What is Shifting Sacred Futures?

Shifting Sacred Futures is a 6-week ep into the future of religious and spiritual leadership in today’s spiritual-but-not-religious world. Designed for real-world people committed to building a more compassionate and just world, this program will expand your idea of what’s possible in your community and beyond.

American spiritual life has changed dramatically over the past 60 years, yet the roles and expectations for people working in spiritual life remain largely unchanged. As a result, leaders report feeling burnt out, overworked, and disillusioned on a regular basis.

Is this you?

Isolated

Are you the only progressive or radical voice in your region?
Do you fear what might happen if you were as openly radical as you want to be?
Do you feel disconnected from friends or family?
Do you wish you had a trusted confidante to help you navigate the challenges facing your community?

You deserve community and support.

Shifting Sacred Futures has small-group coaching and peer support built into the program so you never have to process leadership challenges alone.
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Overworked

Does a vacation sound more like a fantasy than a possibility?
Do you feel like you're on call 24/7?
Are your days off interrupted by work requests?
Do you feel overwhelmed by the expectations placed on you by your community?

You deserve to have boundaries and breaks.

In Shifting Sacred Futures, we talk about the unreasonable expectations and systemic barriers unique to faith leaders that keep you locked into overworking. We work together on a strategy to help you be clear and firm with your boundaries so you can take the space you need away from work.
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Drained

Do you wake up exhausted after a full night of sleep?
Do you binge-watch TV after work because you don't have the energy to do anything else?
Do people regularly tell you that you look tired?
Are you more irritable, agitated, or excitable than usual?

You deserve to feel rested and spiritually nourished.

Shifting Sacred Futures reinforces your personal spiritual practices. Throughout the program, we center your personal spiritual care so you can go out into the world knowing that you're never drawing from an empty well.
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Uninspired

Do you struggle to find meaning in your work?
Have you lost touch with your own faith or spiritual practices?
Do you dismiss bold new ideas as being "unrealistic"?
Does the idea of doing something creative feel like more work?

You deserve to have BIG ideas.

Imagination and creativity are the driving forces of social change. In Shifting Sacred Futures, your imagination is sacred and your BIG visions for yourself, your community, and the world are possible. Together, we'll nurture those dreams into action.
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If you answered "YES" to any of the questions above, this program is for you.

Applications open Friday, December 3rd 2021 to Monday, January 10, 2022.

What You'll Learn

We all have assumptions about what it means to be a leader and those assumptions are doubly loaded when we are responsible for the spiritual care of others. We’ll spend some time talking about our assumptions, the assumptions put on us, and begin breaking these assumptions down.

Opening ourselves up to the “impossible” is a difficult task that science-fiction does wonderfully. Using sci-fi as a starting point, we’ll work on suspending our own disbelief at what is and is not possible for the world we live in. This is the first conversation we’ll have about worldbuilding and will focus on our personal dreams.

Every community needs some way to grieve loss and change yet few actually practice communal grieving outside of funerals. We’ll put our heads together to actually come up with grief rituals to help your communities process change and come out on the other side excited about what’s next.

 Let’s talk about worldbuilding some more, but this time we’ll do it with an eye towards our communities. What does the world that your community is working so hard for look like? And how do we make it happen? We’ll discuss these questions and more all in week 4.

Spiritual and religious leaders require certain environmental conditions to thrive. We’ll use an ecological lens to think about our settings, the conditions we need to thrive as leaders, and the conditions our community members need in order to be better stewards of the community.

In this last week, we’ll talk about what’s next for us and learn a goal-setting process to be used in our communities to initiate purposeful, soulful reflection and change.

Meet Your Instructor

My name is Taj M. Smith and I’ll be your instructor!

I’ve always been drawn to spirituality and religion, but, as a transgender man, I grew up thinking spirituality and religion weren’t for me. When I came out as queer in high school, all of the messages I received from pastors and other religious people around me was that my existence was sinful. Despite my desire to grow in relationship with the Divine, I renounced spirituality altogether in favor of creating a world in which people like me don’t have to choose between being true to themselves and spirituality.

At first, I threw myself into activism, organizing for marriage equality in my home state, California, during the Prop 8 campaign. I still felt like something was missing though.  I came back to religion in college when I met a group of other queer Christians. For the first time in my life, I felt validated in my existence and safe enough to explore the questions I’d held back for so long. 

As I delved deeper into my spirituality, I got closer to the truth about myself: that I am transgender. I also understood that the call to activism I felt needed to have spiritual roots. In 2016, I received my MDiv from Harvard Divinity School where I studied theology, social change, and Christian ministry. 

Since seminary I’ve worked at the intersections of faith and LGBTQ+ liberation. 

My heart is in providing a safer space for progressive, radical, feminist, queer, and activist faith leaders to share their challenges and receive support. 

Shifting Sacred Futures is designed to be that safer space. 

Results I've Helped Create

When is Shifting Sacred Futures?

  • Application Period: December 3, 2021 –  January 10, 2022
  • Program Run: January 18 – February 22, 2022
  • Weekly Meetings: Tuesdays, 2-3:30 PM EST via Zoom
  • Proposed Meeting Dates: 1/18, 1/25, 2/1, 2/8, 2/15, 2/22

Who this program IS for:

Shifting Sacred Futures

Winter Cohort
$ 649
  • Deepen the link between your values, your activism, and your spiritual life
  • Reignite your spiritual imagination
  • Leadership approaches that disrupt the status quo
  • Weekly group coaching calls with dedicated small group time.
  • Join a community of peers who will support and celebrate your outside-of-the-box ideas
  • Payment plans available
Limited*

Not Sure if This Program is for You?

Try it risk-free. If it’s not a good fit, you’ll get your money back with no questions asked. 

Applications Open December 3 - January 10

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Do you have questions?

We’ll help you find more clarity with no sales pitches or pressure to commit. Sign up for a 30-minute conversation below:

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Applications for the next cohort of Shifting Sacred Futures will open soon. Submit the form and we’ll email you as soon as you can apply. 

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