Looking Back, Leaning Forward:
Wrestling with a Church’s Story
Book Club
Thursday January 11, 18, & 25, 2024
1:30pm ET - online
Join us in the Learning Centre starting January 11th, for a Book Club featuring the newest book published by New Leaf Press! Jon Coutts (Author and Editor), Heather Renée Morgan (Author and Editor) and Cynthia Tam (author) will be joining us to share about the overall project, their personal writing and reflections and the way in which they wrestled out our faith together with respect, love, thoughtfulness and grace.
Through a collection of essays and responses, Looking Back, Leaning Forward explores the context of a Canadian church by wrestling with the past story in light of the current realities. These academic essays offer a beautiful blend of practical and academic thinking, many written by those who are pastoring local churches. Though this book offers challenge and hope to those who find themselves in the Christian and Missionsiooary Alliance, these writings offer gifts to anyone engaged in ministry in Canada. Contributions to this book were made by Ray Aldred, Cynthia Tam, Jon Coutts, Heather Morgan, Joanne Beach, Ric Strangway, and many others, with an afterword by David Fitch.
“Canada, an increasingly secularized country in the West, is a field of mission. The writers of this book are extending the fourfold gospel of the Christian and Missionary Alliance into the changing contexts of Canada – and by so doing, they help us all discern how we might do similar work. I believe God has been at work in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada – the church of my heritage – for over a century. We do not simply leave all of that behind. We bring it forward into dialogue with the many challenges that the current cultures present. We take these distinctives that have shaped our lives and we extend them: We listen to the challenges of our cultures, and in an act of dialogue we seek to faithfully extend, deepen, and translate these beliefs in a way that expands them into the places we find ourselves.”
David Fitch, author of Faithful Presence, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary.
Grab the book and join friends as we learn together.
Learning Centre sessions are recorded and made available afterwards for those who sign up but cannot attend in person
Schedule
Week One - January 11th with Jon Coutts
Week Two - January 18th with Heather Morgan
Week Three - January 25th with Cynthia Tam
Presenters
Register
There are two options to access the New Leaf Learning Centre: a monthly subscription or a one-session pass (below). For the monthly subscription, please visit here.
The suggested amount is $30 ($10/week); simply choose your amount in the drop-down menu and “sign up now”.
We would like for you to join us, so if you can’t afford the registration at this time, please reach out to us and we will make sure you are able to participate: admin@newleafnetwork.ca
