Design the Future: Creative Foresight for Faithful Leadership
Design the Future equips church leaders to navigate change with confidence by blending the creativity of the Design Process, the clarity of Strategic Foresight, and the insight of generational theory. Grounded in solid research and enriched by spiritual leadership principles, this curriculum fosters environments of psychological safety where innovation can flourish. Participants will not only engage with data-driven frameworks but also practice hands-on, real-world applications that reimagine strategic planning for ministry. Through this dynamic integration of theory and practicum, leaders will learn to anticipate trends, design faithful responses, and shape thriving, future-ready congregations.
What You’ll Learn
Many of the issues plaguing multi-generational churches is a fundamental disconnect between generations. This step introduces some generational challenges the church faces, and invites congregations to see where the gaps are in generational involvement.
Lesson 1: See Clearly
Lesson 3: Name the Need
When you hold your generational white spots in one hand and your values in the other, what reality emerges? This step allows values to interrogate reality. You will begin to define the issue you want to address using creative design thinking techniques.
Lesson 5: Shape the Culture
Even when you’ve carefully selected members of the team, it’s essential to create an environment of trust. This begins with naming norms and expectations that exist, examining them, and deciding cooperatively what to keep and what to remove. Then the dreaming can begin!
Humans are not very good at imagining the future. Our brains are designed to think that things will be much more like the present than they turn out in reality. That’s why we need to learn to think like futurists. This step provides a set of tools for practicing futures thinking.
Lesson 4: Build the Core
The previous steps have focused on the entire community under the guidance of congregational leadership. With your focus defined, it is now time to build a team who will engage in the work of designing experiments to introduce change.
Lesson 6: Imagine Boldly
Lesson 7: Discern the Horizon
The changing landscape of today’s culture reveals the stark reality that the traditional way of doing things (church included) is no longer working. This step introduces characteristics of future-ready churches, and invites your team to imagine which they want to grow into.
Lesson 8: Design the Future
Once we understand the building blocks of futures thinking and design, we can start planning from the future back. In this final step you will put all of your growth into practice, thinking like a futurist, and designing the future for your congregation.
Fuller Seminary’s Scott Cormode is known for saying, “Leadership begins with listening.” This step uses the technique of Appreciative Inquiry as a process for listening for the values of the congregation in a hope-filled setting that sets itself up for creative problem-solving.
Lesson 2: Listen Deeply
Meet Your Instructor
Stephanie Luedtke
Stephanie Luedtke is a leadership coach, consultant, educator, and creator whose work integrates creativity, learning, and community development. With 25 years of experience across congregations, schools, nonprofit settings, and regional leadership initiatives, she brings a collaborative and future-focused approach to supporting leaders and organizations in times of change.
Stephanie is an ordained pastor, a licensed K–12 teacher, and an ICF-certified coach, experiences that have shaped her commitment to cultivating meaningful connection, lifelong learning, and vibrant communities. Through coaching, consulting, and creative resource development, she helps leaders clarify vision, experiment with new possibilities, and design practices that engage people across generations.
Get Ready to Design the Future.
This course is currently available as a curriculum bundle with embedded video teaching links. It can be purchased at the link below. If you would like to engage this course with live coaching, contact me for a custom quote.