This document summarizes a meeting of the World Network of Religious Futurists that took place on July 13, 2014 in Orlando, Florida and was hosted by Jay Gary, PhD. The meeting was an opportunity for futurists working in religious contexts to meet each other and share ideas on best practices for applying foresight within spiritual movements. Attendees participated in exercises to reflect on their work as religious futurists and discussed provocations that may shape the future of religion in the coming decade. The World Network of Religious Futurists has been convening such meetings since 1980 to advance the knowledge and practice of futures studies in religion and religious studies in futures.

1. World Future Society
Orlando, July 13, 2014
Slides: http://www.wnrf.org/orlando14.pdf
Network
Religious
Futurist
Hosted by Jay Gary, PhD

2. Explore the Future of
Religion

3. Religious Futurist
7:00 – 8:15 am
Would you like to meet other futurists who are helping their
churches or temples, mosques or ministries, lead from the
future, not just the past? Religious Futurists first gathered at the
World Future Society’s conference in 1980. At WorldFuture
2014, we will again have an open gathering for anyone who
serves at the intersection of spirituality and futures awareness,
as volunteers or full-time. Participants will meet each other and
share ideas on the best practices of foresight within spiritual
movements. This 75 minute meeting is being hosted by the
World Network of Religious Futurists, http://www.wnrf.org

4. WNRF.org
@WNRFuturists

5. Religious Futures:
34 year retrospect
1980 First Global Conference on the Future, WFS, Toronto 1980
1981 Religious Futurists’ Network (JSAC- NCC)
1987 The Future of Muslim Civilization, by Zia Sardar
1988 World Network of Religious Futurists
1992 The Temples of Tomorrow by Kirby & Brewer
1999 ChristianFutures.com, by Jay Gary & Todd Johnson
2002 Integral Futures, Richard Slaughter, Ken Wilber
2003 Futurizing the Jews, by Moshe Dror & Tsvi Bisk
2006 Regent University, MA & Strategic Foresight, DSL
2008 IFTF, Faith in the Future, Bob Johansen
To advance the
knowledge & practice of
• Futures Studies in Religion
• Religious Studies in Futures
wnrf.orgRabbi Dr.
Moshe Dror
(1934-2011)
Rev. Dr.
Richard Kirby
(1949-2009)

6. Excavating the Future
•Sciences
•Historicism
•Progress
•Revelation
•Divination
Wagar, W. W. (1991).
The next three futures:
Paradigms of things
to come. Praeger.

7. Recollecting Ourselves
“We need hope, a sense of a future…. If
we wish to know about a person, we
must ask, 'what is your story—your real,
inmost story?'--for each of us is a
biography, a story. To be ourselves we
must have ourselves – possess, if need
be re-possess, our life-stories. We must
“recollect” ourselves, recollect the inner
drama, the narrative, of ourselves. A
person needs such a narrative, a
continuous inner narrative, to maintain
their identity, themselves.”
Oliver Sacks
The Man Who
Mistook His Wife
for a Hat and Other
Clinical Tales

8. Religious
Futurist
Narratives
1. What is my inner story as a futurist?
2. In what way has my faith enlarged
(or constrained) my ability to create the future?
3. What will I take back from World Future 2014
to shape my life work?

9. 15 Provocations
What will shape the future of religion
over the next 10 years? Mark the top
4 “provocations” that you feel will
most shape your tradition by 2024,
whether for good or bad.
• Read through it first silently
• Turn to a neighbor, share your
results & why
http://www.jaygary.com/fileseek/downloads/15provocations.jaygary.pdf

10. Sara Robinson
A social futurist, Sara tracks emerging
trends, issues, and solutions to expand
progressives' awareness of the ways our
shared vision of the next America is
coming into being.
Her particular specialty is the role
religion, culture, and other deep
cognitive frameworks play in the way
individuals and societies imagine the
future and choose our strategies to
approach and manage change.

11. Religious
Futurist
Narratives
1. What is my inner story as a futurist?
2. In what way has my faith enlarged
(or constrained) my ability to create the future?
3. What will I take back from World Future 2014
to shape my life work?

12. Sign up to receive notices…
http://www.wnrf.org