Uncovering the gospel-motivated entrepreneurial spirit represented by these organizations is what drives Exponential NEXT Ventures as they seek to foster and encourage creative ways to take the church to people today and tomorrow. In that vein, project criteria for judging includes innovation, impact, sustainability, scalability, diversity and transferability. As their website says, “These projects are practical, actionable approaches to ministry that historians will one day conclude were critical to the success of the future church.”
Exponential NEXT Ventures’ first Church Innovation Trade Show will take place on March 16, 2026, prior to the Exponential Global Conference in Orlando, Florida, and is open to anyone to attend. It will include an event where $100,000 will be awarded to the top five most impactful Ventures projects from the last five years.
Ultimately, the project springs from a desire to equip the local church and raise up the next generation of entrepreneurial church leaders.
“We want to expose the everyday church leader [to new ministry ideas],” Williams says. “What we [are] doing [today] might not work in the future. [So let’s] try the new thing.”
Learn more about these and other Exponential Ventures projects at Exponential.org/projects.