Flourishing Update - February 21, 2018We're Working On We might hear: That shooting in Florida was absolutely awful! That was an awesome moment for us, as new grandparents! I...
Navigating the Religious Culture in CanadaI am a sociologist of religion. My research centers on religion in Canada (www.joelthiessen.ca). I regularly consult with church groups...
Flourishing Update - February 7, 2018We're Working On Recently I had a conversation with a friend who was quite convinced that church leadership at various levels should be...
What Can the Pietists Teach Us About Spiritual Renewal?I love the church, pastors, and church leaders. And I love Christ and his cause. My fire is that churches and church leaders would...
We’re Working On - January 24, 2018What do pastoral leaders in flourishing congregations have to say to theological educators in theological schools or seminaries? The...
What Does Social Enterprise Have To Do with Church?A practiced curiosity about “what God is up to” has pointed EDGE to the huge creative energy welling up in the social enterprise sector...
Shareholders or Stakeholders?When a church takes its stakeholders seriously – and not just its shareholders – the circle of ministry grows and becomes stronger. Real...
We Are Not Alone, At Least We Don’t Have To BeChurches are the backbone of a many a community. Historically we founded hospitals, schools, food programs, Welfare, nonprofits, and...
“Do You Lead Yourself?” A Simple Method for Self-LeadershipThe first three questions a leader should ask when facing a new situation are: What is really going on here? What should be going on...
THRIVE OR SURVIVE: FAITH COMMUNITIES IN CANADAAre you experiencing seismic shifts within and around your Church? Are you seeing new ideas, energy, and connections emerge unexpectedly?...
New Website (and other good stuff)!We are excited to unveil our new website - www.flourishingcongregations.org - an ongoing work in progress, as we develop as an Institute....
National Congregational SurveyAs some on our research team have been away on vacation - hence the lack of blogs or other updates over the past month or so - and as...
Imaginative Risk Taking In Canadian CongregationsOur Flourishing Congregations Institute research team—based at Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta—spent April to June 2016...
New Book Released! Flourishing Congregations in CanadaGreetings on behalf of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta! Some of you participated in our...
The Preaching Tag-Team ChallengeDo you long to see teens and young adults more solidly connected to your church? Are you a preacher or do you belong to a church that has...
The Adaptive Church: Lessons from EvolutionWhatever you may think of evolution and its place in a Christian understanding of creation, the science is clear that DNA does evolve and...
Clarifying Our Way Towards FlourishingI still remember it like it was yesterday. I was about 14 years old when I experienced my first earthquake. It happened in Montreal, QC,...
How Must Pastors Flourish for their Congregations to Flourish?One afternoon I sat in the dean’s office of a Canadian seminary. He excitedly said to me, “Roger, I have a new book for you to read....
What is Truth? (Hint: It’s more than Statistics)In 1963 the Anglican Church of Canada commissioned the prominent, pithy journalist Pierre Berton to tell them, from an outsider’s...
Lost in a Crowd?Lakewood Church in Houston, TX. Photo by Amber Case. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic...