be those that discern the times, adapt faithfully, and lead with courage in seasons of uncertainty.

In this episode of Signal Café, Dr. Jay Gary joins us to explain why foresight matters for missions and ministry. Known as America’s “Dean of Foresight,” Dr. Gary leads the Doctor of Strategic Leadership program at Oral Roberts University, serves as a commissioner for accreditation with the World Futures Studies Federation, and is a former chair of the Association of Professional Futurists. His calling is to help organizations anticipate and create the future.

Many mission leaders know him as the developer of the Perspectives Study Program. Today, he serves as a foresight consultant to global Christian networks, including the Lausanne Movement and the World Evangelical Alliance.

This conversation invites leaders to pause, consider what is changing, and begin discerning how to prepare their people for the decade ahead.

Exploring the signals, trends, and drivers behind the rise of network leadership and what it means for missions, local churches, and the Great Commission today.

In our second episode of Signal Café, we talk with veteran missionary and network coach Eldon Porter about a critical signal shaping the future of global missions: the collapse of command-and-control leadership models.

Porter identifies three major drivers behind this shift. First, a global Christian presence means believers are now in every country. Second, real-time technological connection allows constant global dialogue about how God is moving. Third, the global diaspora trend brings mission fields to our neighborhoods as millions cross borders every year.

These signals point to a growing meta-trend futurists like Bob Johansen call distributed leadership. Johansen argues that resilient leaders must move from rigid hierarchies to adaptive networks that share power and highlight local expertise. Porter’s “dance floor” metaphor shows how mission leaders create spaces for connection, spotlight what works, and amplify voices that advance the work.

Local churches and Western agencies face a choice: adapt to this driver of change or drift into irrelevance. From India’s homegrown mission movements to multi-ethnic churches in Georgia, collaborative networks are where the future grows.

Explore Eldon’s work at LinkingGlobalVoices.com and hear the full conversation now on this episode of Signal Café.

In this first episode of Signal Café, Matt Tullos interviews host Chris Forbes about his new book, The Next Era of the Cooperative Program. They discuss how strategic foresight can help Southern Baptists respond to challenges like declining trust, generational shifts, and the future of shared funding.

The conversation draws from Chris’s work on the Future Commission 2050 Project, which invited SBC leaders into structured foresight processes to explore what cooperation could look like by mid-century. The book unpacks seven drivers of change, four future scenarios, and a set of questions every church should be asking now.

A key part of that journey was Incite Futures Labs, a foresight resource developed by Chris Forbes to help ministry leaders engage real trends, explore future scenarios, and design practical pathways toward long-term faithfulness.

If you're leading in a time of uncertainty, this episode offers fresh insight and faithful imagination for what’s next.

Order your copy of The Next Era of the Cooperative Program today!