Images from Ministry as Community-building 2025

Images from Ministry as Community-building 2025

From Jan 7 to Feb 13, 2025, seven students from across Canada (Vancouver Island to Newfoundland, and spots in between!) engaged in deep conversations about various aspects and understandings of community, and the unique role of ministers in building up community. CCS’s six-week online Ministry as Community-building learning circle was an opportunity for students to ground their theology in community and their community ministry in theology.

At times the learning circle was a revolving door of insightful and inspiring guests! Jennifer Janzen-Ball and Andrew Richardson from the United Church of Canada joined us for a conversation about collaborative or cooperative ministry. A panel of ministers – Josh Ward, Lisa Byer-de Wever, Nora Comenares, and Bri-anne Swan – with a variety of experiences in community ministry, shared their wisdom. Montreal activist Jaggi Singh joined us to talk about the importance of solidarity and relationship-building in community organizing, and reminded us that that there is not just one way to advocate for justice; different groups can use different tactics toward the same goal. Social entrepreneur Shaun Loney inspired student to see problems as opportunities, and ethics professor Sheryl Johnson encouraged students to think about the tensions the between Christian economic ethics and conventional Christian stewardship. (Sheryl will be a guest speaker for the Feb 28 CCS Friday, discussing her book Serving God, Serving Money.)

Students also had opportunities to ground their discussions in their own experience of community. A community mapping exercise early in the circle encouraged them to take note of the various services, and gaps, in their home communities. They wrestled with the practical challenges of creating fair and equitable community, and evaluated the capacity of churches to contribute toward healthy communities. Because this was a social justice-themed circle, they gave particular attention to the material, political, and economic needs of communities. Social justice is not just a fight against various forms of oppression, it is a vision of a healthy, sustainable world where everyone’s needs can be met and all can find belonging. Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. called this “the beloved community.”

Throughout the circle student made theological and scriptural connections. Paul’s image of the Body of Christ – having many parts, each with its own function and its own gifts, but still part of one body – arose a number of times. We also considered the root metaphors of our theology of community and how those theological roots nurture the branches and leaves of our community engagement. A student-led session on organizational structures and systems in community connected us to the example of the early Christians, sharing everything in common, and urged us to change systems through grassroots, community-led action.

“Community is both a process and a goal.”