Refresh! 2016 - Workshops

Andy Witt - Reading and Praying the Psalms as a Discipline

Throughout the history of the church the book of Psalms has been one of the most important foundations for the spiritual life of Christians.  Wherever one looks—to the practices of the monastic communities to the liturgies of church services to the simple prayers offered at home – one finds the Psalms.  What is it about them that has kept them front and center of our spiritual lives no matter what era or cultural context?  In this breakout we will look into how a disciplined (practiced) reading and praying of the Psalms can bring vitality and steadfastness into one's life.  We may even capture a glimpse of what Basil the Great (AD 300s) meant when he said of them, "The old wounds of souls it cures completely, and to the recently wounded it brings speedy improvement; the diseased it treats, and the unharmed it preserves."  The workshop will consist of a presentation followed by a few short group exercises.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Andy came to faith while in university at Virginia Tech through the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry.  He has a Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is currently working on his PhD in Old Testament at Wycliffe College.  Andy has a passion that the Church would better appreciate and know the Old Testament, especially as it gives witness to the work of Jesus Christ in the world.  For a number of years, he has sought to better understand how the Church has put the Psalms into practice in its worship and contemplation of God, particularly in how it relates to God through prayer.

Scott Mealey - 4 Stories: How insight into style can make you a better communicator

For many years, communicators in the Church, the arts, politics, the not-profit sector, and the business world have been told that stories matter. But is having a good story enough? Arts and media research in the last decade has begun to suggest that the response of audiences is determined as much by the storytelling as by the story itself. Even more challenging is the proof that one-size of storytelling will not fit all listeners and circumstances. Success, instead, is more often determined by matching the right style to your intended message and the unique crowd to whom you are presenting. In this workshop, participants will be exposed to four styles of storytelling, both popular and unconventional, including their potential strengths and drawbacks with particular audiences and congregations. Given the hands-on nature of the session, everyone is encouraged to come prepared with a brief story that is pertinent to an environment in which they are currently engaged. 

Scott has spent nearly two and a half decades exploring the convergence of secular and sacred performance, persuasion, and social affect. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Toronto’s Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies Centre, where his dissertation work explores the role of intent, style, and familiarity in effecting attitudinal changes in theatre spectators. His recent presentations have examined the non-coercive influence of found-object puppetry, museum exhibits that curate mindfulness in the face of tragedy, and performative change conceptualized through dual-process communication models. Scott is particularly passionate about teaching and for over fifteen years has taught practical and theoretical courses in the areas of theatre and communication, notably at Crandall University, Humber College, and the University of Toronto. Prior to returning to academia on a full-time basis, he worked professionally as an actor, director, playwright, and producer in Atlantic Canada. He also served twelve years as the founding pastor of The Pool, a church for irreligious twenty and thirty somethings. 

Jon Bauer - The Funny, Awkward, and Honest Truths of Worship Teams

Do you serve on a weekly worship or tech team? Even if you just sing in the congregation, this workshop will bring a mix of humor, stories and honest moments about what is involved in serving in worship teams or a follower of Jesus.  Through this time together, you will be challenged, reminded, and encouraged in how you serve each weekend at church in worship ministry and your personal walk with Jesus.

Jon Bauer is a husband, father, worship artist, songwriter, teacher, and follower of Jesus Christ. The heart and message of International Worship Artist Jon Bauer, has found favor with a wide audience; that worship is more than music…it’s a lifestyle. A worship leader of 21 years and touring as a full-time Worship Artist for the last 12 years throughout Canada, the US, Europe, and Asia each year Jon has the unique gift to inspire, train and equip the church. Jon has released 7 albums with multiple songs that have reached #1 at Canadian Christian Radio and over 40 awards and nominations including the Juno Awards, Covenant Awards, and Independent Music Awards. You may have seen Jon as he has toured across North America with artists including Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Newsboys, and Francesca Battistelli. 

John Bowen - Strong Gospel, Weak Evangelist

Many Christians are scared of evangelism because “I wouldn’t know what to say.” Well, there are some things any Christian can learn to say! But since evangelism is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit, it is more important to follow the leadership of the Spirit. And that sometimes means we have no idea what to say—and the Holy Spirit will work through our weakness anyway. This workshop will include stories of how God’s strength was made perfect in the weakness of those seeking to be faithful in evangelism. 

John Bowen taught evangelism at Wycliffe College in Toronto from 1997 till 2013. He now directs Wycliffe Serves!—a centre for the college’s external ministries. John came to Wycliffe College after 25 years serving with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in universities and camps. His interests cluster around mission, evangelism, culture, congregational renewal, leadership, church planting, and fresh expressions of church. He has been married to Deborah, an English professor at Redeemer University College, for over forty years. They have two adult children and four grandchildren, of whom they are ridiculously proud.

David Kupp - Toxic or Transformational? Rethinking Short-Term Missions

Many of today’s short-term missions sponsored by N. American churches are “Toxic Charity”, according to veteran urban activist Bob Lupton. And the results can too often be classified as “When Helping Hurts” in the research of Corbett and Fikkert at the Chalmers Center. Is the patient terminal? Join this participative examination of some core principles that can redeem this $ multi-billion feel-good extravaganza.

David has been teaching courses at Wycliffe College since 2009, and is Director of the Urban and International Development program. He is also senior partner at Kabisa International and at eCurious, where he helps NGOs with innovation and strategy, research and evaluation, and capacity building. He teaches as an adjunct faculty member in the Conrad Grebel / University of Waterloo Master of Peace and Conflict Studies, as well as in Humber College’s graduate diploma in International Development Management.

David is into complex and integrated tapestries – seeking to interweave vibrant faith, academic excellence and professional effectiveness into the worlds of social change, community development and aid. He is a lifelong student in the arts and sciences of organizational leadership and learning, community action-research, citizen advocacy, contextual theology and adult learning. Over the past 32 years he has had opportunity to be a listener, facilitator, manager, researcher and trainer with organizations, church agencies and humanitarian projects in 25 countries. In the previous decade David also greatly enjoyed co-facilitating with his global team a series of programming innovations across the 97 national partners of World Vision International.

David has authored academic, industry and popular publications in the fields of biblical studies, poverty and theology, global issues, faith-based humanitarian organizations, urbanization, community development, environment, gender and NGO management.

David is married to Ellen Ericson Kupp. She is Senior Partner at Kabisa International where she manages projects in communications and organizational change across a range of local and international non-profits. Their latest Kabisa joint venture has birthed eCurious, an enterprise focused on the e-learning needs of social change organizations. They have three adult children. If you can’t find David, he’s somewhere in an urban community project with a group of students. Or he’s happily sweating another NGO through birth pangs into its next strategic era. (He also may have snuck off to his woodworking shop, or disappeared among the islands of Georgian Bay.)

Annette Brownlee - The Discipline of Repentance

In June, 1940, the day after France surrendered to Germany, and became an occupied country, two Protestant pastors in central France preached what would become known as their ‘Weapons of the Spirit’ sermon.  They called on their congregation to fight against Nazi hatred with the weapons of the Spirit.  The town did just that. Under the leadership of their pastors, Le Chambon became the safest place for Jews and other refugees during WWII.   In that sermon, however, the pastors did more than call their people to resists hatred with the weapon of the Spirit.  They called them to repent. In the face of defeat they turned to God’s gift to the church of repentance.

Would we do the same?  Would our congregations have any corporate sense of repentance? Do our churches have any sense of repentance as a gift God has given the church for its mission?

This workshop will explore repentance as a gift and corporate spiritual discipline. We will read the famous ‘Weapons of the Spirit’ sermon, preached by Andre Trocmé and Edouard Theis in 1940, and use it as a springboard for our understanding of repentance.​

In 1987, after graduating from General Theological Seminary in New York City I began over twenty years of parish ministry, the weekly round of binding myself to God’s people and God’s Word for the sake of God’s world. I served churches in inner city Cleveland, a reboot in Stamford, Connecticut, a blue collar town, with escalating housing prices due to its proximity to New York City, and in Pueblo, Colorado, in the American west. I was involved in mission work in Haiti and Burundi. While in seminary I met my husband (who, ironically is an Anglican priest).

In 2007 I moved to Toronto to take the position as Chaplain at Wycliffe College. I am currently Chaplain, Director of Field Education and teach in the Pastoral Theology Department. I also assist at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux.

Marion Taylor - The Character of Esther: Was She Really Immoral, Merciless, and Blood Thirsty?

Many interpreters of the book of Esther are critical of the character of Esther, noting that she hid her Jewish identity from the pagan king she slept with (Esther 2:10 ), was merciless toward Haman when he pleaded with her for his life (7:7), and bloodthirsty when she asked King Xerxes for a second day of killing (9:13).  In our time together, we will examine and reassess the character of Esther and so raise the larger question of how to read the book of Esther.

Marion Taylor grew up in Toronto and began her academic studies at the University of Toronto where her interests soon gravitated to the Old Testament. Questions about how to negotiate the worlds of faith and the academic study of Bible pushed her to pursue a master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies and a Master of Divinity degree. Her journey took her to Yale University where her interest in the history of the interpretation of the Bible was solidified. She wrote her doctoral thesis on the history of Old Testament studies at Princeton Seminary from 1812-1929 under the direction of Brevard Childs. She met her husband Glen who is from Calgary in a class on apocalyptic literature at Yale. They returned to Toronto where Marion began to teach Old Testament at Wycliffe College. They lived at Wycliffe College where her husband Glen was Dean of Wycliffe’s residence and their three children were born. Marion’s interests in the Old Testament are broad. She teaches a variety of courses including Introduction, Jeremiah, Psalms, Old Testament Theology, Reading Scripture through the Ages, Bad Boys and Bad Girls in the Bible, the Books of Esther and Ruth, and Women Interpreters of the Bible. Her interest in the history of the interpretation of the Bible has continued and most recently has focused on forgotten women interpreters of the Bible. She began her search for forgotten women interpreters of the Bible in 2002 when a student in one of her classes asked if she could write a paper on a woman interpreter from the nineteenth century. This question has taken her on the greatest adventure of her life as she and a team of students and scholars have unearthed the names and writings of hundreds of women throughout history. In 2006 she published a collection of the writings of fifty forgotten women interpreters of the stories of women in Genesis, Let her Speak for Herself: Nineteenth-century Women Writing on Women in Genesiswith Heather Weir. She co-edited Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters, a volume of essays on nineteenth-century women interpreters with Christiana de Groot of Calvin College, published in the SBL's symposium series. Her award-winning book, Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters: a historical and biographical guide (Baker, 2012), provides an exciting new resource for those interested in the history of the reception of the biblical texts and theology. Women of War, Women of Woe, a collection of nineteenth-century women’s writings on the women in Joshua and Judges, co-authored with Christiana de Groot of Calvin College, will be available in 2016 from Eerdmans, as will a collection of nineteenth-century women’s writings on the women in gospels Marion co-authored with Heather Weir. She is currently completing a commentary on Ruth and Esther that is part of Zondervan’s Story of God Series. She has received several research grants to support her projects related to here research. Marion loves to spend time reading, writing and walking their dog at their cottage in northern Ontario.

Nathan Foster - Offering our weakness to God- spiritual disciplines as a grace and invitation

Our weakness and shortcoming have the potential to place us in a wonderful position to be available to God’s work in the formation of our soul. What we may just find is locked within our struggles are wonderful treasures that grow us deeper in life with God.

Nathan Foster is an associate professor of social work and theology at Spring Arbor University, where he holds the Andrews Chair in Spiritual Formation. He is director of teaching ministries for Renovaré as well as a licensed clinical social worker, certified addictions counselor, public speaker, bassist for Christy & The Professors, and the author of Wisdom Chaser: Finding My Father at 14,000 Feet. He currently resides in Michigan with his wife and two children. 

Sharon Garlough-Brown -Stewarding Thorns: Spiritual Practices for Cultivating Humility

This workshop will be a deeper exploration of Sharon's Plenary session.

Sharon Garlough Brown (MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary) is a pastor, spiritual director, retreat leader and author. Her book Sensible Shoes was named one of television personality Kathie Lee Gifford's "favorite things" in March 2013. She and her husband Jack have served congregations in Scotland, Oklahoma, England and in their current hometown, Caledonia, Michigan.

Sharon Ramsay - Radical Hospitality: Finding Strength in the Midst of Weakness

This workshop will be a deeper exploration of Sharon's Plenary session.

Sharon Y. Ramsay (MDiv, RP, RMFT) is a Clinical Fellow and an Approved Supervisor of the American Association for Marriage & Family Therapy. A graduate of Tyndale Seminary’s Master of Divinity program in Toronto, Sharon consults with couples, individuals and families about a wide variety of issues covering many stages of the family life cycle. Her grounding in systemic practice and relational therapies has been a key driver for the positions she has held in community family service and children’s mental settings.

Jakob Koch - Church Revitalization

Looking at various models of revitalization movements we will explore some of the fundamental components of church revitalization and the relevance to Toronto today.

Jakob was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario by strong Christian immigrant parents. The family was very active in the German Baptist Church, as well as in a Romanian church plant started by his father and uncles, which allowed Jakob to grow up with a deep love and commitment to God from a very young age.

Jakob and his wife Lorie have been involved in a variety of ministries over the past 30 years including church youth ministry roles, youth in missions, missionary service in Cameroon, West Africa, church planting in Toronto (African – Caribbean congregation), missions promotion and recruitment and most recently as the Canadian Directors for Liebenzell Mission of Canada. Working as Youth Director for the Cameroon Baptist Convention was foundational to Jakob’s continued involvement in missions, igniting a respect and passion for Christian leaders from other nations and an ongoing desire to minister across cultural barriers with the Gospel. Liebenzell Canada allowed Jakob to combine his passion for missions, his love for people from all nationalities and his burden for missionary training, to catalyze opportunities to encourage and support a variety of Christian ministries and programs throughout the GTA, especially among new immigrants and refugees.  International missions involvement was a rich and rewarding time in his life, and Jakob is so thankful for the ongoing inter-cultural ministry he is blessed with through the Peoples Church Toronto as Congregational Life Pastor.  In this role, Jakob gives leadership and pastoral support to all congregational ministries within the church, from birth through the senior years as well as the many cultural groups.  He has a deep love and passion for reaching the nations within Toronto with the gospel of Christ, especially providing support, encouragement and guidance to all those on the frontlines throughout the city.

With over15  years experience as a psychotherapist,  Dr. Wanda Malcolm is a registered psychologist who offers individual psychotherapy, couples  therapy, and psychological assessments to individuals and couples who are at  least 18 years of age.  Stress and  trauma-related psychological illness, depression, and anxiety are among her  clinical interests. Dr. Malcolm also works with people who are having  difficulty recovering from emotional injuries caused by relationship  hurtfulness. When it is safe and appropriate to do so, she helps clients explore  the possibilities of forgiveness and relationship repair as part of the  recovery process. 

Dr. Malcolm has a PhD in clinical  psychology from York   University where she  trained under Dr. Leslie Greenberg, the primary developer of Emotion-Focused Therapy  (EFT; www.emotionfocusedclinic.org).  She has led training workshops in Toronto, Hong  Kong and Malaysia  for mental health professions who wish to take an emotion-focused approach in  their clinical work, and offers supervision to clinicians who want further  experience and training in the approach.

In addition to her private practice, Dr.  Malcolm is Professor of Pastoral Psychology at Wycliffe  College (www.wycliffecollege.ca; a member  college of the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto).  Her teaching interests are in the areas of  personal wellness, pastoral psychology, pastoral care, and forgiveness and  reconciliation.  Dr. Malcolm also heads up  the Wycliffe Wellness Project, a  program of research investigating the stressors and satisfiers of ordained  life.