Canadian Small Church Ministry Centre
Resourcing Small Churches
The small church, with its emphasis on relationship, is especially suited to intercultural ministry. NOTE – not multicultural which seems to imply a mixing of all cultures into one, not cross-cultural which seems to imply merely tolerating each other, . . . but intercultural which implies we meet each other where there is messiness and conflict and we work our way through the dissension towards submission to each other – true humility in action.
Canadian Small Church Ministry Centre podcast “This is Us: Canadian Small Churches in Action” April 2021 – October 2024 YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@canadiansmallchurchministrycen/videos Episode #1 – Ron Johnston – Introducing Small Church Connections in Canada Episode #2 – Dave Witt – True City Hamilton gathers churches together to impact a city Episode #3 – Karl Vaters …
Continue reading “Podcast Listings – April 2021 – November 2024”
Bruce Clemenger, past president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, writes with strong analysis on the emerging Canadian Civil Relgion.
Preaching in the midst of a Natural Environmental Disaster is never easy. Jeff Stanfill gives welcome advice! Book Review by Ron Baker.
In the month of October Canadian Small Church Connections holds three retreats that are designed to give small church pastors a place to rest and relax. One in Alberta, one in Ontario and one in Nova Scotia. At these retreats three brochures were handed out focusing on the podcastst that Canadian Small Church Ministry Centre …
When imposed becomes tiresome, we tend towards rebellion. I think it is just a way to react when our expectations of a quick resolve to a problem are dashed. The conundrum of COVID has been the quickly changing goal posts. When our vision for the future is no more than a day at a time, …
Continue reading “Small church COVID conundrum–do we plan with contingency or surety?”
This last week has hit me hard. I’ve travelled a bit, talked to young and old, and come to a hypothesis. “A sustained period of disconnection with people and enforcement of restrictions makes for a sadness of soul.” There has always been a resiliency within the ranks of vocational and voluntary church leaders. The bounce …
McAlpine, Bill, Joel Tiessen, Keith Walker, Arch Chee Keen Wong. Signs of Life – Catholic, Mainline, and Conservative Protestant Congregations in Canada. Tyndale Academic Press / Canadian Bible Society. 2021. I’ve often read books starting in the last chapters and then reading from the front. Although any good fiction writer decries my desecration of the …
Continue reading “Signs Of Life – Seven reasons I’m for this book.”
The Church Recovery Guide: How Your Congregation Can Adapt and Thrive after a Crisis by Karl Vaters (Moody Publishers, 2020), 111 pages.Available in various media formats online. For multiple copies contact the author directly at KarlVaters@gmail.com. In this his fourth book, Vaters offers insights he has gleaned from his 30 plus years of pastoral experience …
Three small churches. Three denominations. These are just some of the people I have been a part of for the last few months. One is a restart of a church. One is leaving their denomination. One is a completely new start. My observation? Each has a hidden excitement. The restart wants to return to the …