Program for the Future Church

Dustin Benac is Director & Co-founder of Program for the Future Church at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. He is the author of Adaptive Church: Collaboration and Community in a Changing World and the co-editor of Pathways to Belonging and Crisis and Care and describes the school’s Pathways initiative.

Briefly describe the project.

I lead the Future Church Project, a bold initiative designed to establish structures that support and equip the future church. Our focus is on long-term financial sustainability, adaptability, contextual relevance and collaborative approaches to theological education.

That's a lot of big words and heavy language. What does that mean when we get close to the ground? It means working at a programmatic level. First, is convening. We gather people around their shared needs and the contextual realities that shape faith and theological education. Second, is contextual research. We are pioneering a collaborative and contextual approach to learning and interdisciplinary engagement that is rooted in the context that we share. Third, is curriculum. We're developing curriculum that addresses the needs of local and emerging faith leaders and seeks to take the insights that emerge from our contextual research and translates those into practice. Fourth, is collaboration. We think the future of the church is collaborative.

There's a considerable uncertainty about the future of the church, but one thing is clear: I'm willing to bet on the future being more collaborative. Precisely for this reason, we are building a collaborative ecosystem to support and sustain that work.

We all long to have a hopeful future, especially for the Church. And I think what we're seeing in this moment is that our shared future is a question that is certainly local to our place, but also reaches well beyond our place, our contexts and our institutions.

What have you learned so far?

First, we’ve discovered an abundance of hope in many places. In a time when there's no shortage of bad press and bad news about the church, no shortage of challenges, it would be easy to focus solely on those. But we also know that in doing this wor, that there is also an abundance of hope.

We get the privilege to work with transformative congregations, communities, and faith leaders across our community and the region. There are leaders who are doing fantastic work and congregations who are such a gift to their community. Those are the stories that oftentimes aren't recognized because they're hidden, unseen, and ordinary. But there's beauty in the ordinary.

Another key lesson we’re learning is how the themes, which have anchored our work, resonate across contexts. We've organized our work around three central themes: belonging, leadership and loneliness, and mental health and burnout. These form the thematic anchors for the various cycles of our work, and we’ve been stunned by the ways those categories have resonated deeply across communities and context. They've created a large space for conversation and contextual research that is helping faith leaders do transformative work right where they are.

Another thing we’re learning is the importance and the complexity of collaboration. It would be easier to do a project like this where you have, for example, five predetermined outcomes that you’re going to do in a certain order in order to develop a toolkit to solve the technical challenges the people we serve face in their congregations. But because we are committed to a posture of listening, collaboration and doing this work with others, it means that the work is both more complex and more transformative. It is transformative in both directions: partnership transforms the individuals and people we partner with, and partnership also transforms us.

Finally, as an embedded seminary, we’ve learned about the importance of managing and engaging multiple constituents simultaneously, who sometimes have different needs, different questions, and even use different kinds of language conventions. A significant part of leading this project has been learning to communicate in ways that connect across these varied groups, ensuring that our work is both meaningful and accessible to everyone involved.

What has surprised you along the way?

We’ve been surprised by hope, and how abundant it is.

Another surprise has been the level of interest and enthusiasm for this project. For example, I think there is some much interest in futuring work. I have a friend and colleague who says that research suggests a majority of our passive mental energy is spent imagining the future. Particularly in moments of crisis, we find ourselves thinking about the future. In this time of disruption for faith communities and theological education, a project that is directing our imagination toward the future has had surprising resonance across diverse communities. As I consider this insight, it’s no surprise that the work of futuring emerges from contextual engagement in the present. There's this radical presentism that guides and grounds our work because there's no future for the church without thriving congregations today.

The final surprise is that the work of the future Church is not only the work of congregations, it's the work of the ecology the Church finds itself in. We have a systems level theory of change where we're engaging the entire ecclesial ecology around this work. As a result, whenever we gather, when we do research, when we develop curriculum, when we collaborate, we are always working with congregations, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, the public sector, students, pastors, and innovators. It's this ecological intervention that has created the conditions for new imagination to form.

We had hoped that this work would cultivate new ways of thinking, and we have been surprised – and encouraged – to see that vision taking root.

What have been a few of your successes?

There are so many meaningful stories to share, beginning with the gift of gathering. We find ourselves in a moment where the way faith, communities, and theological educations are being reimagined. Organizational forms are shifting and changing in significant ways, sometimes fragmenting and fraying. More than anything, they're under a lot of stress.

One of our great successes has been our ability to gather people especially from diverse communities across the region. That's a success, not just because we're buying coffee and feeding people lunch and giving out a few books, but because it's creating a new social architecture and framework for connection. When people choose to gather in those ways, they're taking a risk, gathering across various boundaries and silos.

Another success has been engaging students in this work. Students are the “why” of this institution, and that is both a good and beautiful thing. We have been able to engage students almost at every level of the project. Several gifted students on my team carry significant aspects of this work, and they do so with remarkable skill and dedication.

Their participation isn’t peripheral; it’s central. In our research hubs, students aren’t treated as secondary contributors but as full participants with unique insights to offer. Many have co-authored writings that have emerged from this project, not as a learning exercise, but as a recognition of their genuine contributions. We don’t include students just to mentor or tutor them – we include them because they have real gifts to share with the world. And that is something worth celebrating.

Students are included in our keystone gatherings, where we bring together 30 ministry leaders to engage with some of the critical challenges facing faith communities. Students are full participants in that and actively participate. They enrich and enliven the conversation. That, in itself, is a true success.

Another key success has been the resources we're developing as a research, resource, and relationship hub. We’ve been successful developing resources across various genres. One upcoming example is a book I co-edited with various partners from across the country about belonging, Pathways to Belonging. We were a catalyst in the project, but not the only carrier of the project, which is a wonderful expression of our work.

We've also developed an open-source reading guide on belonging, which is available to pastors and ministry leaders. In addition, we've developed peer-reviewed articles and developed a theological methodology, “Bending the Light,” which we published in a peer-reviewed journal. Beyond that, we've designed other facilitation and training tools, making this an incredible success.

Finally, our expanding partnerships have been a significant success. People have sought us out asking us to be partners on their work. One example is a large grant collaboration that includes The Congregational Collective and Harvard Medical School.

These are some of the transformative successes speak to both the value and timeliness of this project. Our Impact Report provides a more complex picture of what we’ve done, and the incredible people who make this collaborative work possible.

What aspects of the project are you hopeful about?

Grant work is the work of organizational change. You can't develop and implement a grant without being open to change. I'm hopeful that the work of the Future Church Project at Baylor's George W. Truett Theological Seminary is created a container for change to happen in multiple directions.

One change within an institution is the expansion of its imagination, both within our seminary and the broader university. I believe it's changing our participants and how they understand and imagine what's possible. For example, we’re trying to engage and activate the imagination, and the data we collect indicates that it's working. Through our work, people expand their imagination through their participation in our work and programs.

I’m also hopeful that students will be transformed and equipped through this work. We’ve had more than 75 students go through our programs in some capacity, and the impact on them has been profound. As the future of the Church and the next generation of leaders, we're equipping them with a hopeful imagination.

Finally, this project is changing those of us immersed in the day-to-day work, being both a gift and an incredible opportunity. While it demands something of us, I think for those of us who are engaged on the ground, it is changing us in transformative ways, and that gives me hope.

What are you learning that could help other schools?

We’ve been fortunate to learn from incredible partners and advisors along the way. Early on, we learned from our friends at ATS about the importance of aligning our project with the why of our institution. Through our early work and reflection, we realized that at both of our institutions, Truett and Baylor, our why is the students. We exist to serve, support, and resource students.

As we have adapted, changed, and innovated along the way, one constant has remained – our commitment to integrating students more deeply into this work and ensuring they are fully supported and resourced. This doesn't mean we're shifting away from pastors or church leaders; rather, it reinforces that students must always be a central part of this project. A key aspect of the Future Church Project is the developing of student-centered curriculum, which supports the current and future educational needs of students.

The second insight is the importance of articulating a theological vision to ground and guide the work. There can be a tendency to simply do grant-related work to secure the dollars and support the institution, which is good and meaningful. However, the project will be better, thicker, deeper and more transformative if you're able to articulate a theological vision that grounds and guides it. That theological vision will be particular to your institution.

We ‘ve been intentional about articulating the theological vision that guides and grounds our work, because that creates a shared space for gathering. It allows us to say to our people, “This is what we're doing, and this is why it matters. Come, join us in this work guided by this theological vision of a life together.”

The third insight I’ve noticed is the importance of partnership – it is truly worth it. While it may easier to go it alone, this type of work thrives in collaboration. So, for individuals and institutions who are thinking about taking the risk of partnership, I would say, the risk is well worth it, but make sure you give it time.

Finally, this moment presents an opportunity to reimagine the new organizational forms that will guide theological education and support the future of the Church. The ways we gather are changing. Accordingly, one of the things we are trying to do is to pioneer new organizational forms that pick up the very best of what has carried us in the past.

Together, the Future Church Project is creating new ways to gather –faithfully, creatively, and with hope for the future. But this will only happen if we work together to imagine new forms for a new day. If you would like to receive periodic updates on our work, we invite you to sign up for our newsletter, “The Future Church Fieldnotes.”

At Baylor's Truett Seminary, God-called men and women are equipped for gospel ministry in and alongside Christ's Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here, theological education is a sacred process of preparation and transformation for a Kingdom purpose. Truett students think theologically, practice ministry skills, cultivate community, and grow spiritually as they seek to know Christ and make him known. Visit their website: https://truettseminary.baylor.edu/