This week, I’m celebrating my 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY as the Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Knox College. And what a year it has been! Can’t wait to share with you all of what’s next for us as we grow our community and remind one another that we are not alone as we seek to share the Good News of Jesus with the world.

By the numbers, here’s what we’ve been up to for the last 12-months*:

Noting our online presence didn’t really begin until October / November last year - so some of these stats reflect eight months of engagement!

Hosted 22 webinars

Grown our email list to 516 subscribers

Reached 5000+ people on Facebook & Instagram through 500+ posts

Posted 70+ articles on our “searchable” website

Promoted 150+ ministry events on our online calendar

Sent 40+ emails to our growing community through our weekly email

Represented both Ministry Forum and Knox College at 76 events

We’ve hosted 2 hybrid events - Brian McLaren Lecture in May and our first Creative Ways Conference in June inspiring an overall audience of 200+ people

In June 2024, we launched 4 E-course offerings on CHURCHx.ca -with more to come:

• Leading Worship: Building Confidence and Capacity as Lay Leaders with Rev. Dr. Sarah Travis

• Social Media 101: Platforms & Possibilities and Social Media 101: Running and Growing Social Channels with Tim Campbell-Smith

• It’s Raining Books - Hallelujah: Book studies and more with John Borthwick

Plus

• Self-Leadership with The Rev. Dr. Peter Coutts coming this Fall

• Lay Preaching with The Rev. Dr. Sarah Travis coming January 2025.

Our Resource Hub will be released September 8th

And our Podcast is in the studio…, and we look forward to launching it in September!

In the spirit of our mantra, I too am not alone in this ministry to which I have been called… I couldn’t do what I do without the incredible support and encouragement of the following people/groups:

• The Board of Governors of Knox College whose vision and hard work brought the Centre for Lifelong Learning into being;

• The Rev. Dr. Ernest van Eck, my Principal;

• The Centre’s Advisory Committee and the Faculty of Knox College;

• The congregations of Rexdale and St. Andrew’s, Guelph who helped shape and prepare me for the way I serve the Church today;

• my supportive family;

• and a huge cloud of witnesses with whom I have been blessed to be mentored, corrected, and loved by over the years.

And I’ve left my final words of gratitude for my small but so very MIGHTY team… Lauren and Mike. Together we’ve somehow accomplished all of the things noted above… and they only work for us in a contracted / part-time capacity. And really - it is mostly Lauren, our Logistics and Creative Lead and I (no offense to Mike who has been essential in making our technology work at our events and thinking through LOTS of ideas!). But let me say that again - in the last 365 days, everything that now exists as Ministry Forum from the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Knox College has come into being through the dedicated efforts of Lauren and myself. WOW!

I can’t wait to see what’s next! And I hope you are curious too… because truthfully, as cliche as it is to say, we couldn’t do this ministry without YOU!

We are so very grateful to be a part of this growing Ministry Forum community.

So give yourselves a pat on the back today!