Missional Renewal Update

The following is an adaptation of my December report to Diocesan Council. My hope in sharing these reports is to keep members of the Diocese updated on the work I am doing on your behalf to support congregations, regions, and the diocese as a whole. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about this, or about other ways I can support your congregation. You can find my contact details on the Website's Contact Page. 

Supporting Leadership Development

I continue to work with other members of the staff team, other dioceses in the Province, and dioceses across the country to leverage partnerships that deliver more learning opportunities related to Implementation Plan priorities:

• Provincial School for Parish Development (online and in-person cohort began in September, is ongoing, and continues through Spring 2025). The School focuses on developing leadership skills for lay and clergy teams to bring back to their parishes, and includes teams from all six dioceses in the Ecclesiastical Province. I am one of the instructors, and there is a team from Kokanee Parish attending.
  
  
• Missional Imagination Conference (Online) - I am working with colleagues from the Dioceses of Toronto, Niagara, and NSPEI to develop a conference taking place on January 30 and February 1, 2025 that equips lay and ordained Anglicans to:
• Develop a missional imagination in local and diocesan contexts;
• Constantly listen to, understand and respond to culture; 
• Adapt church structures that will empower local and diocesan approaches to mission
• Link to Event Info and Registration

• Ministry Committee Facilitation - In November 2024, I supported the Ministry Committee by facilitating an adapted Thriving Communities process. This process identified alignment and misalignment with the Diocesan Values, Vision, and Mission, as well as its participation in the Implementation Plan passed by Synod 2023. This work, which is ongoing, has already identified several key opportunities to streamline committee processes, as well as key medium term deliverables that need to be prioritized and implemented. The Committee meets again in January to action prioritization and implementation. The adapted process appears to have helped this committee to name particular challenges and to identify plausible actions moving forward.   

Supporting Congregational Discernment

Statistics

I continue to work with Gwen Chapman, Bonnie Fulton, Rick Pallen, Deborah Wiebe, and Neil Elliot to address the usability of data we collect from parish returns. This work will feed into ongoing data collection as well as data management. 

Kootenay Summits and Valhalla Parishes (Ongoing)

I continue to support the search committee in their groundwork towards creating a parish profile and job description for Mission Area Leader. This has most recently included the preparation of a first draft of a job description, as well as a Regional Profile including demographics, financial and property information to assist the Bishop and parish treasurers in their funding conversation 

Kimberley Shared Ministry

I have begun work supporting the Kimberley Shared Ministry in their Thriving Communities Process. I preached virtually on November 24, 2024, and provided the community with a workshop to prepare us for my in-person engagement with them in early January 2025.

Supporting Congregational Communications

As follow-up from the Inviting and Welcoming Newcomers with Intention workshops, I am developing a workshop to support congregations in creating and/or strengthening their online presence. The focus will include two main priorities:

• Updating / Developing a Focused Google Business Profile
• This is perhaps the single most important thing that your congregation can do in terms of online outreach. It’s even more important than a website. 
• Google and Google Maps are the primary search engine that people use to find things. Restaurants. Addresses. Doctors Offices. And yes, churches. 
• Updating / Developing a Focused Web Presence
• Outside of personal invitation, the web is the primary way people find out about churches. Considering this alongside the reality that nearly 50% of our congregations do not have a web presence (let alone one that is up to date), this is a top priority in helping congregations to connect with people in their local communities. 
• For congregations without a website, this can easily and effectively be facilitated through the Diocesan website. Please contact me if you're interested in how to do this.

Supporting Regional Realignment

In advance of the Bishop’s consultation with the South Okanagan, I prepared a brief overview of the South Okanagan Region (referred to in the document as the Highway 97 Mission Corridor). In this document, I assembled a variety of data to help visualize the various trends over time being experienced by congregations and the region as a whole. Based on a request from Diocesan Council, I am in the process of creating similar overviews for the remaining regions of the Diocese. 

In support of the South Okanagan and West Kootenay regions, I prepared a document outlining two potential models for ministry realignment in the Diocese. This document was used at the Bishop’s November 9th consultation in South Okanagan. I am in process of creating additional supporting documentation including a more detailed Job Description as well as a sketch outlining how the Mission Area Model might play out on the ground.