Lectureships Archive Now Available
As we continue to host lectureships (typically one or two each year), we’ll be adding recordings and materials to this growing archive. If you missed a lectureship when it was first offered (or if a particular topic sparks your interest) we invite you to take some time to explore what’s now available.
A pilgrimage of Vocation, Loss, Endurance, and Unexpected Grace
“Entering the Master of Divinity program required courage in itself. Arriving at Knox College to fulfill the requirements in pursuit of congregational leadership in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, at midlife, is to come, not as a blank slate, but as a person already formed by decades of experience, questions, disappointments, and faith.”
Ministry Forum Intern Rosanne Purnwasie shares her insights and reflections from her time at Knox College.
Resources for Legacy Planning and Retirement
We recently added a small collection of resources to the Ministry Forum Resource Hub focused on legacy and retirement planning.
Creative Ways to Engage with Your Congregation For Earth Day
Here are several creative ways to invite your church into a conversation or rhythm or caring for the land around them. Included below are seasonal practices, hands-on ideas, and spiritual reflections that root environmental concern in our faith, deepen our witness, and spark meaningful action.
Caring for Creation: Upcoming Ministry Forum Webinars
As we approach Earth Day and the wider celebration of Earth Week, we are invited to reflect more deeply on our calling to care for God’s creation. In this season, we might ask what faithful stewardship looks like in our local contexts: how we nurture both people and the land entrusted to us? In that spirit, we’re highlighting two upcoming Ministry Forum webinars that explore creative, and hopeful ways churches can engage in this work.
Podcasts For Creation Care and Discipleship
As Earth Week approaches, many of us are seeking ways to more deeply integrate creation care into our spiritual lives and ministry practices. Sometimes the best way to begin—or to stay encouraged—is simply to listen. These thought-provoking podcasts bring together voices of faith, science, justice, and creativity to help us reflect, grow, and act as stewards of God’s good creation.
A Prayer and A Video to Spark Your Thinking: Holy Week 2026
It is Holy Week! Let’s keep it simple today.
I offer you two things… a prayer… and something to spark some thinking (if you’d like!)
Using Social Media to Guide People in Prayer Throughout the Week
Social media offers an opportunity to extend the spiritual development of the congregation throughout the week by repurposing the meaningful moments already present in your Sunday service. There are so many ways to do this, but this week I want to focus on prayer.
The prayers offered on Sunday are often very pastoral and tuned to the needs, thoughts concerns, and celebrations of the congregation. You put a lot of time into preparing them and with a little extra intention, you can repurpose them to guide your congregations through the week.
A Deeper Way to Connect: What I Learned from Amber Johnson
Amber offers a two step plan to connect more deeply with your loved ones, work colleagues, and new acquaintances. And, you know what, it might also make you feel less alone despite the multiplicity of connections you may have.
Looking for the People Serving the Next Generation
Right now we are in the early stages of this initiative. Over the coming months, our team will be reaching out to churches across Canada through phone calls and emails to help identify people serving in next generation ministries.
We’re hoping to build a national network and contact database that includes those working in all areas of NextGen Ministries.
And we want to connect with everyone involved in this work, whether they are paid staff, part-time leaders, volunteers, or ministry partners.
Celebrating 5 Seasons of The Ministry Forum Podcast
We really covered a lot of ground over the last few months and we’re grateful for the opportunity to catch a glimpse into the many ways God continues to shape and sustain ministry today.
But Sunday is coming!
Disappointment happens. As ministry leaders, sometimes “The Church” will disappoint us. Truth be told, people will disappoint us. And even more honestly, we will likely be the source of someone’s disappointment at some point
An Equation for Overwhelm
Most ministry leaders won’t find themselves in a pit of snakes. But many know what it feels like to look at a situation and think, I really wish this weren’t mine to step into.
Over the past while, I’ve been in conversation with leaders who describe themselves as busy. But as we talk longer, it becomes clear that something else is at play.
Let’s break it down a bit more.
Five Simple Data Points That Can Help Guide Decision Making In Your Ministry
Numbers help us see patterns, and patterns can help us make better decisions for the future.
In an effort to continue to provide simple, small steps in the area of “digital ministry”, here are five simple areas where you can begin paying attention to data right now in your ministry context.
If you track these consistently for one year, you will be in a much stronger position to make decisions this time next year.
Before Easter: Give Your Church Website a Check-Up
As Easter approaches, we can expect that new, returning, or less-than-regular attenders will be checking out our church websites before they visit on April 5 (or in the weeks leading up to it).
You are already thinking about how to prepare your physical space.: planning special services elements, tidying hallways, making sure signage is clear…. all of the things you can think of to make your building feel welcoming.
Let’s make sure your digital space gets the same care and attention.
Books About Change in 2026
A few books that take the conversation further. Some lean more theological. Some are grounded in leadership practice. Some focus on what is happening inside the leader when change feels heavy or slow or complicated.
When Change Actually Happens
Change is something every ministry leader talks about… but when does it actually happen? Let’s explore a simple framework that looks at change in a bit of a different way.
Lent & Easter in a Weary World: How Are You Proclaiming Good News This Year?
This year, perhaps more than others, we find ourselves asking:
How are we proclaiming good news in a world that feels saturated with bad news?
Where is God in all of this?
Where Is God When the Year Turns?
The start of a new year often arrives wrapped in the language of measurement. We count what was accomplished and what was not. We review goals met, goals abandoned, and goals we never quite named but somehow still feel guilty about. Calendars flip, planners open, and with them comes an unspoken reckoning:
Was I enough last year?
Did I do enough?
Will this year be different?
Faith & Mental Health: Highlights from Our 3-Part Podcast Series
Over the past three weeks, we’ve had the privilege of journeying together through a meaningful three-part podcast series on mental health and the church.
In this series, we explored mental health from several angles:
A conversation with Laura Howe, founder of Hope Made Strong
A discussion with Daniel Whitehead, CEO of Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries
A discussion with Rev. Paul Kang and Rev. Dr. Karen Dimock who have led The Sanctuary Course in their congregations