Our Leadership Team
Our Director and Associate Directors work to vision, strategize, plan, and execute Institute initiatives in collaboration with one another.
Joel Thiessen
Professor of Sociology, Chair of the Social Sciences department, and Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University
Biography
I am a sociologist of religion who specializes in religion in Canada, religious nones, congregations, millennials, and more recently, death and dying. I received my BA in Behavioural Science at Nazarene University College (now Ambrose University), before completing my MA and PhD in Sociology at the University of Waterloo. I have (co)authored 6 books and over 20 articles, plus delivered over 135 invited public lectures with scholars, church, and denominational leaders across Canada and the United States. I am also regularly interviewed with different media outlets.
Current Research
I am currently involved with collaborative writing and data collection projects, on the following topics: faith transmission with children and teens; mental health and congregations; and (non)religion and death. Below is a select list of my (co)authored books. For a more exhaustive list of my publications and other research activities, please visit my personal website at joelthiessen.ca
Publications
- Thiessen, Joel, Arch Chee Keen Wong, Mark D. Chapman. 2024. The Stories Congregations Tell: Flourishing in the Face of Transition and Change. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.
- McAlpine, Bill, Joel Thiessen, Keith Walker, and Arch Wong. 2021. Signs of Life: Catholic, Mainline, and Conservative Protestant Congregations in Canada. Toronto, ON: Tyndale Academic Publishing.
- Thiessen, Joel and Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme. 2020. None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada. New York, NY: New York University Press.
- Bibby, Reginald, Joel Thiessen, and Monetta Bailey. 2019. The Millennial Mosaic: How Pluralism and Choice Are Shaping Canadian Youth and The Future of Canada. Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press.
- Thiessen, Joel. 2015. The Meaning of Sunday: The Practice of Belief in a Secular Age. Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
- Dawson, Lorne L. and Joel Thiessen. 2014. The Sociology of Religion: A Canadian Perspective. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.