In the Lord’s Prayer, we’re instructed to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). For all of us who follow Christ, heaven is our preferred future. It’s the ultimate destination, the grandest of all possibilities, and the perfect example of the result of futures thinking. We want heaven to be the future that shapes where we’re going from where we are now. None of us have been there yet, but we believe that God has given us direction and insight to get past what we can’t see with our natural eyes and help us shape our now with the promise of then.
We developed the Futures Framework as a guide for leaders like you, who are bringing the unchanging gospel to a changing world. As you navigate your organization, congregation, and ministry through this uncertainty, your primary aim is to usher in a future that is aligned with the purpose, vision, and calling God has placed on your heart.
But where do you start? How do you know what direction to head in? How do you decide what goals to set? How will you lead others if you do not know where to go yourself? You need more than a gut feeling or ethereal sense about where you’re heading to lead others into the unknown future. You’ll need a disciplined approach to help you focus on specific topics to guide your thinking.
From Uncertainty to Transformational Change
The Futures Framework is a proactive and intentional approach to help you benefit from futures thinking to create transformational change. Exploring futures is more than merely an educational exercise or discussion topic that enables leaders to deal with uncertainty. We believe it’s critical for your organization, church, or ministry’s survival.
Importantly, the Futures Framework is informed by the gospel, backed up by research and proven through our work with executives, entrepreneurs, and pastors. It’s been informed by extensive work developing strategies and futures for businesses, churches and nonprofits. It provides a common language that catalyzes discussion, collaboration, and cooperation and will assist you in aligning the outcome of futures thinking with your mission, developing an actionable strategy, and scaling your efforts so that you begin to see an impact in your team today.
By definition, a framework is a set of rules or principles that you use to define a decision making process. It identifies boundaries so that you can find a place to start. The Futures Framework is exactly the same, only using a vision of the future to frame a starting place instead of being constrained by the current reality.
Four Forces and Eight Intersections
The framework includes two key elements – four forces and eight intersections. The four forces are all independent, but can act upon one another. They themselves are interesting to consider, especially if one or more of them is causing havoc in your world, but what is really interesting is the patterns that emerge when these forces collide. For example, at the intersection of the two forces, people and purpose, is how you identity. At the intersection of the three forces – people, purpose and technology – is the impact we can have on the world. We unpack all four forces and eight themes more in the book.
The Four Forces
The Eight Intersections
Throughout the book, we first help you analyze the four underlying forces driving change in your world to help you understand your readiness for the future. We then pause at each intersection point and consider the theme that results at the collision of the forces.
As you work through the framework to explore the patterns emerging at the eight intersections created by the four forces, we hope you uncover a new understanding about something that previously seemed ordinary. If done well, you will also find meaningful new actions that you can take to start to work toward your preferred future.
The Futures Framework is all about looking boldly into the future, figuring out what is possible, and defining the way forward. We hope you’ll pick up this guide so you can better respond to the uncertainty swirling around you and pro-actively shape the future ahead.
As you work through the framework to explore the patterns emerging at the eight intersections created by the four forces, we hope you uncover a new understanding about something that previously seemed ordinary. If done well, you will also find meaningful new actions that you can take to start to work toward your preferred future.
The Futures Framework is all about looking boldly into the future, figuring out what is possible, and defining the way forward. This is your guide to help you respond well to uncertainty and shape the future in an ever-changing world.
