Category: Leadership

Click the links below for research on these featured topics. Use our quick search tool to explore other subjects

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Hope For the Future: The 2021 Canadian Census

I am an editor for the journal Post Christendom Studies. In the most recent issue we asked a number of scholars to reflect on the 2021 Canadian census with a view to understanding the implications of religious trends in Canada on the church today. The 2021 Canadian census confirmed trends in religious habits that are now cemented into the Canadian identity. It offered a picture of the reality that Canadians are increasingly less inclined toward participating in structured religious activities and are less inclined to belief in God. While there may not have been any great surprises in the latest census data it depicts some sobering realities for anyone engaged in church leadership. The diverse group of scholars, from Canada and elsewhere, came up with a number of thoughts that have implications for ministry in Canada and North America today. Here is a sampling of them.

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The Stories Congregations Tell: Flourishing Forward Webinar 

This is a recording of a webinar related to our book, The Stories Congregations Tell: Flourishing in the Face of Transition and Change. This webinar includes two of the authors, Arch Wong and Joel Thiessen, and three practitioners including Sarah Han, Linda Nicholls, and Father James Mallon. This webinar was originally hosted on April 1st, 2025.

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A priest stands before a congregation in a grand church, delivering a sermon with an open Bible.

Three Practices to Unlock Hidden Potential in Preaching 

This video, hosted by Rev. Dr. Sara Han, explores how preaching can ignite a transformational spark by helping listeners actualize their eternal identity in Christ. Drawing from coaching principles like unlocking potential, looking forward, and co-active journeying, this talk equips leaders to disciple others into deeper spiritual growth and lasting transformation. 

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A female pastor holding a Bible leads a choir in red robes during a church service.

Gender Light Bulb Moments in Ministry: Canadian Women Pastors’ Experiences of Gender Inequality

This is a recording of the fourth webinar in our four-part Flourishing Forward webinar series. Hosted by Dr. Katie Steeves, this webinar contains recent findings from qualitative interviews of Canadian women pastors on the topic of how gender interacts with their call and leadership. If you view this webinar recording, you will learn how women religious leaders experience certain comments, actions, and interactions as “gender light bulb moments” – instances where they become aware they are being treated differently because of their gender.

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Faith and the Future: Navigating the Church’s Reluctance Toward Emerging Technologies

As disruptive technology continues to shape the world, the Christian church faces critical decisions in engaging with advancements like Artificial Intelligence and digitalization. A recent study by Futuring Hub at Acadia Divinity College reveals surprising hesitations among Canadian church leaders toward four key technology trends, including hybrid worship and AI. These initial findings invite Christian leaders to thoughtfully discern technology’s role in ministry, recognizing both the potential for good and the ethical implications.

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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. On the surface congregational descriptions appear specific to local contexts. Yet, cultural analysis reveals several commonalities across distinct congregational cultures that appear resilient in the face of challenge and change. These factors include visionary leadership, clear congregational identity rooted in spiritual formation, hospitable community among members, and intentional systems and structures oriented toward a congregation’s mission. 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.

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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.

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When research gets it wrong

Research shapes how we think. But what if the research we’re accessing is inaccurate? Researchers at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada studied how Evangelicals are found through survey research and came across alarming trends in Evangelical samples. Their findings have implications for how Evangelicals are represented in media and for making data informed decisions as ministry leaders.

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Reverse Testimonies Behind the Shifting Stats: Blessed are the Undone Spotlights Canadian Deconstruction Stories

We have heard of the religious “nones” and “dones” but this book talks about the “undone.” Blessed are the Undone: Testimonies of the Quiet Deconstruction of Faith in Canada by Angela Bick and Peter Schuurman offers an assessment of the “deconstruction” trend by examining 70 “reverse testimonies” of conservative and evangelical Canadians. The stories form a pattern of 7 trigger issues that reveal the “church hurt” that leads to becoming undone. They insist, however, that deconstruction is the necessary precursor to the reconstruction of the church.

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