Canadian Data for Canadian Church Leaders
We're Hiring! Research and Program Coordinator
Position Summary:
The position provides administrative support to the Flourishing Congregations Institute (www.flourishingcongregations.org), currently housed at Ambrose University (www.ambrose.edu). The incumbent reports to the Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute and works closely with the Director and Associate Directors of the Institute.
This support staff member must have strong organizational skills, be attentive to detail, and demonstrate excellent communication skills, as they will provide a variety of administrative support services for the Flourishing Congregations Institute. Primary responsibilities include administrative and logistical support to the Institute Director and Associate Directors (e.g., emails, budgeting, scheduling meetings and events); managing external facing communications (e.g., social media, website, event promotion); coordinating research-related activities with participants and team members, including possible involvement in some data design, collection, and dissemination activities; directing logistics for Institute events (e.g., Partnership Council meetings, webinars, conferences); and other duties as assigned.
This position entails maximum payment for 16 hours a week or 800 hours a year. The adjustment of scheduled hours is negotiated with the Director, so that the balance equals 800 hours a year. There will not be overtime. Typically, this will include three days per week, working approximately 3-5 hours per day. Minimum one-day per week on site, with work-from-home flexibility.
New Book Published
The Stories Congregations Tell: Flourishing in the Face of Transition and Change
Congregations are story-telling communities. The stories they tell, which link a community’s past, present, and future, can play an important role in whether a congregation flourishes or not. The Stories Congregations Tell features detailed case study research from seven dynamic Canadian congregations across theological traditions and geographical regions. Readers will encounter narratives that congregations tell themselves through a myriad of congregational and social transitions, accounts that shape how congregations interpret, frame, approach, and ultimately flourish in ministry. This book offers social scientific analysis and theological reflection on the stories congregations tell and the function those stories play for a congregation’s culture, along with practical and hopeful applications to arise from this research.
Our Newsletter
Flourishing Forward Newsletter
The Flourishing Congregations Institute researches the Canadian Church, interpreting and sharing data with church leaders across the country. Twice a month, we release the Flourishing Forward newsletter, which includes blogs or short videos from those who study the Canadian church. Each newsletter attempts to answer the questions below by touching on various topics helpful to church leaders:
- Why does this data and interpretation matter to church leaders/congregations?
- What are some of the uncomfortable truths church leaders/congregations need to wrestle with?
- What insights give church leaders/congregations hope?
- What are some next steps for church leaders/congregations to consider exploring based on the data and interpretation?
Featured Research
Mental Health and Illness in Canadian Congregations, 2024
What attitudes and perceptions regarding mental health, mental illness, and mental health challenges exist in Canadian Christian congregations, and what congregational supports and resources related to these topics exist? These questions anchor this survey, in partnership with Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries, with nearly 1000 church leaders and congregants across theological traditions and Canadian regions. This report also offers a way forward for churches, informed by these data.
Featured Webinar
The Spiritual Discipline of Deconstruction
Original Air Date: Friday, November 28, 2025, 11:00AM (MST)
Webinar Description: Join Angela Reitsma Bick, Editor at Christian Courier, in a recently released webinar about her book Blessed are the Undone: Testimonies of the Quiet Deconstruction of Faith in Canada. Canadian Christians frustrated with the Church have come ‘Undone’ and are leaving politely, almost apologetically, in what has been dubbed a “Quiet Deconstruction.” Faith that allows room for doubt, pastors who admit their mistakes, and liturgy with a built-in time for reconciliation – these are just a few of the ways that Canadian churches normalize healthy faith deconstruction. What would it look like if churches were a place where “small deconstructions” happened regularly, in community, alongside ongoing reconstruction?
What is a flourishing congregation?
A church experiencing quantitative and/or qualitative strength in many of these eleven areas…
Access the Canadian research that informs this approach to flourishing congregations in our article and our book.
The church from the start has been a divine and human collaboration, a dance – and sometimes a tussle – between what God is doing what we do.
The team at Flourishing Congregations Institute gets that. Their front-line research into the inner workings of healthy congregations is helping churches across Canada be good dance partners.