The International Consultation on Ecclesial Futures is a group of invited practitioners, academics, consultants, and church leaders with a communal interest in the challenges and futures of local congregations and systems that support them. We work together to share research, foster a critical conversation, and deepen our ecclesial imagination.
Our group spans several continents, multiple ecclesial traditions, and is decidedly interdisciplinary. We reject the divisions between practitioners and academics as unhelpful. Our conversations draw on the wells of constructive theology and missiology, sociology and Biblical studies, practical theology and practices of adaptive change and innovative ministries. We are united in the conviction that the church’s existence is an expression of the missio Dei, and that the church’s life and ministry ought to be embedded in discerning God’s presence and direction.
Our work is anchored in a yearly consultation where at the invitation of a local host we come together to learn from and with local churches and leaders as we discern together the contextual missional challenges they face and the future God may have in stock for them.
We aim to contribute to the larger missional conversations by sharing our work through participating in the publication of Ecclesial Futures, a peer reviewed e-journal.
In our work we aim to exhibit the very same values and practices we believe ought to be inhabited by ecclesial communities:
Dwelling in the Word, prayer, and worship • Mutual hospitality • Contextual sensitivity • Cross-cultural engagement • Rigorous and non-competitive critical discerning reflections • Space for vulnerability • Constructively working together • Mutual discernment • Fostering long-term friendships