Celebrating 1 Year of MinistryForum.ca
One year ago, MinistryForum.ca launched with a mission to connect, resource, and support ministry leaders across Canada. It has been a year filled with growth, encouragement, and connection as we’ve built up this online community - spaning all aspects of ministry work. As we reflect on this milestone, we’re filled with gratitude for the way Ministry Forum has become a space where ministry leaders can find trusted resources, share insights, and celebrate our diverse faith journeys together! THANK YOU Ministry Forum Community!
Here’s a look at what we’ve accomplished in our first year!
150 Web Posts
Since launching, we’ve published 150 blog-style posts on topics that matter deeply to ministry leaders—ranging from pastoral care and preaching to practical ministry tips, trends, and leadership. Every post is created with you in mind, we hope these posts have provided you with inspiration and practical insights for your work. It’s been inspiring to hear from readers who have found guidance, encouragement, and fresh ideas in these articles.
43 Notes of Encouragement from YOU
We’ve received 43 notes of encouragement from the Ministry Forum community sharing how being a part of this community has shaped or impacted their ministry. Whether it’s a simple “thank you” or a story about how a resource, article, or event made a difference, these messages fuel our commitment to serving this community. We’ve kept every note and posted many on our “what people are saying page.”
178 Events Shared
This past year, we’ve promoted 178 events on our events calendar, a place where ministry leaders can find learning opportunities, networking events, and spiritual gatherings across Canada. From webinars and workshops to conferences and retreats, our events page connects leaders with experiences that help foster growth, learning, and community. Got an event other should know about? Send it in and we’ll add it to our calendar.
Join Dr. Christine Mitchell in this 8-week online course. Chaos and Cosmos: Creation Texts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) introduces participants to the creation texts of the Hebrew Bible from a variety of perspectives: comparative, myth and story, ecological readings, feminist and gendered readings, ancient and modern retellings.
On February 5, we’ll have guest John Barrett, the newly appointed Associate Secretary for Congregational and Community Ministries (PCC).
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship’s Psalms 150: A Conference Experience will replace the 2026 Calvin Symposium on Worship, marking Calvin University and Seminary’s 150th anniversary with a special event exploring the psalms in worship and life.
Join Dr. Christine Mitchell in this 8-week online course. Chaos and Cosmos: Creation Texts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) introduces participants to the creation texts of the Hebrew Bible from a variety of perspectives: comparative, myth and story, ecological readings, feminist and gendered readings, ancient and modern retellings.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel remarked after marching for freedom with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I felt as though my feet were praying.” What does it mean to live our values on the streets? To stand in the breaches and busted places of our society, to rise up with the suffering and to cry out for justice? What it does it mean to live into the Biblical commandment to “Love Thy Neighbour”? How do we hold our discomfort in pursuit of a world redeemed? Rabbi Michael Adam Latz was a congregational rabbi for more than 20 years and served a congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a short distance from where George Floyd was murdered by police officers in May 2020 and the heart of where the recent global uprising for racial justice and reckoning was born. In a moment where a Black man had the life choked out of him by a white police officer, we examine the moral responsibilities of people of faith to rise with the suffering and use our collective power for good.
The Encore Webinar Series grew out of the International Conference on Ageing and Spirituality (ICAS), which has more than 20 years of history bringing together a global community of researchers and practitioners. Following ICAS Canada 2023, Encore was created to continue learning, sharing, and connection through accessible online gatherings.
How are we, as leaders, attending to our interior journeys of faith? How are we attending to our own needs for healing and transformation? How do we mindfully support the congregations and organizations we are serving? This session considers several spiritual disciplines to support healthy leadership practices.
This workshop considers several key elements critical for effectively facilitating a consensus process, including a clear purpose for the meeting, focused discussion questions, an agenda that moves items naturally from introduction to discussion to decision, maintaining momentum and building consensus, alongside effective strategies for engaging participant comments.
This online workshop introduces spiritual care practitioners to the foundations of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and its emerging engagement with spirituality and non-physical experiences. Participants will explore how IFS can offer respectful, ethical, and skillful ways to engage spiritual experiences within spiritual care and psychospiritual practice.
This event offers a practical and reflective overview for those considering private practice or work within group practice settings.
The Ember Gathering (Oakland, CA) is a new three-day retreat centering inclusive, justice-oriented spirituality through speakers, worship, workshops, and community-driven design. Hosted by Nu Foundation with Oak Life Church.
This is for youth workers, community workers, student leaders, teacher, parents, camp staff and those who minister to teens!
Featuring Shaila Visser, Sid Koop, Heather Flies, Mike Gordon, Virginia Ward, Tim Teakle, Jason Persaud, Lisa Pak and 40+ Breakout speakers along with OJ the DJ and special worship guests.
“Kristin Neff's Self-Compassion concept was one of the pillars that held me up as I navigated COVID-19” - says Director John
This live online workshop explores how self-compassion can reduce work stress and prevent burnout in both paid and unpaid caregiving roles. Drawing on research and practical exercises, participants will learn tools to respond to exhaustion and moral injury with greater care, balance, and resilience.
Conrad Grebel University College’s Nurturing Communities of Belonging is an interactive online workshop for leaders in faith, community, and professional settings, equipping participants with tools to address prejudice, power, and privilege while fostering diversity and inclusion. Facilitator: Cayla Charles.
What does it mean for Christians to think faithfully about the future? This lecture explores a theology of the future that looks beyond eschatology to the real human choices, responsibilities, and possibilities that shape our common life. It considers the growing value of foresight –the disciplined practice of anticipating emerging realities– and how Christians might understand imagining the future as an expression of prophetic wisdom rather than prediction or presumption. Drawing on Scripture, theology, and practice, the lecture examines how we understand the relationship between past and future, why Christians often hesitate to look ahead, and how we can avoid both fatalism and naïve optimism. It offers a thoughtful exploration of how God’s people can discern, imagine, and lean into preferred futures with courage and hope.
We all love having children present in the church, but what does it look like when our children are full and active participants in the leadership of our worship services? In this webinar, Brand McDonald will share the successes and challenges her church has faced in their intentional approach to ensuring children feel empowered to be active participants in the leadership of worship services.
Many Christian leaders have a well-formed theology of what they believe about God, but far less clarity about a theology of spiritual formation: how those beliefs shape the way we live and lead.
This six-week experience, led by Ruth Haley Barton, invites leaders to engage a biblical, theological, and spiritual framework for Christian formation—not merely as abstract ideas, but as truth to be embodied within communities.
This live, online continuing education conference explores how spirituality and religion intersect with mental health care, bringing together leading experts from psychiatry, psychology, chaplaincy, neuroscience, and public health. Participants will gain practical, evidence-based tools to integrate spiritual and religious dimensions into compassionate, culturally competent clinical practice.
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.
A well-led meeting creates positive energy and builds momentum for the work of the church. This session invites participants to reflect on the facilitator’s role, provides tools for leading meetings well, and offers strategies for inviting differences and managing tension while minimizing unhealthy conflict. This workshop provides skills, strategies and a spirituality for nurturing healthy church cultures in the context of congregational and committee meetings.
The Encore Webinar Series grew out of the International Conference on Ageing and Spirituality (ICAS), which has more than 20 years of history bringing together a global community of researchers and practitioners. Following ICAS Canada 2023, Encore was created to continue learning, sharing, and connection through accessible online gatherings.
Ministry can be both deeply rewarding and exhausting. This workshop invites clergy and their primary support teams into a gentle space of reflection, rest, and renewal. Together, we will explore spiritual practices and support structures that nurture resilience and sustain the call to serve with joy.
This course introduces students to intentional transitional ministry leadership featuring conversations about entering systems, assessing needs, considering history, the role of conflict, and healthy departing. Course begins with a live Zoom session on February 5, 2026.
This PCC Webinar examines how misinformed New Testament interpretation has contributed to anti-Judaism within Christian history. Drawing on biblical scholarship, the session invites churches into deeper accountability and more faithful engagement with Judaism.
Join us as Rev. Konnie Vissers shares about the emerging ministry Rooted: Centre for Theology and Eco-Justice. What started as dissertation research into eco-anxiety and spiritual care for children, has emerged into an organization that seeks to build resilience for people and planet through theologically rooted and eco-justice focused environmental education. Konnie will share some of her research findings around eco-anxiety in young people, and how congregations can use gardening as a spiritual practice to bolster resilience in children who experience eco-anxiety. Specifically, Konnie will demonstrate how Rooted teaches young people how to grow their own food sustainably and ethically, and shares the food with participants, local families, and the food bank, to promote food security and eco-justice. Links: Find Rooted on Facebook, Instagram (@rootedcte), and on our website at rootedcentre.ca (please note that the website will not go live until next week most likely).
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.
It seems that polarized conversations are all around us, including in our congregations. This session considers the dynamics of polarities and the risks of either-or thinking, while proposing a concrete tools for transforming deeply entrenched differences, and embracing the power and possibility of both-and thinking.
The CASC/ACSS National Conference 2026 invites spiritual care and psychospiritual therapy practitioners to reflect on how innovation, technology, and social change are reshaping spiritual health. Gathering in Ottawa, this national conference will explore emerging practices, research, and partnerships that support care, resilience, and meaning in a rapidly changing world.
This six-session online course supports ministry leaders who are navigating uncertainty, polarization, and rapid change. Participants are invited to strengthen their inner life, develop trauma-informed leadership practices, and cultivate hope-filled, sustainable leadership for today’s church and communities.
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.
Growing Resource Hub
Our resource hub has grown to 81 resources, and we are excited to reach our goal of 200 resources by Spring 2025. Each resource—whether it’s a course, guide, tech tool or podcast — has been chosen to support the diverse needs of ministry leaders. This collection reflects our commitment to curating helpful and accessible resources across a range of topics relevant to ministry today. We’re grateful to everyone who has shared their recommendations and to all who use this library to strengthen their ministries.
Visitors from Coast to Coast and Beyond!
Since our launch in November 2023, we’ve welcomed 7,100 unique visitors who’ve generated over 12,000 page views. We love knowing that ministryforum.ca has been able to reach people across Canada (and beyond), and we hope to see this number grow exponetially in the coming years as we expand our offerings and grow the community.
Looking Ahead
As we celebrate this first year, we’re excited to see how MinistryForum.ca will continue to grow and serve you. We’re committed to expanding our resources, sharing stories that encourage, and building stronger connections within this beautiful community of ministry leaders. In the coming year, we’ll continue to focus on creating content that speaks to the heart of ministry, promoting meaningful events, and adding valuable resources to help you thrive in your calling.
Thank you for being part of MinistryForum.ca. Your engagement, feedback, and support have been such a blessing in shaping this community.
Cheers to another year of growth, connection, and encouragement as we journey together in ministry!