Justin Sytsma was born, raised, and lives in Guelph, Ontario where he serves as the director of outreach and worship at Kortright Presbyterian Church. He is passionate about seeing churches develop a heart of justice for the vulnerable and marginalized and seeing churches have spiritually formative and meaningful gatherings. He is an Asbury Theological Seminary graduate and loves spending time with his wife Lindsay and daughter Iris.
Read MoreJulianne Gilchrist is a spiritual director and serves on the leadership team of The Studion School for Spiritual Direction. She is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has spent years working in campus ministry. Julianne earned her MDiv at Regent College in Vancouver, BC. She lives with her husband and three kids in Edmonton, where she currently serves as Campus Minister at The King’s University. She and her husband are nurturing a small business that seeks to provide space for those in ministry to rest, reflect, and grow. Her writing and other offerings can be found at juliannegilchrist.com.
Read MoreKrista-Dawn Kimsey is incredibly grateful that her husband Joel and two teenage children put up with her hair-brained ideas on most days. Together, they live in one of the oldest homes still standing in Japantown, a historic neighbourhood of the Downtown Eastside on the unceded and occupied traditional land of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish people. She is fueled by coffee, creative pursuits, collaboration with friends, and a desire to experience more shalom in her life and her community. Along with her husband, she is an executive director of Servant Partners Canada, a non-profit that pursues holistic transformation of urban poor communities alongside their neighbours. Want to explore what that means in your city? Check out their Community Transformation Certificate next year.
Read MoreReverend Jessica Isaak is a co-lead pastor at Hampton Free Methodist Church in Saskatoon, SK. She has a background in journalism and has worked in television and radio news for ten years. She is ordained in the Free Methodist Church in Canada and is currently working on graduate studies at Northeastern Seminary. She serves on the board of a local theatre company in her spare time, sings and plays guitar, and enjoys trying new foods from various cultures. She also really likes gummy candies. She and her husband Matt have been married for 18 years, and together they have two sons.
Dawn Berkelaar lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her husband Edward and their four children. She is a scientist, editor, writer, teacher and homemaker.
Beth Anne Fisher supports ministry leaders and students through her work at Emmanuel College (U of T) and with New Leaf Network. She is also a PhD candidate at Emmanuel College. You can follow Beth on Instagram @beth.anne.f.
Read MoreRyan Turnbull lives in Winnipeg, MB and is a PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham. He teaches at Thorneloe University and is a postulant for ordination in the Diocese of Rupert's Land in the Anglican Church of Canada, attending St. Margaret's Anglican Church. Ryan’s podcast about Canadian political theology, True North Theology, launched in 2022 with the New Leaf Podcast Network. You can read more from him at his website RyanKTurnbull.com
Read MoreDawn Chow is a lighter and dustier blue than she was a few years ago, which she takes as a sign of peculiar growth and becoming. A diaspora settler from hong kong, she is currently living in North York, Ontario, the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, the Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Dawn is sustained by bread, tea and coffee, and the silence that comes after the words. She labours as an M.Div student at Tyndale Seminary, an editor at inheritance magazine, and a routesetter at two rock climbing gyms in Toronto.
Read MoreJosh Wallace is a backyard church planter and educator in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in Treaty 6 Territory. He also serves as Church Engagement Minister for Mennonite Church Saskatchewan.
Read MoreKate Bowler, PhD, is an associate professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School. She completed her undergraduate degree at Macalester College, received a Masters of Religion from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD at Duke University. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford University Press, 2013) which received widespread media attention and academic praise as the first history of the movement based on divine promises of health, wealth, and happiness. She wrote the New York Times bestselling memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and other lies I’ve loved) (Random House, 2018) after being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35—a book Bill Gates lauds as “belonging on the shelf alongside other terrific books about mortality” and includes on his must-read list. Dr. Bowler subsequently staged a national conversation around why it felt so difficult to speak frankly about suffering through her popular podcast, Everything Happens. Her book The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities (Princeton, 2019) follows the rise of celebrity Christian women in American evangelicalism. She has appeared on NPR, The TODAY Show, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and TIME Magazine. Her latest book, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear), grapples with her diagnosis, her ambition, and her faith as she tries to come to terms with limitations in a culture that says anything is possible. Originally from Manitoba, Canada, she now lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband, Toban, and son, Zach.
Read MoreDr. James Tyler Robertson is Assistant Professor of Christian History and Director of Distributed Learning at Tyndale University. He teaches the History of Christianity as well as courses on Canadian Christianity and Evangelicalism. His areas of research are on Church and War, Canadian Religious History, and Historical Theology.
Read MoreRachel Tulloch is involved with pastoral care and theological reflection at Sanctuary Ministries of Toronto, a community that seeks to embody the good news of Jesus by welcoming those who are poor or excluded in our society. She completed a doctoral degree through University of St. Michael's College, studying the relationship between worship and community life at Sanctuary. Originally hailing from small town Northern Ontario, Rachel currently lives in Scarborough with her husband Glenn and 3 kids, Colman, Ashlyn, and Caleb.
Read MoreJesse Sudirgo is the Director of the Masters of Divinity Church in the City (In-Ministry) Program and Assistant Professor of Contextual Ministry at the Seminary. He has a diverse breadth of experience in multiple disciplines of ministry in both the church and non-profit sectors. He is the former Director of Street-Involved Services at the YSM Evergreen Centre and continues to consult with churches in their engagement with poverty in the city. He brings to his work a conviction for interdisciplinary theological reflection that considers those most marginalized in society. His background in church planting in Boston Massachusetts has shaped his interests in missional lay leadership, community development, and urban poverty.
Read MoreRev. Dr. Shu-Ling Lee is the Downtown Markham Campus Pastor at Richmond Hill Christian Community Church in the English-speaking congregation. Formerly serving as the Worship Pastor, God expanded his passion for worship into a passion for discipleship, to challenge Sunday worshippers into joining God in His mission where He’s placed them in their local context.
Shu is Canadian-Asian, born and raised. He enjoys basketball, theology and all things geek & tech and on the side, also the co-host for the Canadian Asian Missional Podcast (C.A.M.P.). He is married to Monica and they have three energetic young children.
Shu holds degrees from York University (B.A., Sociology), Tyndale Seminary (M.Div, Worship & Liturgy), and Northern Seminary in Chicago, IL (D.Min, Missional Leadership/Contextual Theology).
Read MoreJon Nip is the Pastor of Connection & Care at Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church in the English-speaking congregation. Having previously served in youth & family ministry and in multiethnic churches, God renewed a passion for the immigrant Chinese church to work among multiple generations, languages, and cultures. and to be a part of building bridges toward discipleship in community and missional engagement.
Jon was born in Ottawa and has spent half of his life in Toronto. He enjoys playing music, running, watching movies, and enjoying one of his many sci-fi and geeky related hobbies! Along with Shu, Bernard, and Xenia, he also co-hosts the Canadian Asian Missional Podcast (C.A.M.P.). He and his wife love life together with their two wonderful kids!
Jon graduated from Tyndale Seminary (Masters of Divinity, Youth & Family) and in the summer 2022, he is enrolled to start his Doctorate of Ministry in Contextual Theology at Northern Seminary.
Read MoreRev. Dr. Timothy Tang was born in Toronto where he now lives with his wife and three children. Tim has been a pastor at the East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church where he has been ministering since 2001, first as the English speaking congregational pastor, and now as the Intercultural Pastor-at-Large. As the son of international students, Tim leverages his personal experience of being a new Canadian to his present work in areas of ethnocultural inclusion at local and national levels. He has recently been seconded as the Director of the Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre under the Open Learning Centre at Tyndale University.
Read MoreBrigette VanHuisstede is passionate about using her words to encourage others and point people to Jesus. She is wife to Paul, mom to four energetic kids, a home educator, and a cancer-survivor who loves hiking, reading, writing, and sipping Bengal Spice tea. Brigette has her honours degree in English Literature and is actively involved with the Mercy Christian Church plant in downtown Hamilton, ON.
Read MoreRandy and his wife Darlene are active at Lakeview Church, in Saskatoon, SK. They have four adult children and four grandchildren. Randy works as national Restorative Justice coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee Canada. He will happily chat about the stars, classical music, family history, or the Inklings with anyone who dares to join him.
Read MoreDr. Betty Pries is CEO at Credence & Co. where she leads a dynamic team of consultants alongside supporting a diverse range of client groups. Betty is also the author of the book, The Space Between Us: Conversations about Conflict Transformation.
Betty brings over 27 years of experience to her work as a coach, trainer, facilitator, mediator, and consultant. Betty is highly regarded as a Conflict, Change, and Leadership Specialist. She works especially with complex challenges, supporting leaders and their organizations to be at their best. Betty’s capacity to care deeply, listen well, and provide wise and thoughtful support allows her to help her clients engage in tough, meaningful, and important conversations, set directions, and achieve positive organizational change.
Betty specializes in engaging and transforming dynamics related to organizational health: leadership and executive coaching, conflict management, change management, strategic planning, facilitation of tough conversations. Betty brings a wealth of experience to her work, having worked with a wide range of organizations, both nationally and internationally, with businesses, public institutions, not-for-profit organizations and a diverse range of congregations.
Betty has extensive education, training, and experience in coaching, mediation, negotiation, consensus building, consultation, facilitation, and organizational health. As Co-Founder and CEO at Credence, Betty’s great joy has been the opportunity to mentor and support the growth of the Credence team. Betty has a PhD from the Free University Amsterdam on the topic of conflict transformation. She is a Chartered Mediator with the ADR Institute of Canada and a member of the ADR Institute of Ontario. Betty is a regular instructor at the University of Waterloo.
Read MoreDowntown Windsor Community Collaborative (DWCC), a new monastic community of neighbours who live in walking distance of one another in downtown Windsor.
Bob is husband to Margo, a father of four adult daughters, and a known character in his neighbourhood. He’s a man full of inspiring ideas, a love for his neighbours, and a joy like no other. From alley parties to soccer in the park, breakfast club to walking his neighbourhood, Bob is always found in the crowd, bringing laughter to his friends. He is a catalyst of ideas, a connector of people, and he’s the visionary leader of the DWCC.
Steve is husband to Emily, a father of four young kids, and he can often be found supporting others from behind the scenes. He’s a details guy with a keen eye, and he helps create and curate space and life-giving liturgy for the community. He’s a lover of food and good coffee, someone who is always learning new skills, and he’s our in-house designer and videographer. He’s a communicator of ideas, and he’s the operational leader of the DWCC.
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