What is Flourish?

Flourish is a program designed to encourage and support the health, joy and excellence of ministry personnel in Shining Waters Regional Council.

Ministry is a challenging profession and calling:

Flourish connects

Flourish provides opportunities for clergy to be with one another, to share experiences of ministry, to share challenges and opportunities, and to talk about what it means to be a minister in the United Church of Canada.

Flourish nourishes

Sometimes what we need is time away from our responsibilities as church leaders. Flourish provides time and space to retreat, to engage in personal reflection, to be ministered to as ministers, and to have fun with colleagues.

Flourish enhances

Flourish provides programs and events to help ministers continue their life-long learning. Through conferences, webinars, special courses and other learning opportunities, Flourish connects ministers with people and resources who help build the skills and knowledge that ministers need to inspire and lead in their ministry, and to respond to the constantly emerging needs of their congregations, communities and the wider world.

Repair the building; call a half-time minister; spend the emergency fund; support the community kitchen:  With every decision, communities of faith and their leaders are rightly preoccupied with discerning a faithful future in the midst of the realities they face.  This discernment is difficult in part because by asking a committee, congregation or denomination as a whole the question “where is God calling us?” we tend to assume that we all speak the same language about God and hold similar beliefs about the purpose of the church and its place in the world.

If we pause to uncover and parse the variety of theologies living within a given community of faith, we are better able to navigate the empowering alliances and potential collisions among diverse and largely unspoken understandings of God, church and Christian life.

Rev. Janet Gear is a theological educator and ordained minister currently working in the Office of Vocation. She has produced a workshop series offering a community the lens and language to appreciate its theological diversity that can serve both to inspire faith and clarify leadership opportunities.

The purposes of the Theological Banquet workshop, and supporting materials, are to:

• Affirm and articulate the lived faith of those in your community,
• Deepen an appreciation of theological difference within a community of faith, and
• Build capacity for theological interpretation of community life.

More information about the Theological Banquet workshop series can be found at the Leadershift program of Pacific Mountain Regional Council. For more information on how to purchase and organize this workshop please see https://leadershiftuccan.org/the-theological-banquet.

If you would like to preview the videos offered for sale before purchasing, please send an email to theologicalbanquet@united-church.ca. Through a special arrangement with Pacific Mountain Regional Council, Shining Waters ministers can be provided with a free time-limited access code.

Trauma Informed Ministry: A Primer for Ministers and Ministries

Rev. Diane Strickland is a UCC minister who has done extensive research, writing and training on Trauma Informed Ministry. Ministry personnel are often on the front lines of dealing with the trauma of congregants and community members. And yet they don’t always feel equipped to the many traumatic situations that are brought to them.

Rev. Stickland has produced a primer on Trauma Informed Ministry that has four objectives:

1. To introduce trauma basics so you can recognize potential symptoms of trauma.

2. To begin establishing a theological foundation for understanding trauma.

3. To provide a practical framework of principles for effective and faithful Christian ministry to those affected by trauma and traumatic experiences.

4. To plant expectation within the community of faith for being transformed by this ministry.

Trauma Informed Ministry review sample – (PDF |  11 pages) For those interested in this book, the sample includes the Cover, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, and The Introduction (which names the six principles developed later).

Ordering and Licensing Information document (Word | 1 page) a document that might answer any additional questions on ordering and licensing the primer.

Licensing Terms for Trauma Informed Ministry (PDF | 1 page) a document that outlines the licensing terms for the primer.

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