Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

Emerging Spirit’s new congregational learning event, Living the Hope, is off to a great start. Events have been held in four cities looking at new ways of nurturing welcoming congregations that are faithful, relevant, and vital.

Living the Hope offers a focus on critical issues for welcoming congregations: mulitgenerational awareness, pressure points of change, reimagining Sunday mornings, making connections with your community, and the practice of leadership.

Below are some of the post-event comments which have been collected:

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  • After working all day I was tired but left the workshop feeling buoyed.
  • Refreshing.
  • Very Cool.
  • Information was helpful. Several “do-able” ideas to take home and try out with the congregation.
  • I received the “meat” I needed to move [my church] to a more emergent church. 
  • We have a time set to meet again and a lot of energy to go forward! 
  • The mix of group time, presentation, and learning was so well balanced that both days moved without falling into the traps of boredom or rushing.
  • I wish more of the congregation could attend these seminars.
  •  The challenge now is to communicate to congregation.
  • A great pleasure to be here and be part of United Church future. Clearer vision re: future if not always clear, courage to keep on I hope. Some tools.
  • Very engaging, revealing, and helpful. There is a real theological engagement with our gospel and our church life.
  • I think you hit the nail on the head with this one.
  • Excellent.
  • Very “information” intensive.  Need time to digest. Presenting teams were well prepared, knowledgeable and good speakers.

Two more Living the Hope events will be held before the end of the year. It’s not too late to sign up!

Nov. 21-22, 2008 - St. Andrew's United Church, Halifax, NS
Dec. 5-6, 2008 - Jubilee United Church, Toronto, ON 

For the full list of Living the Hope events, through May 2009, see here.

Here is an opportunity to participate in an exciting research project focusing on change in the church. All those who have attended The United Church of Canada's Living the Welcome or Living the Hope events are invited to participate by responding to this online survey. The deadline for responses is December 1, 2008. Your input is very important!

Click here to take the survey.

Lynda Trono is conducting this survey as part of her thesis research on resistance to change in the church. She is a diaconal minister working half time for the Conference of Manitoba and North Western Ontario and a student with the Faculty of Theology at the University of Winnipeg. 

Lynda Trono has been studying church conflict for the past few years and is interested in how congregations respond to change. She would like to about your experience with resistance to change, the level of resistance you have experienced and what you think the blocks are.

The data collected from the survey will be part of her thesis and it will also be shared with Emerging Spirit staff. It is her hope that the information will eventually be used to help the church understand more about the dynamics of change.

Your personal information, your contact information, and your answers to the questions will be kept confidential throughout the process. Your name or any identifying information will not be published without your permission. Your participation in this survey is totally voluntary.

Thank you!

Emerging Spirit is launching a new congregational training event called "Living the Hope." This event will take the learnings gathered through the first round of Emerging Spirit training events and focus on three areas which have emerged as critical to the work of nurturing welcoming congregations which are faithful, relevant, and vital: reimagining Sunday morning, building connections in community, and leadership.

Sixteen Living the Hope events are scheduled for around the country. Registration is now open for the events through the end of 2008 (registration will open for the remaining events soon).

For the full list of Living the Hope events, for more information about the training workshops, and to register, click here.