BOOK REVIEW: What Comes Next? Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World by Moody Publishers

Over the last year of adjustments required due to COVID-19 precautions, forward-looking churches and businesses are reassessing their strategies and recognizing that there will likely never be a return back to the state of things before. Mindsets, habits, and lifestyles have all changed. Nicholas Skytland and Alicia Llewellyn, cofounders of Quite Uncommon, wrote What Comes Next? As a guide for Christian leaders to develop a framework for success in our rapidly changing world.

If you are anything like me, you have probably sat in meetings over the last year where at some point the question was raised: “What does our future look like in light of COVID?” That question usually draws projections as to what we guess will have changed, but silence follows as those present realize they may not have a good framework by which to assess and adjust to these changes. What Comes Next? shines in this regard. It provides a framework around which churches and businesses may use as a guide for successful planning sessions. Each chapter addresses a step in the planning process, then ends with a series of brainstorming questions to push the reader for application to their own scenarios.

The authors divided their framework into three main sections:

1. Nearsighted
2. The Futures Framework
3. Farsighted

Skytland and Llewellyn (both are leaders at NASA, as well their local churches) encourage Christian leaders to join them on a journey of what the future could look like, but they also admit change requires much more effort than simply continuing with business-as-usual. What Comes Next? will establish the need for restructuring and reevaluating how entities operate in order to accomplish their mission and vision, and it will walk the reader through the eight stages of developing a new framework:

1. Identify
2. Relate
3. Belong
4. Gather
5. Design
6. Collaborate
7. Scale
8. Impact

Who Needs This Book?

What Comes Next? would serve as a great resource for church and business leaders who do not want to follow in the path of Blockbuster Video Store when digital streaming began to grow. Ideally, forward-thinking churches and businesses would pick up several copies of this resource to use among their boards and leadership teams. But, even if you are stuck in a position where it seems as if those around you are blinded to the looming changes that will be required for future success, you would still benefit personally from reading this – and you will probably become the most valuable member of your team when they do finally realize the need for change.

What Comes Next? Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World prepares the reader to a successful framework to meet the future. You can purchase a hard copy or digital version from Amazon, Christianbook, and Moody Publishers.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Moody Publishers for the purpose of a fair and honest review.