Signal Café Podcast with Chris Forbes

About Signal Café Podcast with Chris Forbes

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/

Publisher

Chris Forbes

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Jun 2025

Latest episode

7 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

14 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Aug 2026

   Using Political Signals in Ministry Futures with Dave Weston and Joel Harder

   Signal Café hosts Chris Forbes and Matt Tullos welcome Dave Weston, an entrepreneur and political strategist, and Joel Harder, a law school graduate, former pastor, and legislative chaplain, for a discussion on how to use political signals to strengthen ministry leadership through strategic foresight. The conversation explores institutional trust, civic engagement, political idolatry, economic pressures, AI, and cultural change while introducing practical foresight concepts such as horizons, ...

2. 

   10 Jul 2026

   Engaging Technology Signals with Steve Lacy (Special Compilation Episode)

   In this special compilation episode of The Signal Cafe, we bring together two separate podcast conversations into one extended discussion. First, Chris Forbes and Matt Tullos interview Steve Lacy from StreamingChurch.tv about AI, church technology, streaming, and recognizing emerging technology signals. Then, in an episode originally recorded for the Church Solutions Podcast, Steve Lacey and Phil Thompson interview Chris Forbes about strategic foresight, signals, trends, drivers, the Three Ho...

3. 

   21 May 2026

   Is Your AI Chatbot Sentient? with Dennis Draeger and Chris Turner

   Chris Forbes and Matt Tullos talk with Dennis Draeger, Foresight Director at Shaping Tomorrow, and Chris Turner, Director of Communications for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, about artificial intelligence, sentience, and the growing role AI plays in human life. The conversation explores whether AI is truly intelligent or simply performing intelligence through predictive language and immersive design. Topics include anthropomorphism, digital immersion, simulated relationships, corporate ...

4. 

   25 Apr 2026

   Panarchy and Creation Care: Recognizing Signals Shaping the Future with Rick Presley

   Chris Forbes and Matt Tullos talk with Rick Presley about recognizing overlooked environmental signals and why they matter for ministry and the future. They explore how bias, political framing, and cultural assumptions can limit awareness, often filtering out important signals. Subtle changes such as fewer insects, declining songbird populations, groundwater contamination concerns, land-use changes, and rising insurance pressures can reveal deeper environmental shifts that are easy to overloo...

5. 

   26 Mar 2026

   Navigating Human Identity within Digital and AI Landscapes with Mike Mirabella

   In this episode of The Signal Cafe, Chris Forbes, Matt Tullos, and Mike Mirabella explore how digital environments and AI are shaping identity, relationships, and formation. They describe a “crossfade” era where physical and digital realities blend, forming “virtual natives” who experience technology as fully integrated into life. AI is emerging as a relational influence, not just a tool. While digital fluency is rising, critical thinking may be declining. The conversation highlights growing ...

6. 

   25 Feb 2026

   The Future of Lifelong Learning in the Church

   In this episode of Signal Café, we step inside a local Edmond, Oklahoma community group that spent nine weeks using Incite Futures Labs tools to ask a pressing question: What will shape lifelong learning and leadership formation in the church through 2040? Through horizon scanning, signal clustering, and driver mapping, the group explored rapid AI expansion, demographic growth along Route 66, institutional distrust, economic instability, and shifting spiritual landscapes. The conversation wre...

7. 

   23 Jan 2026

   Reading the Season: Discernment in Uncertain Times

   In this episode of the Signal Café, Chris Forbes and Matt Tulles reflect on how leaders navigate uncertainty when signals are noisy and direction feels unclear. Using weather forecasts, seasons, and biblical language of time, they explore the difference between reacting to events and discerning the moment leaders are actually in. The conversation touches on anxiety, institutional distrust, information overload, and why confusion often increases during periods of transition. Rather than offeri...

8. 

   8 Dec 2025

   Why Metamodernism Matters for the Future of Ministry

   In this episode, we identify metamodernism as an emerging cultural signal with significant implications for the future of ministry. Younger generations are holding doubt and hope together, showing renewed openness to spiritual questions while rejecting institutional distrust, performance, and transactional religious messaging. This shift points toward a future where credibility rests on formational apologetics, embodied community, and relational integrity rather than polished arguments or pla...

9. 

   12 Nov 2025

   Shaping Tomorrow: Horizon Scanning with Dennis Draeger

   In this Signal Cafe episode, Chris Forbes and Matt Tullos talk with Shaping Tomorrow's Foresight director Dennis Draeger about the craft of horizon scanning and why ministry leaders must learn to identify early signals of change. They explore emerging shifts in culture, politics, generations, digital fatigue, ancient faith, and global South renewal, showing how careful observation reveals patterns beneath the noise. Dennis highlights the value of history, bias awareness, and thoughtful domain...

10. 

    8 Oct 2025

    Ministry-Embedded Foresight in Action

    "The sons of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do" (1 Chronicles 12:32). That same wisdom is needed today as ministry leaders face a changing world. The Future Commission 2050 Project (FC50) cohort, comprising Matt Tullos, John Kyle, Rusty Gunn, and Doug Rogers, explores how foresight transitions from workshops into everyday ministry practices. They share how the Incite Futures Labs experience helped incite conversation and thinking, prompting them to recognize signals...

11. 

    1 Sept 2025

    Using Legal Signals in Ministry Foresight

    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 cult...

12. 

    19 Aug 2025

    Why Ministries Need Faith-Based Foresight

    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 ...

13. 

    11 Jul 2025

    The Shift to Distributed Leadership in Missions & Ministry

    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 i...

14. 

    6 Jun 2025

    The Next Era of the Cooperative Program

    Matt Tullos interviews Chris Forbes about his book, exploring how strategic foresight enables Southern Baptists to navigate challenges and shape the future of cooperative programs.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Contact Signal Café Podcast with Chris Forbes

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.