Tim Dickau (left) will offer the Certificate in Missional Leadership starting this fall, along with Ross Lockhart, Andrea Perrett and Darrell Guder (not pictured).
COVID-19 and the end of Christendom are two ground-shifting realities facing churches at this time – both of which bring challenges and opportunities.
One initiative aimed at resourcing churches to face these realities is the new Certificate in Missional Leadership being offered through the Centre for Missional Leadership (CML) at St. Andrew’s Hall on the UBC campus.
The team at CML, which includes Tim Dickau, who led Grandview Calvary Church for 30 years (go here to read about his transition to new roles), well-known missional theologian Darrell Guder, St. Andrew’s Dean Ross Lockhart and church planting organizer Andrea Perrett, are presenting the course both online and in person.
Tim Dickau said
The certificate offers an opportunity for leadership teams to explore a renewed vision for their church or community during this transitional time. As a pastor, I know how valuable it is to have focused conversations as a leadership group around vision.
Our sessions offer both practical help and theological imagination for entering the future of the church.
Topics to be discussed and explored in the monthly sessions will include:
September 26: Rediscovering and engaging your neighbourhood
October 24: Forming thicker and more porous communities
November 28: Churches fostering affordable housing
January 23: Taking steps towards justice and shalom
February 27: Forming and empowering leaders
March 27: Making disciples
Ross Lockhart, who directs CML, said:
We’re excited for the way in which God will bless local churches through the teaching and experience our new CML missional certificate program will offer discipleship teams in the region.
Tim has always been such a great friend of ours at CML, and now we delight that he will bring all of his ministry leadership experience to bear on this new program to bless and enhance local churches with a robust kingdom vision!
The Centre for Missional Leadership describes its work in this way:
We are a community of scholars, evangelists and missional practitioners committed to witnessing to the risen Christ in the ruins of Western Christendom. The missional theology we teach denies that church decline is the primary reality of our time. Instead, we boldly affirm that the triune God is alive and working to reconcile and redeem the world. We are called to participate in that divine mission.
This theological reality makes it an exciting time to be a Christian leader in North America, and around the world. Every day, we are invited to participate in the missio Dei – the mission of God to redeem and save the world. We participate by bearing witness to Jesus, following the leading of the Holy Spirit and experiencing the saving grace of the Father in an endless variety of ways.
To register for the Certificate in Missional Leadership, contact CML administrator Mavis Ho at [email protected] or call 604.822.9372. (Those who sign up before August 1 will be able to join Dickau August 20, 7 pm, for an online study session on David Fitch’s short book Seven Practices for the Church on Mission.)
Community Cafe 2
Dickau is also involved with Shared Life Exchange: Community Cafe 2, which is following up on an initial event last fall.
He said, “A lot of people are choosing to live together, often for economic reasons, but often with a desire for long-term community.”
This is how the event is described by the organizers:
Join us for our second community cafe conversation (this time virtually) around sharing our lives – as housemates, community houses and intentional neighbours.
Come with your stories, learnings and questions, as we seek to strengthen and challenge our skills and perspectives.
Karen Giesbrecht will lead the online gathering, which will take place July 14, 7:30 pm.
Looking forward to this through St. Andrew’s Presbyterian in Nanaimo.