Lewis Center for Church Leadership Illustration
Leading Ideas | January 6, 2026
As church leaders look toward 2026, familiar approaches to leadership are proving insufficient amid changing communities, evolving teams, and growing demands on leaders. Lewis Center Director Jonathan Page highlights key shifts shaping the year ahead and offers practical guidance for how church leaders can respond with clarity, collaboration, and purpose.
As we begin a new year, I want to express my gratitude to the Leading Ideas community for the ways you engage with the work of church leadership, and for your support and encouragement during my first few months as director.
Community-focused, team-based, and transformation-driven leadership will shape the direction of the church in 2026.
Stepping into 2026, I want to share nine trends we can anticipate in the year ahead and what leaders can do to shape the benefits of these trends over the next 365 days. These trends fall into three categories that I believe are central to the direction of church leadership: community-focused, team-based, and transformation-driven.
The idea of community-focused church leadership centers the neighborhoods in which churches are located more than the church buildings (and people that occupy them). Church leaders will do well to ask the question: “Who is our primary audience?” Aside from the Divine, would we say that our members or our community fit that role? In 2026, trends will emphasize a focus on the community first, believing that if church leaders are prioritizing serving their community, they are able to serve their members too as churches become decreasingly regional and increasingly composed of neighborhood residents.
Team-based leadership is a rejection of the need to serve as a solo, heroic leader in place of building teams of leaders to share in the work of the church. Not only does this work create greater buy-in and connection in church leadership, but it also helps to address issues of leadership burnout and unease.
Churches and their leaders must desire to be known by their fruit more than their intentions.
A transformation-driven approach calls churches and their leaders to desire to be known by their fruit more than their intentions. Embracing the move of the Holy Spirit to change lives, communities, and systems while following a transformation-driven approach allows leaders to keep “the main thing the main thing” and develop a clear understanding of priorities to ensure efficiency in leadership efforts.
Three categories. Nine trends. Let’s dive into what’s ahead in 2026.
Community-focused
1. Celebrate and cultivate depth.
I wonder how many of you have heard the phrase, “We just don’t have as many people as we used to,” in your contexts. There is a struggle to attract and retain members in churches. Often, leadership literature has suggested that an attractional sermon series or incentivizing programs can change this trend. In his recent work The Power of Mattering, Zach Mercurio argues that the quality of interactions is far more important than the quantity in efforts to combat loneliness. In 2026, I anticipate there will be increased efforts to recognize and prioritize a depth of discipleship against a need to hook people into the life of the church. How is an ongoing discipleship pathway creating a critical need for Christian community in the life of our churches? Working to establish deeper and more meaningful discipling relationships will be key in 2026.
2. Incarnation will outpace programs.
Efforts to connect with neighbors will continue to move away from large-group, one-off programs. This trend has been evident in the post-pandemic landscape of the church, but ideation about how to connect in neighborhoods often looks to replicate program-centered efforts. Leaders will want to consider how they are building intentional in-person relationships in their communities. What would it look like to prioritize consistent gatherings with two to four people instead of occasional gatherings of twelve or more? Finding spaces for frequent, intimate relationship building will allow for increased understanding and belonging in community spaces.
3. Create spaces to know and be known.
Finding space for deep listening is an essential task for church leaders in 2026.
How is your church offering spaces to grow in your understanding of what drives your neighborhoods? How is your church telling the story of your ministry and mission? Too often, churches stay focused on legacy ministries and missions and make assumptions about the purpose and identity formation that happens in those spaces. In 2026, church leaders need to think about forming an “elevator speech” that can accurately and succinctly describe the purpose of that congregation’s existence. Ideally, this would be done with easy-to-understand language that doesn’t require a background in theological education to interpret. Additionally, church leaders need to consider where they are participating in deep listening in their neighborhoods. What excites or concerns people in your community? A question I’ve found to be helpful when engaging with community leaders outside of the church is “What is a gap that exists in our community that the church might be a part of addressing?” Finding space for deep listening is an essential task for church leaders in 2026.
Team-based
4. Distributed leadership will hold greater opportunity than centralized leadership.
David McAllister-Wilson, President of Wesley Theological Seminary, likes to say, “People will contribute to that which they shape.” Finding ways to empower and equip leaders to share their leadership in specific areas of oversight is a powerful way to ensure that many hands are involved in directing the life of the church. To be sure, this is not a suggestion of a “flattened hierarchy”—this is challenging to implement and can lead to chaos and a lack of clarity. Instead, this is an invitation to what J.R. Woodward refers to as polycentric leadership in The Church as Movement—the creation of environments where individuals are given clearly defined spaces to lead and to follow that are assigned based on skill sets and needs. Operating with this mindset instead of a hierarchical or flattened structure can ensure more participation and a greater diversity of leadership in the life of your church.
5. The “bench” of your church will be as important as your “starting lineup.”
For my fellow clergy, I wonder how many of us have come back from a summer vacation, begun serious preparations for Autumn, and have realized, “Oh no—I need to recruit leaders for next year!” No judgment here—I’ve been in that boat. That said, churches that can operate from a place of strength will do so because they are constantly working to develop a bench of future leaders who have skills and assets that can benefit congregations in the present and future. Consider what it might look like to identify individuals in your community who show gifts for leadership and find spaces to affirm and enhance those gifts. Special attention should be given to positionalities that have historically been excluded from leadership in your church. How are you offering opportunities for training and equipping persons whose identities—ethnoracial, gender, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, ability level, educational background (to name a few)—are distinct from yours and most of the people in leadership in your church?
6. Collaboration will be a driver of sustainability.
Teams don’t have to be limited to the internal scope of congregations. How are you working to build intentional partnerships with other faith-based organizations in your community? This is not dissimilar from a trend the Lewis Center highlighted in 2025, but I want to add a special note here to remind leaders that these external forms of collaboration can provide significant pathways to grant funding. Working across multiple faith communities to address community-wide challenges and opportunities can offer funding bodies a fresh perspective of how the church is at work and can be an attractive feature in grant applications. Consider how you might leverage existing community clergy gatherings and interfaith networks while working to create new relationships that allow for shared sustainability that does not yet exist.
Transformation-driven
7. Outcomes will be more fruitful than theories.
Leaders can get stuck in questions and ideas instead of making the shift to actions. Don’t get me wrong—finding intentional space to come up with good questions and good ideas is essential to high-capacity ministry; however, the land of ideas is a good place to pitch a tent, not a great place to build a house. In 2026, leaders will want to make sure they are driving teams to move from spaces of ideation to clear spaces of implementation. Whether this is happening in spaces of strategic planning or in tactical meetings, ensure there are clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive (SMART) goals that can be communicated after ideative gatherings.
8. Simple means repeatable.
When I was studying for my doctorate, I became aware of an organizational accountability system called the Burke-Litwin model. I’ve grown to love it, but if you were to look at an image of it, it looks like someone threw down a box of uncooked spaghetti noodles and said, “This is how relationships should look in your organization.” This is an example of an overly complex system that is incredibly challenging to replicate. In your leadership, how are you doing the hard work of editing and simplifying systems and decisions? This really is hard work. It’s easier to write 2000 words on a topic than 200. But simplicity when combined with clarity creates opportunities for ideas and efforts to repeat and stack. In 2026, what is something you are responsible for that you might simplify in order to grow impact?
9. Purpose will not be static.
Finally, in 2026 church leaders need to assess personal and organizational purposes to see if they still align with the work of the Holy Spirit in neighborhoods and communities. This might mean revisiting whether a church building needs to house a single church or organization. It might mean thinking about a long-time partnership or missional effort and assessing whether it is still bearing fruit. Perhaps it could mean looking more deeply into AI or other technologies as tools to aid ministry and mission. Ultimately, local churches and their leaders exist to see the world reflect the kingdom of Heaven. How is that going for you? What are some tweaks you could make to become more aligned with that ultimate purpose? Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions or take hard actions. You may not always receive a round of applause for the hard stuff, but you will find increasing satisfaction and hope as you follow the direction of the Holy Spirit as you lead your churches and communities well.
Related Resources
The Power of Mattering by Zach Mercurio
The Church as Movement by JR Woodward
Good Administration is Good Leadership by William H. Willimon
Jacquelyn Pascucci
The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Page
The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Page is the director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Previously he was director of Connection and Innovation for the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church and has served as a pastor in churches of a variety of sizes and contexts. Jonathan holds a Doctor of Education with a degree focus in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California and a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School.
This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary and available at churchleadership.com.