Ep 128 is here, bringing you more multivocational goodness!

We’re talking about the realities of multivocational life - is it stressful? Is it satisfying? Is it “better” or “worse” than being univocational? Let’s go beyond just conversational ✨ vibes ✨ and bring in some data, shall we?

Beth Anne Fisher joins the conversation for this episode. She was one of the researchers on the MISSiM project, under the supervision of the primary investigator Dr. Wanda Malcolm. The Malcolm Inventory of Satisfaction and Stress in Ministry (MISSiM) is a statistically valid and reliable instrument that explores 29 aspects of ministry life and how they contribute to an individual's current experiences in ministry life. It is intended for both ordained and non-ordained leaders.

Beth Anne and Jared chat about their findings, their stories, and what we can learn from each other doing this multivocational work.

You can learn more about Beth Anne’s work, as well as what the MISSiM might offer you, by visiting www.newleafnetwork.ca/sustained

Check out and follow along with new episodes at The Multivocational Podcast

Episode 127 of The New Leaf Project is here and we’re bringing you more goodness from the Multivocational Podcast.

Join Beth and Jared as Jared shares his multivocational story.

Jared serves in many capacities in the Canadian Church.  He founded the New Leaf Network and is one of Canada’s leading inter-denominational church planter trainers.  But church planting isn’t the only kind of experience he has garnered.  In his ministry roles Jared has had the opportunity to work with churches of all kinds from all over Canada.  He has acted as a consultant in churches large and small, urban and rural, and new and long established.  He has written a discipleship curriculum, a handbook on church planter training, and a Church Health workbook called the LifePlan. 

Over the past few years Jared has faced some massive shifts in his life and his ministry. In this episode he talks about what he’s up to now, and how he is living this multivocational life!

Episode 126 of The New Leaf Project is here!

We’re going to continue to share the goodness from the new Multivocational Podcast.

Join Beth and Jared as Beth shares her multivocational story.

Beth Carlson-Malena grew up as a Baptist pastor's kid in Treaty 6 territory (aka Saskatoon), and now lives with her wife Danice on unceded Coast Salish land (aka Vancouver). Beth co-pastors a non-denominational church called Open Way that she helped start up almost seven years ago. She has a great side gig as a wedding officiant, and spends the rest of her time bird watching, giving tours at local botanical gardens, organizing actions with others around climate justice and Palestine, and reading/watching science fiction.

Check out and follow along with new episodes at The Multivocational Podcast

Episode 125 of The New Leaf Project is here!

We have a special episode for the New Leaf Project listeners… please help us in welcoming a brand new podcast on our network: The Multivocational Podcast!

Join hosts Jared Siebert and Beth Carlson- Malena as they explore the stories of Christian leaders and practitioners carving out new roles - roles that are increasingly multivocational in the post-Christian Canadian landscape.

In this first episode In this inaugural episode Beth and Jared talk about what this podcast is all about… what it means to be a multivocational leader in Canada… and the multiverse of possibilities while wearing more than one vocational hat!

Check out and follow along with new episodes at The Multivocational Podcast

Episode 124 of The New Leaf Project is here!

Elle is joined in this episode by Albert Chu, the Director of the Centre for Missional Leadership at St. Andrews Hall. 

In their conversation they talk about the realities that need to be faced by Canadian practitioners; considering new paths forward that don’t ignore very real constraints but imagine new ways of doing ministry.

Learn more about the certificate program in Missional Leadership at the Centre for Missional Leadership, St. Andrews Hall:
- https://www.standrews.edu/cml/

Albert Chu is the Director of the Centre for Missional Leadership at St. Andrews Hall.  He is also the Lead Pastor of the Tapestry Church, a multi-campus church in the Lower Mainland.

Albert is passionate about creating space, not only physical space, but designing a safe environment and a hospitable culture that allows people the room to discover and grow as disciples of Jesus.  It was this passion that led Albert to plant the Tapestry Church back in 2004 and continues to fuel his desire to start new missional activities and plant more churches.  As the Director of the CML, and in alignment to this passion, Albert strives to equip, resource, and release leaders for God’s mission in this corner of the world we affectionately call Cascadia.

Albert is a graduate of The University of Alberta where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Political Science as well as a Master of Arts in Sociology. He is also a graduate of Regent College with a Master of Divinity.  Recognized as a leader within the church planting movement in Canada, Albert has served with Resonate Global Missions, Engage Vancouver and as a Church Planter Developer with the Christian Reformed Church.

Albert is married to Frieda and is blessed with two lovely daughters. They love to travel, cycle, cook, and wander with their backpacks within the 117,900 acres of bliss called Mt. Baker Wilderness.

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And we want you to know about our upcoming event the Table 2023. Check it out today!

Episode 123 of The New Leaf Project is here!

Elle is joined in this episode by Krista-Dawn Kimsey, the Director of Learning and Innovation of Servant Partners Canada. Krista-Dawn is a longtime friend of the New Leaf Network, and has been teaching the Canadian Church from her perspective of seeking God's shalom by pursuing holistic transformation of urban poor communities alongside our neighbours.

Learn more about the certificate of Community Transformation that Servant Partners Canada offers :
- https://www.servantpartners.ca/ctc

Krista-Dawn Kimsey is a Ukrainian-German Canadian settler, currently migrating from unceded Coast Salish lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations peoples to Saskatoon on Treaty 6 land. She is the daughter of Gayle and Don Jenner, who were born and raised on Treaty 4 land; home to the Cote, Keeseekoose, The Key, Zagime Anishinabek, Kahkewistahaw & Ocean Man First Nations and the original lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Nakota, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis. She is a mostly pleasant wife to Joel and an often spontaneous parent to her two teenagers: Judah and Gabriella. She currently serves on the executive team of Servant Partners Canada as the Director of Learning and Innovation. For 27 years her vocational passion and calling has been to facilitate creative and transformational learning experiences to disciple, train and coach leaders to love God and love their neighbours with greater justice.

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And we want you to know about our upcoming event the Table 2023. Check it out today!

Episode 122 of The New Leaf Project is here!

Hear the story of the epiphany that led Wendy Janzen to start a forest church, and subsequently co-found the Wild Church Network. Forest Church/Wild Church are unique expressions of church, where we worship both in and with all creation. It is not just taking a regular worship service and moving it outdoors - it is engaging with God's imminent presence among us, recognizing we are standing on holy ground, and opening ourselves to ways that creation itself both praises God and reveals God's love, wisdom, and provision.

Learn more about:
- the Wild Church Network: https://www.wildchurchnetwork.com/
- Church of the Wild book: https://www.victorialoorz.com/book

Rev. Wendy Janzen is planter and pastor of Burning Bush Forest Church, a worshiping community that has been going outdoors for monthly worship gatherings in parks and wild spaces in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON for over seven years. She also serves part-time as Eco-Minister with Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, is a spiritual director, and writes wild liturgies and eco-spiritual practices. Her passion is for inviting people to ground themselves within God's beloved community of creation, and moving from ego-centric (and anthropocentric) understandings of Christianity to eco-centric experiences of faith and discipleship. She lives with her husband, Chip and their two teenage sons, in Kitchener, Ontario.

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We want you to know about our upcoming event the Table 2023: https://www.newleafnetwork.ca/thetable

Episode 121 of The New Leaf Project is here!

Today on our feed we're featuring the second episode of the Disability & the Canadian Church podcast, part of of the New Leaf Network of Podcasts.

This second Cynthia Tam and Stephen Bedard about autism and the church. Cynthia and Stephen help us to learn from multiple perspectives: parent, pastor, professional, self-advocate, ministry leader, and author. We talk about friendship and family, kinship and community, the language we use and the beauty of communication beyond words.

You can find Stephen’s writing on the Disability and Faith Forum at disabilityandfath.org and at his website stephenjbedard.com. You can order Cynthia’s book Kinship in the Household of God through her website cynthiatam.ca or on Amazon.

Cynthia Tam is an ordained minister and the National Coordinator for Disability Ministries with the Alliance Canada. Having Completed her Ph.D in Theology she is involved in teaching in the Alliance Stream at Tyndale University. With a professional background in occupational therapy, Cynthia co-founded Village Eulogia for Families with Special Needs and continued to serve families with children with disabilities through this organization.

Stephen Bedard is an author, pastor, autistic advocate, and parent. He has a DMin in the area of disability ministry from Acadia Divinity College. He lives with his wife Amanda in Brookfield NS and is co-pastor at Brookfield Baptist Church. Stephen’s oldest two children have autism and live in a group home setting. Stephen is the author of How to make Your Church Autism Friendly.

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And we want you to know about our upcoming event the Table 2023. Check it out today!

Episode 120 of The New Leaf Project is here!

Today on our feed we're featuring the first episode of the Disability & the Canadian Church podcast, part of of the New Leaf Network of Podcasts.

This first episode of the limited series is an honest and vulnerable conversation about healing vs. curing, barriers to accessibility, finding belonging in church communities, and resisting normalcy.

The hosts Jasmine and Keith are joined by Bethany McKinney Fox, a public speaker, contemplative, and the author of “Disability and the Way of Jesus,” and Matt Arguin - a Community Member with Wish to Be Home and an Associate Anglican Priest in London.

You can find Matt’s Prayer in Time of Pandemic at  https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cjtmhd/article/view/35010 and Bethany’s book Disability and the Way of Jesus: Holistic healing in the Gospels and in Church here: https://www.ivpress.com/disability-and-the-way-of-jesus

Matthew Arguin is Assistant Curate-Coordinator of Outreach and Evangelism at Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church, Diocese of Huron, Anglican Church of Canada.

Bethany McKinney Fox is founder of Beloved Everybody, an ability-inclusive faith community in Los Angeles where people with and without intellectual, developmental and other disabilities, as well as neurodivergent folks, lead and participate together. She is the author of “Disability and the Way of Jesus: Holistic Healing in the Gospels and the Church.” She is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Episode 119 of The New Leaf Project is here!

In this week's conversation, Dr Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, Professor in Sociology at the University of Waterloo, shares with us the ethnocultural and religious take-aways from the 2021 Canadian Census, released at the end of 2022. 

Sarah gives expert data interpretation to those parsing through this invaluable religious affiliation data for Canadians.  She unpacks all the major findings, including the unexpected data that non-religious Canadians have more than doubled in the past 20 years — to 34.6 percent, up from 16.5 percent in 2001. She discusses that though Christianity remains the majority religion in Canada, only 53 percent of the population reported an affiliation with a Christian religion, down 14 percent from 2011 and 24 percent from 2001. Sarah helps us understand the ways these numbers shift as we move East to West, what Stats Can researchers were surprised by, and how every denomination in Canada, mainline and evangelical, is in rapid decline.

Rather than closing off our minds to the data of decline and disruption, what would happen if we open up and learn what fellow Canadians are saying about their religious beliefs? How could this data open up conversation and connection? Can this learning help us attune to our cultural moment as Christians in Canada? 

This episode is full of Canadian-specific data and content and is helpful for leaders, pastors, planters and Jesus followers who desire to reflect on their own contexts and the ways that our society is shifting away from Christianity 

Dr. Sarah Wilkins-LaFlamme is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She completed her DPhil (PhD equivalent) in sociology at the University of Oxford in 2015. Her research interests include quantitative methods, sociology of religion, immigration and ethnicity as well as political sociology. Dr. Wilkins-Laflamme is co-author of None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada withNew York University Press, and has also published 24 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters to date.

Show Notes, Links and Resources:

1. Stats Canada Religious Data - https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026b-eng.htm?utm_source=twt&utm_medium=smo&utm_campaign=statcan-2021census-diss-ethnocultural-en

2. Religion, Non-Belief, Spirituality and Social Behaviour among North American Millennials: https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/15102

3. Religion, Spirituality and Secularity among Millennials: The Generation Shaping American and Canadian Trends: https://www.amazon.ca/Religion-Spirituality-Secularity-among-Millennials/dp/1032109211

4. Find Sarah on Twitter: @swilk033