The Festival of Homiletics is like summer camp for preachers

During the Festival, you’ll hear from outstanding preachers from diverse backgrounds, traditions, and ministry settings. You’ll participate in passionate worship, dive deep with preaching master classes, and fellowship with preaching colleagues from around the world.

This year, in-person attendance is capped at 1,200 to maintain rigorous safety protocols—but even if you can’t join us in person, you can still participate!

Choose from a free or premium version of the online Festival—or better yet, come to Minneapolis for a celebration of preaching you won’t forget.

An inspiring in-person and live-streamed event with author, and theologian Brian McLaren.Friday, May 10th, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. in Guelph.

Looking for a way to start conversations on addressing racism in the church and Canadian society? Sign up for an upcoming online Racial Justice Workshop. Carmen Ramirez (she/her), ELCIC’s Assistant to the Bishop for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion will hold two workshops on racial justice. These are intended to be taken together.

Join us for "Preaching Refresher," a three-part video course with Dr. Sarah Travis made for preachers who want to find new energy and direction in their work. This course is for church leaders dealing with the tough parts of preaching in today's world. We want to help with the worries about smaller and older congregations and how to make sermons connect with people today.

Understanding Your Grief: Touchstones for Hope and Healing
MAY 7 - 7pm to 9pm

When Grief is Complicated: "A Model to Understand Identity, and Companion Grievers"
MAY 8 - 9am to 4pm

Non-denominational Christian Children's Ministry Conference is for Children's pastors, Sunday School teachers and Kidsmin volunteers.

What lessons can the European experience teach Canadians about church planting and Christian mission in our changing society? Dr. Stefan Paas will share about his experience as a missiologist and church planter in Amsterdam.

Livestream available

Join us for "We Need To Listen" where participants will find:

- support and encouragement
- accountability and celebration
- ideas and strategies

…and most of all, a community of people passionate about sharing the Good News of Jesus with the world but sometimes feel alone doing it.

Ministry Forum is delighted to host an online space that will strive to be safe as modelled and facilitated by its hosts where ministry leaders will gather with almost no agenda and where everything is on the table and tangents are welcomed.

Camp Kintail has invited speakers from TQAMP (formly: Transplaining) to help congregations learn more and support members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in their places of worship. The speaker series will take place at Camp Kintail with coffee, tea, and desserts available all day long as well as a delicious lunch.

As Western culture grows more secular and Christianity finds itself toward the edges of culture, Canadian church plants are witnessing to God’s love in the world in new ways. This conference will explore how the rhythms and rituals for leadership, worship gatherings, and discipleship formation are being adapted in different contexts. Grounded in missional theology, this conference will highlight how God’s Spirit continues to guide the church through this time of transition.

What is the future of youth ministry?

The 2024 Forum on Youth Ministry invites you to join us for 3.5 days of worship, workshops, small groups on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, as we host productive conversations that give voice to our collectives hopes, dreams, and ideas for the future of youth ministry.

Forest fires, floods, droughts, severe storms, deforestation, pollution. Across Canada, people face the terrible impacts of ecological destruction and climate crises. No matter how different people are impacted by environmental destruction or the climate crisis, these experiences can cause high levels of anxiety for everyone. What are faithful responses to eco-anxiety?

Unleash new momentum in your ministry. This April, join the experience that delivers ministry leaders a breath of fresh air and an uncommon energy — bound to generate powerful momentum in your ministry. Gather with future-focused children’s and youth ministry leaders for an inspirational and wildly practical three-day event. Unlock insights and connections to maximize your impact and sustain your own health in the year ahead.

An education and discussion forum for faith communities, and for the larger public, to counter the ‘culture wars’ mentality and explore together more positive and mutually beneficial ways of relating religion to the broader society.

To accomplish this goal, “Beyond Culture Wars” will engage a wide variety of academic and community voices in seeking to raise awareness and understanding across sectors through facilitated dialogue, knowledge mobilization, and community cooperation

In a world that is polarized and deeply divided, the work of crossing boundaries for the sake of healing is crucial. Emmanuel College’s 2024 Rethinking Preaching Conference (RPC) invites participants to consider the challenges and opportunities posed by such issues as religious difference, mental health, queer identity, race, ethnicity, culture, ability, accessibility, online technology, and multi-language contexts and their intersectional natures. The sessions will help us explore what it means to be a preacher for today. Keynote speaker: Rev. Dr. Debra Mumford. Invited preacher: Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo. Workshop Leaders: Rev. Kimiko Karpoff, Rev. Dr. Namjoong Kim, Rev. Dr. Jake Myers, Rev. Evan Swance-Smith.

Public lecture with priest, peace activitist and author Rev. John Dear titled: The Gospel of PEace, Nonviolence in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

No charge (donations welcome)

Copies of Rev. John Dear’s book The Gospel of Peace will be available for purchase at the event.

In our time of growing division, distrust and conflict, understanding our neighbours, particularly those of other faiths, is vital. And in our Canadian context, amid a rise in Islamophobia and hate-motivated crimes against Muslims, connections and conversations between Christians and Muslims have never been more important.

Engage Difference! Deepening Understanding for Intercultural Ministry (DUIM) is a 5-day interactive and engaging program with practical ideas for implementation in your own context. DUIM is for ministry leaders and community members nurturing cultural relevance, understanding, and awareness in their communities.

Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC) is an international program that has brought together the best methods from around the world in community-based conflict mediation, providing effective tools and strategies for analyzing and addressing conflicts. This is a program can be used for conflicts and disputes in communities, families and organizations moving beyond traditional mediative methods, focusing on conflict content, culture and spirituality.

The hands-on 5-day training gives you the opportunity to practice the stages of conflict mediation and to apply the tools of “meditative behavior” in a realistic context.

Participants receive international accreditation as DPC Facilitators upon completion.

Food is essential to both physical and spiritual life. Join Anna Woofenden and Derrick Weston, Food and Faith podcasters, and coauthors of The Just Kitchen: Invitations to Sustainability, Cooking, Connections, and Celebration as they share their passion for transforming kitchens into spaces for healing, community, activism, and celebration. A Webinar Series from the McKay Educational Resource Centre at Knox College.

After the busy Easter season, you’ve earned a break. We invite you to come and take that break with us! Iron Sharpening Iron is offering a 28-hour program designed to reinvigorate your mind, body, and spirit.

The year 2023 was the hottest year on record. The climate crisis is no longer a future we are trying to avert. This crisis is upon us like a flood. We feel caught up in its cross currents that threaten to sweep us away and pull us under. We are overwhelmed by myriad floods: literal floods and other disasters that threaten our existence, floods of information and misinformation, as well as debilitating floods of anxiety and hopelessness.

Join us for an hour of comprehensive preparation, insightful tips, and an opportunity to have your questions answered by experts. Register your spot today!

Join us for "We Need To Listen" where participants will find:

- support and encouragement
- accountability and celebration
- ideas and strategies

…and most of all, a community of people passionate about sharing the Good News of Jesus with the world but sometimes feel alone doing it.

Ministry Forum is delighted to host an online space that will strive to be safe as modelled and facilitated by its hosts where ministry leaders will gather with almost no agenda and where everything is on the table and tangents are welcomed.

Whether you’re paid or volunteering, staffing a community of faith or un-churched organization, focused on children & family ministry or serving older generations, this conference centers anti-racism principles and actions in your leadership

It’s tough being a Christian leader in today’s noisy and polarized world. While social media and the news flood those around you with messages of desperation, political division, and scorn toward “the other side,” you are called to guide your congregation through these turbulent waters. So how can you lead them into mutual understanding and clarity? How can we instill and maintain attitudes of hope and empathy powerful enough to mend the rifts in our communities?

Combat the heaviness of climate work with hope through an insightful workshop lead by Julia Sterling. Dive into insights from environmental leaders and collaborate to brainstorm urgent climate action plans for Canada. Learn from COVID-19 lessons to inspire new, eco-friendly ideas for our communities. Envision a just and sustainable future together!

Learn how to apply Backstory Preaching’s foundational sermon prep framework to craft an Easter sermon you believe in and can’t wait to preach— and finish well ahead of Holy Week, the busiest church season of the year.

In this process-- rooted in prayer and practical tools-- you will discover a framework you can rely on week after week to prepare sermons more efficiently and with more joy.

Treaty is a living relationship on the land built on the desire for the deep relationship of peace that comes from peer respect. Haudenosaunee Wampum Belts encoded these original covenantal values and we mistreat the earth and one another when we stray from these ideals. As various pressures force churches across the country to reconsider their land and building assets, it is also an opportunity to think more deeply and theologically about our relationships on and to the land. For the non-Indigenous church, the renewal and repair of these relationships – with the land and with Indigenous communities – is perhaps the most important pre-development work we can do. It is time to polish the tarnished silver of relationship and rebuild a better future on the land.