05/31/2026
A course: “Forming Churches that are Spiritually Alive in the Neighbourhood”
For church leaders (paid and unpaid). . .
A note from the Director of CML, Mark Glanville:
I wanted to let you know about this course, for churches that are seeking spiritual vitality and fresh imagination for witness in the local neighborhood. The course is run annually by the Centre for Missional Leadership, where I work (at UBC).
You gather a small cohort of leaders from your church (from three to ten leaders). This group joins us online for five Saturday mornings. The course is highly dialogical and practical. This past year we had twenty churches involved, from all over Canada.
Having a cohort from your church take this together it can impact the entire church (whereas if only you, or only one lay person, takes a course it is unlikely to impact the entire church). For many congregations, the course has not only jumpstarted a renewed missional engagement but has sparked overall vision conversation and energy.
At our gatherings we explore:
- Forming a Thicker Shared Life with each other and our Neighbours
- Reshaping our Sunday gatherings around food, conversation, prayer and welcome.
- Making a difference in your neighbourhood or city.
- A Neighborhood "experiment"
- A rich vision for worship
- Each church is assigned a coach from our team.
The course is not arduous, but it’s deep. The new cohort begins in late September 2026.
Group assignments are all geared to helping you engage your neighbors and your congregation more deeply; they are not assignments for "passing" the course. They help congregations implement some of the teaching and vision of the course.
One cool example of neighborhood experiments arising from the course was from Grace Presbyterian (Calgary). Grace Presbyterian got their front door painted red by someone angry about residential schools. Instead of just painting the door over, they used the incident as impetus to involve the church in hosting a public event (including their own apology or residential schools) and invited speakers to help educate their church and neighborhood. They made some tangible commitments to reconciliation themselves out of that journey. I love that story. This course is led by the one and only Tim Dickau
I just wanted to let you know about the certificate. The course will begin in September (as it does each year). If this is too fast for you, you can also jump on board in October. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you are interested in joining us. It’s as cheap as chips.
There is a tonne of information at this link—as well as registration.
An increasing number of churches are recognizing the need to transition toward a more missional culture and framework whereby they can engage their neighbours and neighbourhoods more deeply. Some of these congregations are smaller and struggling to survive while others are larger but still desiring....
