Thursday, February 12, 2025 | 1:00pm ET
Repairers of the Breech: Thriving at the intersection of theology, moral concern, and transformative justice.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel remarked after marching for freedom with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I felt as though my feet were praying.” What does it mean to live our values on the streets? To stand in the breaches and busted places of our society, to rise up with the suffering and to cry out for justice? What it does it mean to live into the Biblical commandment to “Love Thy Neighbour”? How do we hold our discomfort in pursuit of a world redeemed? Rabbi Michael Adam Latz was a congregational rabbi for more than 20 years and served a congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a short distance from where George Floyd was murdered by police officers in May 2020 and the heart of where the recent global uprising for racial justice and reckoning was born. In a moment where a Black man had the life choked out of him by a white police officer, we examine the moral responsibilities of people of faith to rise with the suffering and use our collective power for good.
Click Here to Register
About Michael Lanz
Michael Adam Latz is a husband, dad, rabbi, spiritual care provider, and activist for social justice and healing. He currently serves as a Spiritual Care Practitioner at Sinai Health.
Thursday, April 9, 2025 | 1:00pm ET
Eco-Justice in the Congregation: Creating Ministries for People and Planet.
Join us as Rev. Konnie Vissers shares about the emerging ministry Rooted: Centre for Theology and Eco-Justice. What started as dissertation research into eco-anxiety and spiritual care for children, has emerged into an organization that seeks to build resilience for people and planet through theologically rooted and eco-justice focused environmental education. Konnie will share some of her research findings around eco-anxiety in young people, and how congregations can use gardening as a spiritual practice to bolster resilience in children who experience eco-anxiety. Specifically, Konnie will demonstrate how Rooted teaches young people how to grow their own food sustainably and ethically, and shares the food with participants, local families, and the food bank, to promote food security and eco-justice. Links: Find Rooted on Facebook, Instagram (@rootedcte), and on our website at rootedcentre.ca (please note that the website will not go live until next week most likely).
Click Here to Register
About Rev. Konnie Vissers
Rev. Konnie Vissers is ordained in the Presbyterian Church in Canada and is the Founder and Executive Director of Rooted: Centre for Theology and Eco-Justice. Her PhD research at Emmanuel College considered how congregations can use gardening as a spiritual practice with children to bolster resilience in the face of eco-anxiety. Konnie also teaches as a Sessional Professor at Knox College and at other institutions in the areas of human development, psychospiritual care, eco-theology, and ministry practice. She lives in Guelph, Ontario with her partner, Grant, who is also a Presbyterian minister, and their three children. Konnie spends as much time as possible in the garden with her kids.
Thursday, May 21, 2025 | 1:00pm ET
Eden's Orchard: Turning Church Land into a Living Ministry and Mission, Building Community and Feeding the Hungry
Many churches today face a challenging combination of food insecurity in their communities, declining church attendance, and underused land on their properties. Eden’s Orchard, the missional expression of Eden’s Refuge, offers a compelling solution: transforming unused church grounds into thriving, low-maintenance orchards that feed the hungry and open new doors for local ministry. In this inspiring and practical webinar, JD Van Allen, certified permaculture designer and founder of Eden’s Refuge, will share how churches can plan, install, and maintain a community orchard with limited ongoing resources and volunteer hours. Drawing on real-world examples, including an orchard planted in the parking lot of C*Road Church, JD will show how a well-designed system becomes a sustainable ministry opportunity for decades to come.
Participants will learn:
How to design and install their own church orchard
How to use the orchard as a ministry tool during every phase of the process
How an orchard can become a centerpiece for ongoing outreach, education, hospitality, and transformation
Whether you're dreaming about new ways to serve or looking to steward your land more intentionally, this session will offer a clear blueprint for turning vision into fruit. Promotional overview of Eden’s Refuge With grocery prices going up and the quality of food going down, Eden’s Refuge helps you design and install beautiful spaces that feed your family and community. Eden’s Orchard is the missional expression of Eden’s Refuge, equipping churches to transform lawns and underused land into thriving, low-maintenance orchards. These living landscapes feed the hungry and open the door to long-term ministry, outreach, and community engagement.
Learn more at www.edensrefuge.ca.
Click Here to Register
About JD Van Allen
JD Van Allen is a certified permaculture designer and the founder of Eden’s Refuge, a design company based in Prescott, Ontario. He helps churches, schools, and municipalities transform underused land into thriving, low-maintenance landscapes that feed communities and support long-term goals. JD is also the author of multiple books, including Eden’s Orchard: A Ministry Blueprint, a forthcoming guide to building community orchards as a tool for mission and outreach.
Previous Webinars
Interested in a previous webinar we’ve hosted? Contact us - we love to share these resources with our growing community! Please note, some of our webinars may not be available for sharing/rebroadcast or may only be available for a limited time due to copyright or contractual agreements.
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Hope: Growing and Maintaining Hope in Uncertain Times
It's getting harder and harder to maintain hope in our world. As many of us grow more skeptical about the possibility of change, leaders in many spaces are compelled to continue to preach hope, to hold hope, to model hope. How do we do it? Is hope even practical? Join us as we explore the intersection of faith, hope, and justice, and dive into Hope Theory to learn together how to grow and foster hope in ourselves and in those we lead.
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Social Media
A Window Into Your Church
Helping your church reach the people who need you most by turning social media into a life-giving reflection of your mission, offering connection, community, and hope before they ever walk through your doors.
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Becoming Ourselves With AI
A Conversation about change, faith, and possibility.
Curt Hammond, Service Champion at FourSimpleWords.ca and co-founder of the +AI Mindset. Passionate about the positive impact AI can have on our faith communities, he brings warmth, clarity, and a relentless curiosity to this space. Together, we will explore questions of leadership, service, and calling in the age of AI, especially through the lens of “Who are we becoming?”
Designed for faith and lay leaders, this session will create space to wrestle with new possibilities and stretch old hesitations. Come as you are, whether you are already experimenting or still deeply unsure.
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Intergenerational Ministry
More Radical Than We Realize
With Author and Speaker David CsinosIn the midst of an awareness of growing diversity and declining church attendance, many congregations are considering shifting their worship and formation practices to better include people of all ages. Intergenerational ministry is more than just putting people of different generations in the same room. It is a call to reimagine the practices by which faith communities engage in worship and become formed as disciples of Jesus. In this webinar, we will consider theories and practices that help congregations bring the generations together, focusing especially on how leaders can implement gradual changes as they experiment with all-age ministry.
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Trauma-Informed Practice
Fundamental Concepts for Complex Workplaces
TEND Academy
Supporting people with complex needs can be challenging. Providing responsive and compassionate service is only possible when we recognize the pervasive impact that trauma can have on a person’s life and the way they engage with the world. When we reframe our perspective from “what is wrong with you” to “what happened to you,” we help to create an atmosphere of safety, trust, and collaboration.Not available for Rebroadcast
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Putting the Puzzle Pieces of Transitional Ministry Together
We start with the premise that all ministry is transitional. As pastors, we are called to be a part of bringing about the kingdom of God. As leaders, we are called to guide congregations and ministry systems with intentionality, seeking to be ever more faithful to God’s call to us in this particular time, in this particular place for this particular purpose.
This webinar outlines the fundamentals of intentional transitional ministry and invites participants into exploring more deeply what how the pieces fit together in our current context.
Key Learnings:
Understand the elements and movement of intentional transitional ministry;
Understand the systems challenges and anxiety in the midst of change;
Imagine the intentionality of leading through change.
