Pre-PMRC AGM Gathering for Ministers, with Rev. Scott Reynolds and Rev. Michelle Slater

Clergy friends,

We are thrilled to be offering a gathering for you, in the days immediately prior to the Pacific Mountain Regional Council’s 2024 Annual General Meeting!

Deep Dive - A time for Ministry Personnel pre-PMRC AGM
with Growth Animator Rev. Scott Reynolds and LeaderSHIFT’s Rev. Michelle Slater

May 29-30, 2024

Come to Vancouver BC a day early to explore how we are called to minister and lead in this time and place, post-pandemic. How did you embrace ministry during the pandemic, and what did you learn? What do we want to lament, and what do we want to ask God’s blessings on? How can we support one another in the challenging work of ministry leadership today?

Begins Wed. May 29 at 1 pm, and ends Thursday, May 30 with lunch

Location: St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church, Downtown Vancouver BC.

Cost: $50

Registration coming soon!

Contact Rev. Michelle Slater if any questions, in the meantime: MSlater@united-church.ca

When we say 'Total' We Mean it Literally, and Emphatically: Total Clergy Wellbeing Retreat - You Totally Need To Go.

Friends,

When our team was reflecting on all the stories we have heard over the years from the first Total Clergy Wellbeing cohort, we knew you needed to hear why your colleagues believe you should take this program too.

Total Clergy Wellbeing was a balance of collegial connections (perhaps even more important now that we don't see each other regularly in Presbytery meetings) and excellent, thought-provoking speakers. Recently a colleague enjoying a Sabbatical remarked, "After/during COVID, we all need a Sabbatical.”  While that may not be possible, I suspect we all need soul-tending and opportunities for renewal and replenishment. Total Clergy Well-Being offers just that. The role of the accompanier was a gift, as the person was a trusted colleague and insightful friend who I don't see often enough, facilitating a bit of a breakthrough for me. Looking back, several years later, the most important part of the Total Clergy Wellbeing experience was the balance of substantial program and spacious time with opportunities for individual reflection and collegial connection throughout.

Rev. Dan Chambers

One part of the experience which had lasting positive impact on my ministry and wellbeing was “The care that was taken to provide us with all that we needed and pampered. It reminded us that what we do is noticed and appreciated. The 365 evaluation of who we are and areas for growth was helpful, both in ways that were affirming and challenging.  They are always in the back of my mind. As ones who spend most of our time focusing on others, this program provides a rare opportunity to focus on ourselves; to take time to listen, reflect, relax, and grow as individuals. Because the accompanier was my life partner, it was incredibly helpful that we both experienced this program together. It provided us with insights into who we are as individuals, as a couple and as a clergy couple. Looking back the most important part of the Total Clergy Wellbeing experience was the sense of being cared for by the larger church.

Rev. Ivy Thomas

I started doing yoga at this event in 2016 and I am still doing it all these years later. One of my goals was to increase my physical fitness and to do that intentionally, and the presence of my partner and the supportive structure of the event, really helped me to achieve that goal and stick with it. The biggest things for me regarding this course were: 1. It felt like the LeaderShift team cared about my wellbeing and that the actual institutional church "had my back" which was big in 2015, but is even more meaningful now, "after" the pandemic has changed our lives significantly. 2. Anything that deepens self-awareness and emotional intelligence is going to increase the odds that clergy can function in a healthy way in our ministry contexts. I was really grateful to my partner that he accompanied me. That we could share the experience of this course meant a lot to me. We have had conversations post-event, about his experience, and that has contributed to his growth and self-awareness as well as my own. I see the event as another in a series of "integrating" events that I have engaged in, often thanks to LeaderShift and its excellent offerings. To the extent that I have been open to deepen in awareness, skill and even "content" or "theory" at Total Clergy Wellbeing or similar type of event, I have become a better leader and a more mature human being.

Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes

There is still time apply to participate in this unique program! Love what is thriving, tend to what is weary, and define ways to support both. There is truly nothing more important right now; please join us. Take this step: Total Clergy Wellbeing.

I’m available to help you get the information you need, to empower your participation - you’re warmly invited to connect with me - by email or the Expression of Interest form on the Total Clergy Wellbeing page (or a call - I have limited hours but do return voice mails).

If you hope to attend this October, 2022, I need to hear from you very soon. Though more than a month away, the fullness of this retreat requires some advance preparation from you, for the facilitators.

Blessings,

Allison

LeaderSHIFT Director

Friday may be a day of preparation – what are your preparing for? 

The Latest 

May 20, 2022 

 

Good Friday all, 

Friday may be a day of preparation – what are your preparing for? 

Perhaps the start of outdoor season, a long weekend for bringing out the patio furniture and getting the tender tomatoes into the ground - 

Perhaps the anniversary on Monday of the confirmation of hundreds of indigenous children died and were buried without ceremony and without family at residential school across the country -   

Perhaps it is a combination of all these things.  Whatever it holds, may it truly prepare you and yours for what is emerging and true in community, in family, in faith.  

LeaderSHIFT has been preparing for the fall and return to in-person opportunities.  We are watching, and listening, and praying into what we can uniquely offer in the Chinook Winds, and the Pacific Mountain Regions as faithful leaders yearn to align themselves with Spirit’s intentions.   

We hear you wonder about articulating a bold public witness and theology.  We hear you give language to a vision of God’s kindom that animates and enlivens our mission and lifts us out of busy work and into faithful service and worship.  And we hear you wonder, have we lost a capacity to be swept into the Holy Spirit’s movement in and through the world? And in and through our churches? Come, Holy Spirit, Come.   

If you live in Chinook Winds region you are blessed to have the chance to bring all these wonderings and yearnings and hopes to Bold Witness, Relentless Grace in person!  Sarah Bessey together with a slate of diverse and thoughtful theme leaders will help and challenge us to engage and live the faith we profess.  This conference, offered and hosted by the Symons Valley United Church team, will be such a wonderful opportunity for connection, coffee, food trucks, conversation and prayer, song and thinking together.  If you are in the Pacific Mountain region…check out the satellite option for groups.   

We are preparing retreat for you clergy who are needing a refresh and a deep reset: Total Clergy Wellbeing at Naramata Centre.   

We are preparing an event for those of you being nudged by God to consider a vocation in leadership.   

We are preparing a deep learning for congregations with part time clergy – to embrace the model as a pathway to abundance instead of a confirmation of decline. 

We are ruminating on ongoing mental health, and faith formation, and learning about integrating virtual and in-person ministry. 

And we await what will happen as councils both regional and general continue to meet and discern together the next faithful steps for our denomination.  Watch.  The Spirit could show up too.   

Faithfully,

 

Allison