Stories

Once you see what God is doing in United Church faith communities across the country, you may begin to see signs of how God is renewing the church for the world all over the place!

• Churches in Northern Ontario are creating multi-site worship opportunities so rural congregations can continue to thrive with access to resources
• Launched ReVision, a project with 7 congregations (from British Columbia, rural Saskatchewan, Ottawa, and others), to engage in a full year renewal project that steeps them in spiritual reflection and practice, as they look at their structures and potential for engagement with their wider communities
• Four congregations in Montreal & Ottawa Conference have trained lay worship leaders and oversight by one ordained minister.  They have come together to form the Genesis Cooperative
• A group of 8 pastoral charges, with 17 congregations in the Maritimes is in the initial stages of considering what a collaborative ministry might look like, and working with EDGE to ensure a dynamic reflection of small and rural pastoral charges
• A presbytery in Ontario is hosting Community Round Tables throughout their congregations and communities, discovering how they can live out ‘Loving God, Loving Neighbourhood’
• 9 congregations are in various stages of our onboarding process, to help determine if their properties are viable for new projects
• A new congregation in Winnipeg is working with EDGE to review and evaluate their ministry development and program engagement within their community

For these and even more stories, please see the Round the Table blog from The United Church of Canada.

Watch some other stories in this video of Ministries Across Canada.

We are all familiar with the narrative of inevitable decline and increasing irrelevance of “church” to people today. There is another story, about how God is helping people of all ages find deep connection, spiritual nurture, guidance for life and ways to make a difference in their world through vital United Church ministries. These are ministries that have made the changes necessary to make gospel community accessible to a post-modern society. They are exciting, vital, spirit-filled and growing United Church communities of faith, but not all of them are “box, book and preacher” models (church building, bible and preacher).

If you’d like to find out more about these stories, please contact us.