Signal Café Podcast with Chris Forbes
Signal Café Podcast with Chris Forbes
Podcast Description
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/
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes such as digital discipleship, spiritual formation amidst cultural fragmentation, rebuilding institutional trust, generational transitions, global Christianity trends, and innovative funding models. For instance, episodes like 'The Next Era of the Cooperative Program' dive deep into how strategic foresight can address contemporary challenges faced by Southern Baptists.
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/
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.
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