Sunday, June 1, 2025
1:00PM AM - 4:30 PM
This one-day conference is designed to spark fresh ideas and inspire new ways of being the Church in today’s world.
Our keynote speaker, Adrian Jacobs, Senior Leader for Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation, will share the story of the 18 year justice journey that is gaining traction in Ontario and Manitoba.
The day will also feature Teresa Howe and Jess Brand from InDwell, exploring faith-based responses to housing challenges, and The Dr. Rev. J. Mark Lewis, sharing how St. Paul’s in Hamilton is transforming lives through affordable housing and community care.
Not only will you hear amazing stories of churches repurposing buildings and seeking to respond tangibly to justice issues but also embracing transformative prayer practices through 24/7 prayer.
Keynote: Adrian Jacobs
Senior Leader for Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation
Adrian is Ganosono (Deer Lodge), Turtle Clan, Cayuga Nation, Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Grand River Country in Southern Ontario, Turtle Island. He founded an Indigenous church on his home reserve. For 47 years he has trained Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in spiritual and social service in various venues throughout the United States and Canada. His personal and professional studies include Indigenous worldviews, cultures, and health, through a culturally affirming approach. He serves NAIITS An Indigenous Learning Community as Elder Liaison for the NAIITS Elders Circle and is Senior Leader for Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation for the Christian Reformed Church in North America in Canada.
Adrian is a single father of five and grandfather of four. A storyteller and artist at heart he writes poetry and poetic prose about passionate matters of Indigenous justice and the vicissitudes of life. Public speaking has taken him to collaborations with Indigenous and decolonizing communities in Canada, the United States and globally.
Tickets
In Person Tickets: $60/person with lunch | $50/person without lunch
Online Tickets: $25/person
Creative Speakers & Leaders
Teresa Howe, Community Engagement Manager, Indwell.
Teresa Howe is Indwell’s Community Engagement Manager and has been serving with Indwell since 2011. In her role she’s involved with donor relations and fundraising and oversees the communications team. She loves connecting with churches, and supervised turning an Indwell book into an interactive website, Let’s Open Doors, a free resource for churches seeking to be involved in supportive and/or affordable housing. Gym, strategy board games (+ Scrabble), family and friends fill her spare time. She and her husband love living in Hamilton, are parents to five adult children, and enjoy hosting a small group in their home most Tuesday evenings.
Jess Brand, Regional Director, Indwell.
Jess Brand is Regional Director for Hamilton and Peel Region at Indwell, a Hamilton-based Christian charity that creates and operates supportive, affordable housing communities that support people seeking health, wellness, and belonging. In her role, Jess supports Indwell’s staff teams and tenants and oversees program design and development. Jess’ draws from fourteen years of experience with Indwell. This has included direct support to tenants, program and staff supervision, Indwell committee work, and speaker. When not working with people struggling with poverty, addictions, homelessness and disabilities, Jess can be found running, hiking, playing soccer, and spending time with her husband Tim and their three teens. Her family is active in New Community Church.
The Rev. Dr. J. Mark Lewis
Mark has served in Presbyterian congregations since 1980…or 1960, if you count Christmas pageants. Mark has ministered with congregations in Nova Scotia and Ontario, served as convenor of several national committees, and was the Moderator of the 2003 General Assembly. Mark retired from St. Andrew’s, Kitchener in 2018. Since 2019, Mark has been an Assessor and Coach for Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation, which works with Canada Ministries, helping congregations that are “stuck” to move forward in new ways. Since 2020, Mark has been the Interim-Moderator and Stated Supply at St. Paul’s, Hamilton.
Randell Neudorf,
Greater Ontario House of Prayer
Randell Neudorf is an artist & storyteller from GOHOP (24-7 Prayer) and the creator of A Visual Guide to Prayer Walking. He will be sharing stories and drawings from his own prayer walking adventures to illustrate the idea that anything can spark a time of prayer.
The Greater Ontario House of Prayer (GOHOP) is a praying community, following the way of Jesus through shared spiritual rhythms. As part of a larger, global prayer expression within 24-7 Prayer, we exist to serve and equip the Church and do our part to create, nurture and sustain a local, Hamilton expression of prayer.
Location
St. Cuthbert’s Presbyterian Church
2 Bond Street North
Hamilton, Ontario
L8S 3W1
Pre-Conference Worship & Lunch
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Join us for worship at St. Cuthbert’s Presbyterian Church. Worship will be led by guest preacher’s Dr. Ernest van Eck and The Rev. John Borthwick.
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Lunch will be catered by a local restaurant provided by Ministry Forum.
Conference Schedule
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Welcome to Creative Ways 2025!
The City of Hamilton is situated upon the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. This land is covered by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, which was an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek to share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We further acknowledge that this land is covered by the Between the Lakes Purchase, 1792, between the Crown and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
Today, the City of Hamilton is home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island (North America) and we recognize that we must do more to learn about the rich history of this land so that we can better understand our roles as residents, neighbours, partners and caretakers.
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Indigenous Land Justice: A Spiritual Covenant with Churches proposal
In 2007 during the Six Nations struggle to stop development on their Haldimand Tract lands in Caledonia pastors came together at the Caledonia Baptist Church next door to the development to pray for justice and resolution. Mennonite Central Committee Ontario introduced their effort to educate the 26 Mennonite Churches in the land claim area. Adrian Jacobs will tell the story of the 18 year justice journey that is gaining traction in Ontario and Manitoba.
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Churches are key partners in sustaining (and even creating) supportive housing that creates community and belonging, and is effective in combatting loneliness and breaking cycles of homelessness.
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The Theme
Subsequent annual meetings at St. Paul's in the years leading up to 2020 recognised that their money would run out in 2022 and the congregation might face closure. When Mark Lewis was appointed Interim Moderator in 2020, he proposed that the congregation try an experiment. They would not call a Minister but instead have a congregation led by lay leaders, with an Interim Moderator who would preach on most Sundays. The congregation also agreed to seek out community partners whose mission was consistent with their own. Their primary partnerships have been with the Consumption and Treatment Site (CTS) and the Prescribed Alternatives Outreach Program (PAOP) of Hamilton Urban Core. In 2023, St. Paul’s became home for the Alamal Learning Centre, an after-school program for children newly arrived from refugee camps in Syria and Afghanistan. The CTS and PAOP were closed under provincial legislation on March 31, 2025. St. Paul’s had planned to convert the site to a Homelessness and Addiction Reduction Treatment (HART) Hub. However, HUC required a guarantee of three years of residency at St. Paul’s, and St. Paul’s could not offer that. While St. Paul’s was hosting HUC, they were also negotiating with a developer to build housing and community services on the site being used by HUC. At the time of writing, there was a reasonable possibility that development would begin on the site in less than the three years that HUC required.
Key Insights
St. Paul’s stopped asking the questions, “How can we get more people, and how can we get more money?” and started asking, “Who needs our help that no one else is helping, and how can we use the resources we have to help people in need in our community?” St. Paul’s was open to radical change and sharing their building with the community. It took a lot of faith to give up the “ladies' parlour” and other precious spaces for a site where unhomed persons would inject heroin or snort cocaine. The congregation acted with extraordinary compassion because they knew that 3.7 people were dying of drug overdoses on the streets of Hamilton every week.
The congregation has come to understand that having a massive building sit empty for most of the week is not a faithful use of God’s resources and that many charitable and community organisations are failing due to a lack of meeting space. We decided that as long as an organisation was engaged in a compassionate and caring mission, we would be glad to host it and partner with them to achieve their mission.
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More details coming soon.
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