Click the links below for research on these featured topics. Use our quick search tool to explore other subjects
A healthy church volunteer culture rarely arises by accident. It requires intentional systems and structures to recruit, train, and retain volunteers, centered on personal invitation, clear coordination/support and role descriptions, resonance with the church’s mission and vision, and care for the individual volunteer.
One of the best ways a denomination can resource pastors of small churches is to facilitate access to an accessible network of peers. This is one takeaway among others from a Canadian study of small evangelical churches, which gives attention to “size dynamics” and how small congregations can play to their strengths in local ministry.
Visionary leadership and re-evangelization are central components to the transformation, renewal, and flourishing witnessed in this Catholic parish during case study research in Atlantic Canada. This presentation explores some of the areas related to being “explosively alive,” including Alpha, Mass, mobilizing lay leadership, innovation, and parish structures and processes.
Imagine a congregation whose sole purpose and identity is the spiritual formation of its members. This presentation features case study research with an evangelical Protestant, multilingual, multigenerational, Chinese church in Toronto. Their flourishing centers on visionary leadership, clear systems and structures, and spiritual practices and culture that nurture ‘being’ versus ‘doing’ – resonant relationships with God and others.
A church merger, building campaign, leader change, and pandemic are some of the changes experienced in this growing, multiethnic, 40+ year-old Catholic parish. Yet this case study research in Western Canada presentation reveals three storylines in this parish’s flourishing: an emphasis on numerical, building space, and spiritual growth; fostering a hospitable religious community; and collective versus priestly ownership of priestly ministry.
Challenges, when faced collaboratively, make for an internally stronger, more innovative church community, culture, and identity; and an openness to change through difficult transition leads to growth, inclusion, and the capacity to face new challenges in the future. These are central insights in this presentation based on case study research with an Anglican parish in British Columbia.
Trusting friendships and connections are fundamental to vibrant discipleship and spiritual formation in local congregations. This presentation explores these threads in the context of liturgy, excellent preaching, Bible studies and small groups, and spiritual formation with children and youth in one Anglican parish in Western Canada.
Ministering in a post-Christian context is not for the faint of heart. This presentation explores two evangelical Protestant church plants in Quebec, flourishing in part because of efforts by young leaders to remove barriers for those unfamiliar with Christianity to meaningfully participate in a local congregation.
Imagine a neighbourhood that would notice if a congregation was no longer there. This is the experience captured in this presentation based on case study research with a Catholic parish in Central Canada – a parish whose identity is grounded in service-oriented evangelization with those on the margins of society, and whose activities strengthened partnerships with community organizations along with the spiritual growth and formation of its own members.
The Flourishing Congregations Institute researches the Canadian Church, interpreting and sharing data with church leaders across the country.
© 2024 Flourishing Congregations Institute. All rights reserved. Website designed by Boombox Creative
