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Citation: Peltz, Benjamin Kenneth. “The Ministry Benefits and Personal Growth 
that Came from Using Participatory Action Research to Develop a Workshop for 
Cree Mentors.” D. Min., Tyndale University, 2020.

***** Begin Content ******



Tyndale University

The Ministry Benefits and Personal Growth that Came
from Using Participatory Action Research to
Develop a Workshop for Cree Mentors

A Research Portfolio
submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Ministry

Tyndale University

by

Benjamin Kenneth Peltz

Toronto, Canada

September 2020




Copyright © 2020 by Benjamin Kenneth Peltz
All rights reserved




ABSTRACT

	This Doctor of Ministry (DMin) Research Portfolio details the author’s
development as a leader throughout the program via his Leadership Narrative,
Ministry Context Analysis, Project Report, and Philosophy of Leadership. His
research project consisted of using Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods
to develop a mentoring workshop for Cree adults. Using PAR methods caused
him to revisit his assumptions and alter the way he designed and ran the
workshop, which increased participants’ confidence in ways that he did not
originally anticipate. This experience, alongside other elements of the DMin
program and developments in his leadership responsibilities, led him to identify
his calling as leading intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation using
communal discernment processes. Alongside demonstrating how spiritual
experiences, faithful mentors, Christian community, and formal education can
enable an individual to overcome a difficult upbringing and become a capable
Christian leader, this portfolio offers insights into the value of using PAR and
similar processes for improving ministry endeavours in an indigenous context.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to extend thanks:

• To my wife, Shoshanna, for being my partner in life and ministry, and for
  editing every single paper I wrote.

• To Paul, for your faithful mentorship, and your suggestion that I apply for
  this program, even if you did not realize what you were subjecting me to.

• To my Cree friends, for welcoming me and my family into your
  community, and participating in the research project.

• To Austin, Gabby, Kendra, Doug, David, and Dad, for providing me with
  timely feedback and suggesting resources to use during my research.

• To my professors, school administrators, and portfolio advisor, for sharing
  your knowledge and gifts with me and my classmates.

• To my family, friends, and multiple church communities, for your prayers,
  encouragement, and financial support, which made all of this possible.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES .... xi

LIST OF TABLES .... xii

CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION .... 1
	Definition of Key Terms .... 5

CHAPTER 2:
LEADERSHIP NARRATIVE .... 9
	My Upbringing .... 10
	My Adolescence .... 15
	My Undergraduate Years .... 17
	My Early Ministry .... 20
	A Season of Transition .... 24
	New Ministry Opportunities and Challenges .... 29
	My Doctor of Ministry .... 34
	Addendum: What Has Transpired Since .... 37

CHAPTER 3:
MINISTRY CONTEXT ANALYSIS .... 43
	Background .... 43
	Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
	and Problems .... 51
	Potential Projects .... 54
	Evaluating Options .... 57
	Force-Field Analysis .... 62
	Summary and Conclusion .... 65

CHAPTER 4:
PROJECT REPORT .... 67
	Introduction .... 67
	Context .... 70
	Models and Other Resources .... 72
	Project, Methodology, and Methods .... 76
		Findings, Interpretations, and Outcomes	86
		Findings .... 87
		Interpretations .... 98

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		Outcomes .... 109
	Conclusion and Implications .... 110

CHAPTER 5:
PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP .... 117
	Introduction .... 117
	Defining Leadership .... 118
		Leadership is a Social Phenomenon .... 118
		Leadership is Carried Out by Individuals .... 120
		Leadership Involves Taking Initiative
		and Influencing Others .... 121
		Leadership Aims to Achieve an Impact .... 124
		Conclusion .... 126
	Defining Christian Leadership .... 126
		Christian leaders should aim to glorify the Father .... 127
		Christians leaders should submit to the Spirit .... 130
		Christian leaders should emulate the Son .... 133
		Conclusion .... 137
	Describing My Calling .... 137
		The role of my upbringing .... 138
		The role of my education .... 139
		The role of my ministry experience .... 142
	Describing My Praxis .... 148
		Using communal discernment processes
		to shape a community’s theology .... 150
		Using communal discernment processes
		to shape leadership decisions .... 155
		Using communal discernment processes
		to pursue social justice .... 160
	Summary.... 165

CHAPTER 6:
CONCLUSION .... 167

APPENDICES .... 172
	Appendix A: Project Participants List .... 173
	Appendix B: Mentoring Questionnaire .... 175
	Appendix C: Stage One Interview Questions .... 180
	Appendix D: Stage Two Focus Group Questions .... 181

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	Appendix E: Teaching Guide .... 182
	Appendix F: Workshop Debrief Questions .... 184
	Appendix G: Stage Four Focus Group Questions .... 185
	Appendix H: Stage Four Interview Questions .... 186
	Appendix I: Coding Tables .... 187
	Appendix J: Project Timetable .... 190
	Appendix K: Project Data Types .... 194
	Appendix L: Promotional Script .... 197
	Appendix M: Information Letter and Consent Form .... 198
	Appendix N: Volunteer Information Letter and Confidentiality Agreement .... 201
	Appendix O: Group Covenant .... 203

REFERENCE LIST .... 204

x




LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The Joplin Model of Learning .... 2
Figure 2: Ministry Force Field Analysis .... 62
Figure 3: Frequency of Emotion Codes from Stage One interviews .... 89
Figure 4: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from Stage One logs .... 90
Figure 5: Frequency of Emotion Codes from Stage Two focus group .... 91
Figure 6: Frequency of Emotion Codes from workshop debrief .... 92
Figure 7: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from Stage Four logs .... 93
Figure 8: Frequency of Emotion Codes from Stage Four interviews and .... 94
Figure 9: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from my interactions and ref ... 95
Figure 10: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from my interactions and ref .... 96
Figure 11: Frequency of Emotion Codes from my int. and refl. in all data ... 97
Figure 12: Frequency of Evaluation Codes from all participants and data ... 98
Figure 13: Anderson’s Model of Practical Theology .... 152

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Questionnaire Responses .... 87
Table 2: Participants List .... 173
Table 3: Descriptive Coding Breakdown .... 187
Table 4: Emotion Coding Breakdown .... 188
Table 5: Evaluation Coding Breakdown .... 189
Table 6: Project Timetable .... 190
Table 7: Data Sets .... 194

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CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION

	This Doctor of Ministry (DMin) Research Portfolio is the culmination of
over three years’ work, and illustrates my growth over that time. It contains four
major sections. The first is my Leadership Narrative, which I first wrote in
September 2017. It describes my life events, inasmuch as they are relevant to my
development as a leader. The second section is my Ministry Context Analysis,
which I also wrote in September 2017. It describes Mistissini, a Cree community
and one of the places I am engaged in ministry. This assignment was done in
anticipation of my research project, and provides a description of the community,
the camp that I help with, the ministry challenges and opportunities we faced at
that time, and the opportunity that I identified as most worth pursuing during my
research project. The third section is my Project Report, which describes what I
did and discovered through my research. The project took place between
November 2018 and February 2020, and the report was written in May 2020. The
fourth and final section is my Philosophy of Christian Leadership. This was
written in April 2020, following my project’s completion but before I wrote the
report. As such, it reflects how my ministry experiences, DMin studies, and
research have contributed to my thinking about ministry leadership.

	My hope is that by ordering the sections this way, readers will come to

1




appreciate the role that the DMin program played in my development as a leader.
It was certainly not the only contributing factor. As readers will see in my
Leadership Narrative, many events took place over the past three years. As these
transpired, however, I was able to navigate them by applying the lessons I was
learning through my coursework and research. In this sense, the DMin program
and my ministry experiences worked together to facilitate the kind of learning
described by David Livermore in Figure 1:

Figure 1: The Joplin Model of Learning (Livermore 2009, 302)
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 1 details. ]

This model, which seeks to reconcile traditional teaching with praxis-based
learning, involves three stages. First, students go through a period of focused
learning. Then, they put their ideas into practice through action and reflection
with support and feedback from their teachers. Then, they debrief their
experiences so they can transfer their learning beyond their immediate situation. I
learned this way constantly throughout the past three years, first learning about
leadership in the classroom, then putting those ideas into practice in my various

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ministry settings, and then using assignments and my research project to distill
and integrate the things I had learned experientially. As cliche as it sounds, I
would not be the leader I am today without this program.

	I believe that this is apparent in the documents that follow. As I compiled
them, I noticed a remarkable difference in the way that I wrote about myself in
September 2017 and May 2020. Here are some of the changes I noticed: First, my
sense of calling was refined, as exhibited in the shift in language from raising up
leaders—a fairly generic sentiment—to leading intergenerational and intercultural
reconciliation using communal discernment processes—a more precise idea that
still manages to tie together my ministry experiences. Second, my leadership
competency increased, as reflected by positive outcomes and feedback in the
various ministries I lead. Third, my leadership capacity increased, as reflected by
the number of new opportunities that I have been able to engage in over the three
years, while still managing family life and school. Finally, my relationship with
God has improved. Admittedly, this is difficult to see in the documents
themselves, but when I consider how I felt when I wrote the Leadership Narrative,
as I was still recovering from a difficult few years, and contrast it to the way that I
felt when I wrote my Philosophy of Leadership, I recognize that I have learned to
depend on God in new ways. This has strengthened my confidence that he is at
work in this world, restoring it to its original goodness, and that he sees me as his
son first, and his servant second. I trust that readers will see these markers of
growth too.

3




	In sharing about my growth this way, it is my hope that readers will learn
about a handful of topics that are important to me. My journey shows how
spiritual experiences, faithful role models, Christian community, and formal
education can enable someone to overcome a difficult childhood and become a
capable Christian leader. In this sense, it is a portrait of deep life change, which is
a topic most Christian leaders are invested in. Alongside this, my story involves a
great deal of theological change, as my exposure to Calvinism permitted me to let
go of legalism and then missional theology challenged me to think in a big-picture
way about God’s kingdom and humanity’s role in the world. Some of these ideas
might challenge readers to reconsider some of their own theological convictions. I
also touch on important cultural trends in Canada, including the increasing divide
between generations and longstanding racial issues that have yet again been thrust
into the spotlight over the past month or so because of concerns with police
activity in the United States. Although I could not provide a thorough analysis of
these issues, I hope that the information I do provide motivates readers to consider
the issues more closely, as they impact the Church along with our broader society.

	My portfolio does offer a more thorough analysis of how one can lead
reconciliation across generations and cultures. Although I am still young and hope
to continue growing in my capacity to do so, the past ten years have taught me a
great deal about how to facilitate understanding between people and empower
them to work together despite deep differences. The DMin program encouraged
me to glean wisdom from my prior experiences and provided me with concepts

4



and tools so I could improve in this capacity. Among these, the most important
were various communal discernment processes, which enable groups of people to
make decisions and evaluate their impact together. I think that my work over the
past three years shows that these processes are effective for pursuing
reconciliation between people groups, and hope that readers consider adopting
these methods in their own context, even if they would need to be adapted to suit
the differences between our ministries.

	A couple of notes before moving onto my Leadership Narrative. First,
where I felt it was necessary, I have used fake names to protect people’s privacy.
Second, all scripture references are taken from the English Standard Version (The
Holy Bible 2016). Third, some of the details found in the first two documents are
repeated in the latter two. I tried to minimize this, but some repetition was
necessary for the ideas in each section to be properly understood. Fourth, I use
first-person language throughout the portfolio. This may seem odd in an academic
paper, but it was important to capture the personal growth that the program
facilitated. Now, here are some terms that I use throughout the portfolio that may
be unfamiliar to some readers.

Definition of Key Terms

	Communal Discernment Processes: A number of related processes that
are designed to empower participants in a research or ministry context. Although
these processes differ in practice, they share a common commitment to listening
to and taking into account the experiences of participants in order to discern the

5




best course of action. There is some overlap between this term and the more
established term “Community-Based Research,” but I intend it to include
processes that might not be regarded as fitting this category, such as George
Bullar’s 100 Days of Prayer. Other examples include Appreciative Inquiry, Asset
Mapping, and Participatory Action Research. These processes will be defined and
applied in the relevant sections of the portfolio.

	Culture(s): Shared sets of values and practices that differ across people
groups, as well as the people groups themselves. This can be used in a general
way (eg. workplace culture) or in a more precise way to refer to tendencies rooted
in history and geography (eg. Cree culture). In this portfolio this term is used
exclusively in the latter sense, to avoid confusion.

	Cree: A large First Nations group that spans the northern part of many
Canadian provinces. There are a number of Cree subgroups. In this portfolio this
term refers exclusively to the James Bay Cree in northern Quebec who are a part
of the Grand Council of the Crees, particularly those living in Mistissini.

	Deep Differences: Instances when people groups differ in their norms and
values, which contribute to more overt but less significant differences such as
food or clothing. Multiple models describe the varying traits. I favour the 6-D
model of national culture, which includes collectivism vs. individualism, small vs.
large power distance, masculinity vs. femininity (or tolerance of domineering
behaviour), uncertainty tolerance vs. avoidance, long-term vs. short-term
orientation, and indulgence vs. restraint (Hofstede 2016).

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	First Nations: A number of people groups that span North America and
share some common historical and cultural qualities, including having arrived on
the continent prior to European settlers.

	Indigenous: People groups across the world who were the original
inhabitants of their geographic region. In this portfolio, this term refers
exclusively to the indigenous peoples of Canada, which includes those who are
First Nations, Inuit, and Metis.

	Mentoring: A process in which a younger, less experienced person (the
“mentee”) learns from an older, more experienced person (the “mentor”) through
a voluntary, ongoing, mutual—but not reciprocal—relationship. There is some
overlap with the term coaching, although the latter often connotes a professional
role and involves training on the part of the coach, whereas mentoring generally
stems from a pre-existing relationship and is determined purely based on the
parties’ mutual commitment. The primary skill involved in mentoring is
intergenerational relationship building, which requires active listening,
transparency, and teaching based on one’s life experience. It is also beneficial if
mentors are connected to community resources—such as pastors, coaches, and
counsellors—so they can direct mentees to these as needed. In this sense, mentors
function similarly to medical general practitioners. They serve as the most
consistent caregiver of their mentees outside of family and should be able to
respond to their basic needs, while acknowledging their limitations.

	Settler(s): People groups across the world that settled their geographic

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region later than indigenous people. In this portfolio, this term refers exclusively
to Canadian settlers and is thus used to describe all non-indigenous Canadians,
including but not limited to those who are white.

	White: An adjective used to describe lighter-skinned people of European
descent and their cultural practices. In this portfolio, this term refers exclusively
to Canadians who fit this description.

8




CHAPTER 2:
LEADERSHIP NARRATIVE

	The following is a description of my development as a leader. It details my
growth through multiple stages of life, including my upbringing, adolescence,
undergraduate studies, early ministry, a formative ministry transition, and then the
years leading up to my entry into Tyndale’s Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program.
Following this, I describe some of the early contributions the program made to my
self-perception, then the changes that have taken place over the course of the past
three years. It has been edited for style and consistency, but aside from the last
section, which was added for the sake of this portfolio, the content of this
narrative reflects how I felt in September 2017, and thus sets the stage for the
growth I went through during the DMin program.

	One thing worth noting: throughout this narrative I regularly refer to my
mentors. These are five men who sought to help me grow through an ongoing,
mutual, voluntary relationship, as per the definition I provided previously. The
first was assigned to me as a “buddy” when I was nine or ten as part of a Pioneer
Clubs program at my home church. He spent time with me at the program and
took me to baseball games periodically over the next few years. The second
taught my pre-teen Sunday School class, and took me to hockey games
throughout my adolescence. The third was one of my youth pastors and coached a

9




football team I played on during high school. The fourth was a man I worked
alongside and attended church with while earning my undergraduate degree. The
fifth was a transition pastor I met during a year that I spent in between ministry
roles. He provided me with some tutelage when it came to my preaching, and has
continued to phone me periodically since then to ask how I am doing.

	Over the years, my contact with these men has varied in terms of
frequency and intensity, but I hold them all in high regard, and for a period of
time each of them was one of my primary confidantes and role models. The only
one I mention by name is Paul, the youth pastor and football coach, because I
have since begun to work closely with him in ministering to First Nations people,
which will be described in more detail in this and the next two documents, since
he was part of the leadership team for my research project.

My Upbringing

	My parents both grew up in Peterborough, Ontario, and moved to Toronto
for university. There they became Christians and married when my father felt
called into ministry. I was born in the late spring of 1988. I am the first of five
children, followed by three sisters and then a brother, who is seven years younger
than me. For the first few years of my life my dad pastored a small evangelical
church in a rural community west of Toronto. He had been warned before taking
the role that the church was conflicted but he was naively confident in his ability
to turn things around. And, despite the challenging circumstances, he was
somewhat successful. People tell me that he was a gifted teacher and the church

10




grew from fifteen to thirty people during his tenure. He also took his faith
seriously on a personal and family level. One story my mother likes to share
illustrates this: One Sunday when I was two, my dad was preaching on missions
at a conference and invited the attendees to consider dedicating their children to
the Lord. As he issued this call, I escaped from my mom and ran down the aisle to
join him. He noted that if he was going to ask people to offer God their children,
it made sense to start with his own, and he publicly dedicated me to Christian
service. This foreshadows my calling and also shows my father’s desire to nurture
us in the faith. I also have fond memories of him leading family worship on his
guitar and singing a blessing over us before bed.

	Unfortunately the stress of leading the congregation and a crisis within his
family of origin wore on my dad and eventually he resigned. After spending some
time at his parents’ house in Peterborough, we moved to Ottawa. He searched for
another pastorate to no avail, and ended up working in a group home. He
proceeded to spend a number of years there trying to provide for a growing family
on a minimal salary. He became depressed and eventually had an affair, which led
to him moving out when my brother was eighteen months old. It was arranged
that we would live with my mother and visit my father most weekends.

	Although my parents were close to one another geographically, their
homes seemed like two separate lives. My mother’s was in a townhouse complex
with a number of children our age, some of whom are still my close friends. It
was in a rapidly-growing area on the outskirts of the city, which meant that we

11




went to school with children from a variety of backgrounds, and my mom was
intentional about getting to know our teachers and friends’ parents. Despite
working multiple jobs simultaneously, she arranged her schedule so she was
almost always home when we were.

	Even though she came to faith through my father, my mom remained a
committed Christian and immersed us in the faith. I vividly remember how she
would start praying out loud as soon as she dropped me off at the bus stop. She
depended on God’s provision, and at various points he provided for us in
incredible ways, with people unexpectedly supplying gas money, a van, and a
down payment for a house, among other things. She also recognized that, as the
oldest child of a single mom, I was forced to grow up faster than most children.
She affirmed and encouraged that growth, even though she regretted that it was
necessary. Even when I was a child she took my advice seriously and regularly
told me that I had a gift of wisdom, which I still see as my primary spiritual gift.
My mom had her flaws, of course, but she took ownership of these. For example,
when her hurt and stress resulted in angry outbursts she was consistently the first
to apologize and seek our forgiveness. She also recognized her limitations and
sought mentors for us within the church, one of whom baptized me when I was
ten.

	My experience at my father's house was quite different. When we came to
visit he found us overwhelming and disengaged emotionally. He often told us to
entertain ourselves while he read or watched television. We had a tense

12




relationship with his partner, too, which at times made it uncomfortable to be
around the house. Unfortunately, most of our personal belongings were at my
mother’s house, and there was a mutual distrust between him and our friends’
parents, which meant that we were not allowed to visit each other. Thus, we had
to be creative about filling our time. This was not entirely negative. For example,
I spent large chunks of time alternating between reading books and playing simple
games by myself, which fostered my literacy and imagination - traits my dad
encouraged. At the time, however, I did not appreciate the limited options and
came to associate his house with boredom and loneliness.

	My father was also bitter towards evangelicals for the way they had treated
him during the divorce. When we were at his house on Sundays he did not take us
to our home church, opting at first to try out others and eventually giving up on
church altogether. He also openly criticized our faith, pointing out biblical
contradictions and pushing back against traditional morality. In retrospect, I
recognize that he was recovering from burnout and a faith crisis, and he has since
apologized to me. At the time, however, this behaviour seemed like a personal
attack. This left me feeling unwanted when I was at his house, which added to the
sense of abandonment I felt because of the divorce. I became increasingly angry
towards him. My teachers noticed this affecting my performance and asked my
mom about it, but there was no simple solution. I became isolated at school,
trusting only a small number of people and fighting frequently even with them.
This continued until grade six. Then, I had a transformative encounter with God.

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	During the summer following Grade 6 my siblings and I were visiting my
father for a two-week stretch, which took place every July and August. These
long visits were more taxing than the usual weekends because I could not look
forward to going home the next day. One upside was that we would visit my
grandpa’s cottage. I have fond memories of swimming, fishing, catching frogs,
feeding chipmunks, listening to loons, roasting marshmallows over the fire, and
going for boat rides. Best of all, these activities often involved my dad teaching us
skills, like building fires and roasting marshmallows.

	Despite these good memories, my dad and I also fought during these stays,
and one of these led to my encounter with God. I do not remember what we
fought about, but I remember lying alone in the basement bedroom, wide awake
and furious. For whatever reason, that night it occurred to me that I did not want
to be such an angry person. I asked God to help me forgive my father, then
uttered, “Satan, leave me alone!” At that moment I felt something leave the room
and a chill ran down my spine. I imagined God wrapping me in a big hug. I felt
surprisingly peaceful and cried with joy. After the sensation had passed it came to
me that I needed to stop waiting for my dad to change, love him as he was, and
focus on being the kind of person God wanted me to be.

	Although the change was not instant, there was a noticeable difference in a
short time. In grades seven and eight I grew more confident and made new
friends. In high school, my marks increased, and I became more involved in my
church youth group, summer camps, and sports teams. And, as I grew, my

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relationship with my father also changed. Although we continued to have
disagreements, especially around his relationship with my siblings, my anger
dissipated and our fights became less frequent. I would come to enjoy having
conversations about politics and watching hockey games at the local pub with
him. Altogether, it seems clear that a major barrier to my growth was removed
that night at the cottage.

My Adolescence

	Although I no longer hated my father, our relationship still dictated how I
lived on another level. Throughout high school my primary concern was
defending the things my dad had rejected. I became contentious, regularly telling
my family members, mentors, teachers, and friends that I was right and they were
wrong about their beliefs and decisions. Often this was well-meaning—I
genuinely wanted the best for them—but my attitude was harmful.

	It took a romantic relationship for me to recognize the issue. I met
Shoshanna in Grade 9. She had been raised in a culturally religious household,
with a Jewish father and Catholic mother. She loved to dance, wore clothes that I
considered immodest, swore on occasion, and drank lightly at social events with
her parents’ permission. Despite these differences I was smitten and we started
dating in November 2003. Soon, however, our differences began to frustrate me
and I tried to make her change. I also argued with her friends when they expressed
views with which I did not agree. After almost a year together things were tense
enough that we broke up. However, one of my mentors showed me that part of the

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problem was that we had not taken the time to build a healthy friendship before
dating. By the grace of God (and Shoshanna) we were able to work on this over
the next six months and in February 2005 we started dating again, this time with
an agreement that I needed to respect her more and she needed to tell me when I
was being disrespectful. Much to my surprise, when I did not try to bully her into
thinking and acting as I thought she should, she became more open to my
suggestions, and we were able to work together constructively. Our second
attempt at dating went much better than the first, and five years later we married.

	As I learned to operate in a less contentious manner, I also began
developing leadership abilities. Three environments were particularly formative.
The first was my family, where I sought to set a good example for my siblings.
Like my relationship with Shoshanna, this required doing away with my
contentious attitude and extending them love and patience. The second was my
football team. I was invited to play by Paul, a mentor from church who was the
Offensive Coordinator of a team in a AAA bantam league. Football required a
high level of discipline and respect for the coaches. It also forced me to work
closely with peers who did not share my faith. Although I did not budge in my
convictions, I learned how to hold back my opinions and lead by example, which
led to me winning the Coach’s Award for leadership in my grade twelve season.
Alongside this, I began taking on minor leadership roles at my church’s youth
group and the Christian camps I attended. The tasks I was assigned, such as
running activities and leading discussions, taught me skills I continue to use

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today. Together, my family life, football team, and church activities taught me the
joy of being relied upon by others and facilitating their growth.

My Undergraduate Years

	By the end of high school I wanted to pursue journalism and Shoshanna
planned to teach history and French. She decided to go to Trent University (Trent)
in Peterborough, Ontario and I followed her there, in part because I could live
with extended family. One of our first priorities was finding a Christian
community together. We ended up finding two. First, we were invited by one of
Shoshanna’s friends to join a local church that blended evangelical beliefs with a
traditional style and a focus on social justice. Then, we became involved in an
interdenominational campus ministry. Each shaped my faith in different ways.

	At church, I found a new mentor and opportunities to serve people on the
margins of society. With the campus ministry, I formed deep friendships and
learned how to work with others to make organizational decisions as part of the
student leadership team. In both environments, the topic of grace was a central
element of the teaching, and over the next few years I was introduced to
hermeneutics as well as theological books like The Prodigal God (Keller 2011)
and Desiring God (Piper 2001). These made me realize that God wants us to
pursue him out of joy rather than duty (Piper 2001, 16). I realized how much my
identity was based on my performance rather than God’s freely-given love, which
was the root cause of the legalism I had exhibited during high school. At the same
time, my studies at Trent revealed that politics cannot solve evil and suffering. I

17




remember thinking that we needed someone to save us from ourselves, and
realizing that Christianity teaches the same thing.

	This conviction increased my passion for ministry and I began to dedicate
more of my time and energy to my leadership responsibilities than I spent on
school. One of my mentors pointed this out and told me that I should become a
pastor. Initially, I paid him little heed. I had seen how poorly my father's ministry
journey had ended and, alongside that, I believed that gifted Christians should
serve in secular fields to witness to our culture. However, as my mentor persisted
and others made the same suggestion, I began to consider it more closely.

	Eventually, God convicted me that I needed to focus on following him
rather than avoiding being like my dad. This would also permit me to realize that
in many ways, I was like my father, including his analytical nature and
communication skills. This, combined with the fact that my mother remarried
during my final year at Trent, meant that a new season was beginning in which I
had positive relationships with the men inside my family, which my mentors
encouraged me to embrace. Shoshanna, too, was led to change her career path
during this season. Rather than finishing her education degree, a desire to
homeschool our future children and partner with me in ministry blossomed. We
agreed that we would both finish our bachelor’s degrees, but after that, I would
attend seminary and look for ministry work while she raised our children and
participated in my ministries whenever she could. Thus, our new life trajectory
was established.

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	Alongside discerning a call to ministry, I had two experiences during these
years that taught me a great deal because of how negative they were. During my
third year at Trent, a handful of students suggested that we turn the campus
ministry into a local church. The group’s primary functions were a monthly
interdenominational worship service and weekly small groups, which involved
150 and seventy students, respectively. The leaders making the proposal were
concerned that the fact that the group was student-led made it easy for false
teaching to occur in these settings. I reacted defensively, arguing that being
student-led and interdenominational were essential aspects of the group’s ministry
and becoming a local church would harm it. During the following months my
contentious habits reemerged, which resulted in a series of fights between me and
one of the young men that made the suggestion. Eventually the other leaders
reached a consensus and I begrudgingly accepted it.

	The decision to plant divided the group’s members when it was made
public, but the plans were still carried out hastily over the summer. By the time
the church launched in the fall only fifty students joined it. Over the following
three years its leaders had a rocky relationship with the school administration, the
church declined in numbers, and it eventually split from its mother congregation
and left the campus to pursue a more multi-generational ministry. These events
seemed to validate my initial concerns, but I recognize now that the way that I
raised those concerns was ineffective. Of course, I still have disagreements with
my fellow leaders, but never since have I been in a shouting match with a

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teammate, and I am often the person who calms things down when anger does
arise.

	The year after this happened I learned what contentious leadership feels
like from the receiving end. During my fourth year at Trent I dedicated more time
to my local church, and one of my objectives was to start a youth group. The idea
was received well by parents but actually starting it proved more difficult than I
anticipated, because the church had a number of other programs for their students.
When I suggested that the youth group should be a bigger priority, one of the
board members took offense and accused me of trying to change their traditions.
In one meeting he yelled at me and accused me of having malicious motives in
front of the rest of the board. After this I abandoned my attempt to develop the
youth group and my wife and I would eventually move on to a new church. This,
alongside my failure during the church plant decision, showed me that
contentiousness has no place in Christian leadership.

My Early Ministry

	In 2010, I graduated from Trent and was accepted to a Master’s program at
Tyndale University. Shoshanna and I also married that spring. Soon thereafter,
Paul—my high school football coach—asked if we would be willing to lead a
sports camp in a First Nations community that summer. Because Trent specializes
in indigenous issues, we had both learned about the topic during our
undergraduate degrees, but neither of us had any firsthand experience with First
Nations people and we thought it would be worthwhile. The job, which was

20




funded by the Cree Health Board, also paid reasonably well. Thus, we agreed, and
in July 2010 we flew with a team of three other people to Nemaska, Quebec.

	Nemaska is a Cree community located 300 kilometres east of the southern
tip of James Bay. It has a population of just over 600 people and is 400 kilometres
away from the nearest settler town. They had agreed to host a sports camp at the
last minute and Paul’s team, which was already conducting camps in a number of
other Cree communities, was scrambling to pull things together. As a result, our
team was ill-equipped for our first immersive intercultural experience. We faced
challenges with our budget, health, and certain team members, which required a
lot of improvising on my part as the team leader.

	Despite this, things turned out well. The Cree adults were welcoming and
the children—most of whom were between five and ten and normally spent a
good portion of their summer playing unsupervised—were eager to have adults
spend time with them. Even though they were fairly well off materially, with good
clothes, food, and technology, many of the children had still been exposed to
abuse, addiction, and tragic deaths at a young age. Despite these challenges,
however, their community was full of joy, as we witnessed in their sporting
activities, feasts, and annual trip to their traditional village, which we were invited
to attend. The result is that Shoshanna and I fell in love with the Cree people and
this would end up being the first of many trips to their communities. This would
spark a growing interest in First Nations issues and increasingly define my
ministry. It also provided a common interest with my father, who around this time

21


began working for the federal government as a negotiator with Indigenous and
Northern Affairs.

	When we returned from up north, Shoshanna and I chose to use the
opportunity provided by our long absence to find a new local church. We
informed the people we were closest to and on our first Sunday back went to
church with some of our friends from the campus ministry. This church was
pleasantly similar to the one in which I grew up. Alongside this, it was announced
that Sunday that they were looking to hire a part-time interim Youth Pastor to
work alongside Aaron, a young man who had been raised in the church and just
started a part-time role. I spoke with the lead pastor and let him know that I had
leadership experience and was studying at a seminary, which ultimately led to me
being hired.

	Working with Aaron was a good learning experience for me because of
our differing leadership styles. He was meticulous, and because of that he tended
to run things in a hands-on way. I, on the other hand, preferred to focus on
teaching and leadership development, and often delegated tasks instead of
handling them personally. At first, our different approaches caused tension. To
me, he seemed controlling; to him, I seemed neglectful. Over time and with the
lead pastor’s guidance, however, we came to appreciate each other and learned to
divide our responsibilities in a way that played to our strengths. Alongside this,
those two years involved me recruiting and training volunteers, reporting to a
board, and teaching on an ongoing basis for the first time, all of which developed

22




my leadership skills.

	At the same time, my mind was being stretched in my Masters of
Theological Studies (MTS) courses. The school’s emphasis on missional theology
provided me with a new, big-picture understanding of God’s purposes for the
world. Some of the particular ideas that I had picked up from the campus ministry,
such as predestination and complementarianism, were challenged by professors
who had studied the issues thoroughly. A course on Genesis showed me that it
was reasonable to interpret the creation story figuratively (Blocher 1984, 49-59),
which was one of many instances that forced me to revisit my tradition’s narrow
reading of scripture.

	Because I was in a cohort-based distanced program, I spent three years
with the same classmates, many of whom were older than me and shared their
experiences as missionaries, pastors, health care practitioners, and trades workers.
This meant that discussions were laced with practical wisdom. At the same time,
the fact that Tyndale was interdenominational taught me the value of the many
traditions I had been exposed to growing up, including my Plymouth Brethren
home church, my grandpa’s United church, my mom’s Pentecostal bible study,
Shoshanna’s Judaism and Catholicism, and our justice-oriented church during
university. My undergraduate years allowed me to overcome my reactive
legalism; my early ministry years encouraged me to form a more holistic
understanding of what it means to be a Christian leader.

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A Season of Transition

	The 2011-2012 ministry year brought about many changes. It began with
the birth of our daughter that September. Then I was offered the opportunity to
raise financial support as a “Commended Worker” at my church. I was convicted
that if I was going to embrace the opportunity fully, I needed to leave my other
part-time job at a Christian group home. I was scared to tell my boss but when she
heard my reasoning she encouragingly said that I had to follow God’s calling, or
else I would not have a ministry very long. Then, in the winter, Paul asked me to
assist him with a new project. He was no longer responsible for the sports camps
and had been asked by a local church in Mistissini, one of the larger Cree
communities, to design a teen program for their local Bible camp. He was
wondering if I could find counsellors, which worked well because my board had
previously suggested a youth missions trip.

	Aaron and I compiled a team and in July 2012 we ran our first Teen Week
at Sonrise Camp alongside Christian leaders from Mistissini. It was quite different
from the sports camp we ran in Nemaska. The team I was leading was larger and
younger. The campers were older and stayed overnight. They were used to a lot of
independence and pushed back against camp rules. At first they were uninterested
in the activities we ran, even though they complained that they were bored during
free time. Over the course of the week, however, they saw how committed we
were to getting to know them and heard our message of grace and hope, and
began to share their experiences. A number of them had been affected by a recent

24




suicide. We had many tearful conversations late at night and during breaks in the
day. The relationships that were developed that week more than made up for the
fact that we were still learning to do things effectively. A number of leaders and
campers would return the next few summers and deepen their connection, and I
came to look forward to the camps as a key part of my ministry.

	Alongside this, I resigned from my role at the church. As the 2011-2012
ministry year was winding down and we were preparing for that first Teen Week,
I realized that we had reached a plateau. Only a small number of teenagers
seemed to benefit from my primary gifts, which led me to believe that God was
calling me to another form of ministry. Aaron, on the other hand, enjoyed running
youth activities and was beginning to do more of the teaching. I thought that his
growth would be inhibited by continuing to share the role. With this in mind, I
submitted my resignation that May. The board members could scarcely believe
my reasoning. They wondered if there was some underlying problem motivating
my choice, and when I assured them that I was leaving simply because I felt
called to do so, one commented that it was the most positive resignation the team
had ever received. They blessed my departure and allowed me to keep my
Commended status so I could raise funds for whatever came next.

	Thus, by the time fall arrived, we were surviving on student loans and the
small income I had fundraised. As we prayed about where we were supposed to
go next the surprising answer we received was Cambridge, Ontario. It was not
much closer to Tyndale than Peterborough, and we only knew one family there, so

25




moving there seemed impractical. At first I thought that I could possibly get hired
as the pastor of our friends’ local church because they were looking for a teaching
pastor, but well before we moved we found out that I was one of two hundred
applicants and had been disqualified based on education and experience alone.
The weekend we found this out, however, a classmate told me that God wanted
me to know that he was going to use me to raise up leaders. I had not shared my
predicament with her when she said this. This was one of many confirmations we
received along the way that we were hearing from God, and a simple but
profound summary of my calling.

	We took the step of faith and moved to Cambridge in December 2012.
There, we found a welcoming home church alongside our friends. I soon began
helping with their small youth ministry. The transition pastor also began
mentoring me, providing opportunities for me to preach and receive feedback.
However, no paid work emerged and I had abundant time to dwell on that fact.
During my prayer times I would ask God about all sorts of things, and I often
received clear responses in my mind. However, every time I asked when he would
provide a job, I received a blunt response: “Wait.” I learned that there was no
point in pressing for more. God had some purpose in delaying but was not going
to reveal what it was.

	That year I was approaching the end of my MTS. I spent most of the
winter working on a research project on the differences between the Emergent and
Missional movements. I also had to meet with a Spiritual Director. The lady I met

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with suggested that I read The Return of the Prodigal Son (Nouwen 1994). Over
the course of that winter, God used the book to drive much of what I knew
theologically into my heart. I particularly related to the older, resentful brother,
and was moved by the Father’s plea for him to come inside and join the
celebration, leaving behind his need to prove his worth (Nouwen 1994, 80). By
the time I finished the book, my sense was that God was telling me, “Before you
can truly be my servant, you must know that you are my son.” I do not think I
would have grasped this message if I had been working in ministry at the time.

	In the spring of 2013, I wrapped up my MTS and, at the encouragement of
my professors, applied to the Master of Theology (ThM) program for the fall.
Then, suddenly, a ministry opportunity opened up. Because of staffing changes,
the position I had applied for in the fall had changed from part-time to full-time
and they had to restart the hiring process. My wife and I saw this as a
divinely-appointed opportunity, since I now had six months of rapport with the
congregation. I applied and was granted an interview, despite my limited
qualifications. When I shared the news with my Spiritual Director, she
paraphrased 1 Samuel 2:30, noting that God honours those who honour him, and
said that she thought God would honour me for waiting by providing me with
ministry work.

	The day came; the interview went well. Then, a few days later, I received a
phone call. Shoshanna was running errands while I watched our daughter at home.
The man on the other end of the phone said that I had impressed the interviewers,

27




but they were concerned that the position involved too much responsibility and
could hurt my growth. He relayed their suggestion that I search for an Associate
Pastor role so I could build up experience without so much pressure. Choking
back tears I thanked him and hung up. Our daughter, who was two at the time,
asked me what was wrong and, unable to explain, I asked her if she would like to
go to the playground. There, while she played, I wept. I felt exhausted,
discouraged, confused, and hurt. Here I was, in a city I barely knew, with a young
family to provide for and no good career options. I trusted God, but suddenly the
whole adventure felt too big for me to handle.

	When Shoshanna arrived home I shared the news with her and we cried
together. Then, after taking some time for the pain to pass, we agreed on a plan. It
was early May. I was finished my MTS and we had enough money to pay rent in
June. Thus, we agreed to ask God to provide a ministry job by the end of the
month, or else I would look for work in another field.

	The month went by quickly and soon the final weekend was upon us. One
of my sisters was having her Canadian wedding reception in Ottawa and we
agreed that once we returned from there, I would start handing out resumes. Paul
was at the reception, and told me how difficult the year had been for him. Then he
asked if there was any way I could work for him that summer. I recall looking at
Shoshanna across the room, knowing that we were both thinking that this was an
answer to our prayer, since it was still May. Paul could pay me just over $2000,
which meant that I needed to raise $1400 to cover our expenses. There was no

28




time to see whether that was feasible, however, because if I accepted he needed
me to go on a building trip in less than a week. Shoshanna and I agreed that we
had to yet again take the step of faith and trust that God would provide for us,
since this was a direct answer to prayer. We let our supporters know our plans,
packed up our essential belongings, and moved to my mom’s house in Ottawa for
the summer. At the end of the summer, I wrote in my ministry newsletter:

	Thank you to everyone who supported us this summer. I asked for $1400
	and was blown away to receive over $6000! As always, God provided for
	needs I never knew would arise, with $2000 in unexpected car repairs and
	10,000 kilometres worth of gas eating up most of the surplus. Thanks for
	your generosity and thank God for his fatherly care (Peltz 2013, 4).

It was a validating experience and much-needed sign that I was supposed to stay
in ministry.

New Ministry Opportunities and Challenges

	That summer, I found out that the church at Trent University (Trent) had
decided to move off campus. There was still a Catholic group, but no generic
Christian ministry. Shoshanna and I agreed that we should try to meet that need as
I worked on my ThM. When I reached out to some students, they were excited to
start something new together. I asked the leaders from the church that had left the
university if they were okay with my doing this. They agreed to support the
endeavour, so long as it was not another church plant, because they still saw
themselves as the Trent church. That was an easy condition to meet, since I had
objected to the church plant in the first place.

	So, with a team of eight students, I launched a new university ministry.

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The result was Oikos, a student-led interdenominational ministry that aimed to
bless Trent students through prayer, service, and dialogue about faith. My role
with the group was to mentor students as they ran events. Generally, I would
initiate a relationship with them through team meetings and events, then invite
them to build a one-on-one relationship, which led to me supporting them in a
number of areas, including developing life skills, growing as leaders, exploring
theological questions, implementing spiritual disciplines, and building healthy
relationships with friends, family members, and romantic partners. I also
connected them to community resources as needed. The group was later
rebranded to Christians For Trent (CFT).

	Working with students complemented my summer camp ministry, since
the campus ministry slowed down over the summer and many CFT students
served as camp counsellors over the years. Alongside this, I took on a new role
with the church in which I had been a youth pastor. During our time in
Cambridge, their lead pastor had departed in the midst of a church split. They
hired one of their board members as a part-time teaching pastor, and in the winter
of 2014 decided to search for another part-time pastor to accompany him. I
applied and in April 2014, they hired me as their care and discipleship pastor. This
involved developing a pastoral care plan for the church and overseeing small
groups, as well as providing one-on-one counselling, discipleship, and leadership
development, which lined up well with my gifts and passions. This combination
of the campus ministry, the church, and the summer camps became my new

30




normal, and after the previous tumultuous period I appreciated the chance to settle
into a more stable season of ministry.

	Many positive developments took place following the convergence of
these roles in 2014. The campus ministry grew from eight active members to over
twenty, with the largest events drawing around thirty-five. We experimented with
a number of outreach ideas, including worship and testimony nights, movies,
debates, cooking classes, social events, praying for students in cafeterias, and a
week-long campaign called Christian Awareness Week. One Power to Change
leader who visited during the latter remarked that we were doing more with
twenty people than some groups manage with a hundred.

	At the church, I helped design a meal program for a homeless shelter,
worked with the Sunday school teachers to develop a new ministry model, and led
the board through the creation of a new mission, vision, and strategic plan
alongside the teaching pastor. Although it was not a formal part of my job
description, my preaching also continued to improve, which many congregants
commented on over the years.

	The summer camps also grew. A few years after we began the Teen Week
in Mistissini, I was invited to return to Nemaska to serve with their Bible Camp.
We also began helping with programming for younger age ranges. As a result, one
week of camp expanded to four or five, which meant that most years, my family
and I spent the whole month of July in northern Quebec. I also helped with more
building projects and led additional programming for Cree youth throughout the

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school year. Thus, all three ministries developed simultaneously, and I grew as a
leader as a result, in part because of how distinct each role was. Most important to
me, though, were my many fruitful ministry relationships.

	Alongside these positive developments, I grew through a series of
challenges. The first was an intellectual and spiritual crisis that caused me to stall
out academically. The personal encounters I had with God over the previous few
years and the new ideas I gleaned from my studies forced me to seriously consider
what I could and could not accept from my evangelical upbringing. This,
combined with my increasing ministry responsibilities, meant that my motivation
to do schoolwork vanished. I went from being a straight-A student to failing
because I did not complete a number of assignments. This was disheartening, and
difficult to share with my friends and family, but in retrospect I see how it
strengthened me. I also recognize the value of having gone through it, as it refined
my faith and leadership and allowed me to relate to students as they wrestled with
similar questions.

	The second challenge came from the former Trent church. Although the
leaders supported our new work at first, tension arose when I invited an Anglican
speaker to one of our events. The same concern about false teachers that had led
to the church plant now characterized their view of me and my ministry. Despite
the fact that I spent much of the 2015-2016 ministry year trying to address their
concerns, they publicly denounced me and invited CFT’s leaders to do the same.
When they did not, the church leaders decided to start their own campus ministry,

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which caused a dilemma for those who attended the church and CFT’s events.

	Leading throughout this time required me to manage my emotions
carefully. I had to respond to their attacks graciously, care for hurting students,
and continue operating at a normal capacity in my other leadership roles, all while
processing my own pain. In retrospect, this stands out as my most overt
experience of sabotage—people who had previously been invested in a leader
consciously undermining him or her (Barton 2012, 140). I am pleased that, in the
face of this adversity, I behaved differently than I did back when the church plant
was first suggested. As a result, I grew personally, the damage from the conflict
was minimized, and my ministry relationships were deepened.

	The third challenge was learning to lead a church board. Leading them
directly was a different experience than leading a youth ministry under them.
Those who agreed to serve on the board following the church split were stable,
logical men. They were good at managing the crisis, but not as good at caring for
and communicating with the people under their leadership. Congregants shared
with me how hurt and confused they were by the split, and how distant they felt
from the board. This was compounded by the fact that the split had brought about
financial difficulties, which meant that Aaron and the church secretary both had to
be let go fairly abruptly, causing more hurt and confusion in the congregation.

	Since the board had hired me to help them care for the congregation, I
began making suggestions about how they could respond to these concerns. The
board members pushed back, defending their decisions and suggesting that my

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concern for pastoral care was because of my generation’s preoccupation with
people’s feelings, despite the fact that it was my older mentors who originally
modeled pastoral care to me. I was so discouraged that I considered searching for
work elsewhere. Fortunately, my mentors encouraged me to stay, and Shoshanna
shared that she felt like I was supposed to work there for five years. Over time, I
realized that the board would follow if I continued raising my concerns in a gentle
but persistent manner and modeled the kind of leadership that I wanted them to
exhibit. They came to recognize the merit in my suggestions, and we designed a
new membership process and pastoral care plan to address the church’s needs.

	Given the choice, I would not have faced any one of these challenges, let
alone all three in close proximity. However, like the positive developments in my
ministries, these challenges taught me to use my abilities more effectively. I also
became more confident and patient. I had come a long way from the fearful
contentiousness that characterized my adolescence.

My Doctor of Ministry

	Between the church, campus ministry, and summer camps, I have had
plenty of opportunities to learn through hands-on experience. Because of that, I
did not intend to return to school after failing my ThM. Then Paul suggested that I
do a Doctor of Ministry (DMin). As I describe in the Ministry Context Analysis,
we were exploring ways to enhance our ministry to the campers, and Paul
suggested that some of the ideas could be the basis for a DMin research project. I
was hesitant but agreed to explore it further. I spoke with a pastor in Peterborough

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that helped with the program in the past, and he thought that there was merit in
Paul’s suggestion. Then I reached out to the program director. He, too, suggested
that I apply, so I did, and started the program in May 2017.

	One of the first courses was “Formation of the Leader,” which included
writing the original version of my Leadership Narrative. In doing so, I saw how I
had progressed through various developmental stages described in our readings
(Clinton 1988, 30). I recognized the foundation that was laid in my dad
committing me to God’s service, the example set by my mother and mentors after
my dad’s affair, and the divine encounter that allowed me to let go of my hatred
and begin turning to God for my identity. I could see how God used my high
school and early university years to grow my inner life and summon me to
ministry. I noted how my early ministry experiences taught me about my
particular gifts and the calling God had for me to raise up leaders, as my
classmate suggested. And I saw how my new pastoral role and work at Trent and
up north lined up well with my gifts and calling and taught me perseverance. This
allowed me to mature and my leadership responsibilities to begin converging.
Although I did not yet know where God was leading me long-term, I had a good
sense of my values and abilities and was confident that I would continue to grow
in my effectiveness over time. Most importantly, I remained rooted in the
knowledge I gained in Cambridge that I was God’s son first and his servant
second, which was life giving, especially when I encountered challenges.

	The course material was also beneficial. Although I had read them before,

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I enjoyed the opportunity to revisit In the Name of Jesus (Nouwen 1989) and Let
Your Life Speak (Palmer 1999). Restoring the Soul of Your Leadership (Barton
2012) and Deep Mentoring (Reese and Loane 2012) complemented other books I
had read previously, such as Courage and Calling (Smith 2011), The Call
(Guinness 2003), and Spiritual Leadership (Sanders 2008). Restoring the Soul of
Your Leadership was especially useful, since it provides suggestions for leading
groups of people through spiritual discernment processes, which is a skill I was
still developing (Barton 2012, 191-207).

	We also had to complete MBTI and Strengthsfinder assessments. Neither
of these were new to me—I had used both for personal development and teaching
others—however reading Gifts Differing (Myers and Myers 2010) and my MBTI
Type II Inventory (Quenk and Kummerow 2017) provided some new information
about my personality, and the four leadership domains described in
Strengths-BasedLeadership (Rath 2008, 23) allowed me apply my
Strengthsfinder report (“Strengths Insight Guide” 2017) to my leadership roles.
Interestingly, these sources of information seemed to contradict one another, since
INTJs like me “have a tendency to ignore the views and feelings of other people”
(Myers and Myers 2010, loc 1696), and yet three of my top five strengths fell
under Relationship Building. My professor noted this and suggested that there is
such a thing as a “thinking approach to feeling,” which was an accurate
description of me: Having learned the hard way that contentiousness hinders
leadership, I try to listen patiently to others and ask guiding questions until I have

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a good understanding of their perspective, and only then do I offer my insights.
We also had to conduct a guided personal retreat which, like the readings and
inventories, was a familiar but beneficial exercise, providing me with some
much-needed rest and reflection.

	The most significant opportunity for me was undergoing a 360 Assessment
(“20/20 Insight” 2017). I appreciated the opportunity to hear directly from those
affected by my work. The report confirmed my sense that my church board had
difficulty recognizing some of my leadership gifts, as they ranked me much lower
than people under my leadership did in areas such as developing leaders,
visioning and facilitating change, and looking after the organization’s health. My
professor encouraged me to use this feedback as an opportunity to ask if there was
some way I could demonstrate my abilities. When I did, the board members told
me that I should feel free to be more vocal during team meetings, and that fall
they gave me the opportunity to do some vision casting. I had spent three years
building trust and putting forward ideas; now I would have the opportunity to lead
more directly. This, alongside the ministry advances I expected to make through
my research project, suggested that the following year would be significant in
terms of personal growth. I hoped that this would enable me to fulfill my calling
to raise up leaders even more effectively.

Addendum: What Has Transpired Since

	Revisiting what I wrote in 2017 showed me how much has changed in the
handful of years since, and how much has stayed the same. I am happy to say that

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most of the trends I identified have played out successfully. The DMin program
played an important role in that. I still feel called to raise up leaders, but have
greater clarity about how I can best do that, which is reflected in my Philosophy
of Leadership, where I identify my calling as leading intergenerational and
intercultural reconciliation using communal discernment processes.

	Multiple generations of student leaders have now graduated from CFT. I
kept in touch with many of them, and even officiated weddings for a handful. I
continue to mentor the new student leaders, and used a class assignment to
develop a recurring workshop on Christian leadership. I also recently guided the
team through Patrick Lencioni’s “six critical questions,” which I was introduced
to through my DMin, to help them refine their vision (Lencioni 2012, 77).
Alongside this, I am now part of a team of clergy that are endorsed by Trent
Spiritual Affairs for students who need support. I also worked with student
leaders to start the Global Table, a weekly meal for international students. These
are funded by local churches and prepared by international students. Originally,
they were conceived of as a CFT ministry, but this was difficult for student
leaders to sustain, so now I lead this in partnership with Trent International, the
branch of the administration responsible for recruiting and supporting
international students.

	My involvement with the Cree camps has remained relatively steady. I
continue to lead multiple weeks of programming in Nemaska and Mistissini,
alongside occasional retreats and building trips. Alongside this, my DMin

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research project served as a catalyst for ministry outside of the camp season. Paul
and I now visit Mistissini multiple times a year and, as I describe in my Project
Report, I have a deeper ministry relationship with many individuals there. We
hope to leverage the insights provided by the research to further develop Cree
mentors and their programs.

	As both the campus and Cree ministries expanded, I recognized that my
pastoral role would become more difficult to sustain. The board foresaw this as
well, and asked what I saw as my long-term ministry direction. I was honest with
them that at some point, I would likely step away from the church so I could focus
on these other ministries, and they understood and blessed that. Then, in
December 2017, I received a large grant from a denominational missions board
and sensed that this was God telling me that it was time to make the shift. I
committed to remaining on staff until June 2019, which was the end of my
contract and would allow for a gradual transition. That spring, I led an adapted
version of George Bullard’s “100 Days of Prayer” (Bullard 2005, 2). During this
process, the church’s members shared that they would appreciate having a
full-time lead pastor again, which I took as a sign that the teaching pastor and I
had helped them to heal from the previous lead pastor’s hurtful departure.

	During that same stretch, I came into close contact with a pastor of a
church at Curve Lake First Nation, which is about half an hour north of
Peterborough. He asked if I would join him so he could move towards retirement,
which was necessary due to his age and health. Because the congregation was

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smaller, the pastoral role would be less intense than it was at the previous church.
It also fit with my passion for First Nations ministry, as well as my campus
ministry, since Trent has a close relationship with Curve Lake. With this in mind,
I accepted, and became the co-pastor of Curve Lake Christian Assembly (CLCA)
in October 2019. I also approached the leaders of my church network, Vision
Ministries of Canada, to see if I could channel my financial support through them
instead of the local church. They agreed, and also asked if I could promote First
Nations ministry throughout the network, another welcome opportunity.

	Thus, the past year has involved another transition. I have gradually built a
ministry relationship with the members of CLCA, while remaining on the board
of my previous church so I could maintain ministry relationships and aid in the
search for a new pastor. At first, my hope was that someone would be found by
June 2020 so I could play a role in welcoming him or her. Unfortunately, this did
not happen, and I had to end my time on the board to focus more on CLCA.
Nonetheless, I parted on good terms, and let the board know that I was willing to
consult with them if needed. During this time, I used communal discernment
processes to guide leadership discussions in both settings. In each instance, the
collaborative approach was well-received, which strengthened my conviction that
communal discernment processes are an important means for me to carry out my
calling.

	Overall, my sense is that the transition between congregations has revealed
how much I have grown. My second 360 assessment (“20/20 Insight Report”

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2020) shows this as well. I scored higher overall in every category, including an
increase from 7.70 to 8.54 in Visioning and Facilitating Change. This
improvement includes my Managers—the board from my previous church—who
rated me higher in every category. Turnover among board members likely
contributes to this, but it also seems to reflect how much I have grown and earned
the trust of those affected by my leadership over the past three years.

	I continue to depend on my mentors for wisdom and encouragement. I
seek their advice before making difficult decisions, which is both affirming, since
they often say that I am on the right track, and refining, since they challenge me to
stick to my values as closely as possible. My relationship with my father has also
continued to improve, and we regularly converse about faith and First Nations
issues. Thus, between my mentors, father, stepfather, friends, mother, and wife, I
have a rich network of support, which allows me to remain healthy despite the
challenges of ministry leadership, and motivates me to extend that same kind of
support to others.

	Ten years into my ministry career, I am still engaged in multiple leadership
roles. I still minister to students at Trent, run programming for Cree youth, and
pastor a church. However, over the past three years these roles have developed a
great deal, and I am more aware of what it takes to be effective in them. The
DMin program enabled me to make many positive changes, in the ministries and
my leadership. The research project was particularly important in this regard, and
as such, I think it is fitting to consider that over the next two sections before

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closing with my Philosophy of Christian Leadership.

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CHAPTER 3:
MINISTRY CONTEXT ANALYSIS

	The following is an analysis of Sonrise Camp and Mistissini, Quebec, the
Cree community where it is located. It was written in September 2017 as a
precursor to my research project. It includes background information about the
camp and community; an analysis of the context’s strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and problems; potential projects that I could have done at the time
of writing; and an analysis of those options to determine which would be most
beneficial. Finally, it includes a force-field analysis of my preferred option, which
was the development of a workshop to train Cree mentors. Although I have edited
it for style and consistency and added details for clarity’s sake, I have
intentionally left the primary content in this document intact. As such, it reflects
what I was thinking in 2017 as I planned my research project, rather than what I
might write today if I were to consider the current needs and opportunities.

Background

	Mistissini is a Cree community of 3500 people in northern Quebec, in the
traditional territory of Eeyou Istchee. This includes 715 youth between ten and
nineteen years old (“Mistissini, Terres Reservees” 2017). These figures include
English and French speaking settlers as well as indigenous people, although the

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latter are by far the majority. When you first enter, Mistissini feels like a thriving
small town thanks to a beautiful lakefront, good infrastructure, and a growing
commercial district. Throughout the day the main streets are full of people
walking and driving, including unaccompanied children, sometimes as young as
four or five years old. Once away from the main stretch, however, the houses get
smaller and more tightly spaced, many windows are boarded up, and graffiti,
broken bottles, and cigarettes are scattered about the landscape. Side streets are
often busier at night than they are during the day and alcohol-fueled fights break
out periodically.

	Thus, for those who know it well, Mistissini feels like it is full of both
hope and despair. Three local landmarks illustrate this well. The first is a big,
modern building that sits atop the hill leading down to the commercial district. It
looks like the athletic centre kitty corner to it, but it is actually a lockdown facility
that hosts Cree teens that are a serious risk to others and themselves. The second
is a picturesque graveyard not far from the main stretch that contains a number of
youth and young adults. The third is a new bridge that was built on the west side
of the community a few years ago. It won awards for its sustainable design, but it
also sports looming barriers on either side because the community was worried it
would be a convenient way for people to commit suicide. Why does this tension
between hope and despair exist? Because Mistissini, like many First Nations
communities, still suffers from the effects of the cultural genocide that settlers
conducted throughout the 20th century.

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In defining cultural genocide and the way it was carried out in Canada,
What We Have Learned reads:

	For over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to
	eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the
	Treaties; and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples
	to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial
	entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools
	were a central element of this policy, which can be best described as
	“cultural genocide.”

	Physical genocide is the mass killing of the members of a targeted group,
	and biological genocide is the destruction of the group’s reproductive
	capacity. Cultural genocide is the destruction of those structures and
	practices that allow the group to continue as a group. States that engage in
	cultural genocide set out to destroy the political and social institutions of
	the targeted group. Land is seized, and populations are forcibly transferred
	and their movement is restricted. Languages are banned. Spiritual leaders
	are persecuted, spiritual practices are forbidden, and objects of spiritual
	value are confiscated and destroyed. And, most significantly to the issue at
	hand, families are disrupted to prevent the transmission of cultural values
	and identity from one generation to the next.

	In its dealings with Aboriginal people, Canada did all these things
	(Sinclair et al. 2015, 4).

Christians often supported these efforts (King 2012, loc 1409). This cultural
genocide has resulted in a substantially decreased quality of life for First Nations
people and contributed to high rates of addiction and abusive parenting, lower
educational success and employment rates, higher self-harm and suicide rates, and
an elevated level of incarceration for First Nations people (Sinclair et al. 2015,
103-112). The James Bay Cree have been more successful than many tribes in
overcoming these difficulties as a result of achieving the first modern
self-governance agreement (Gee-Silverman 2005). Writing about the historic

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importance of this treaty, one author notes:

	By the final territorial treaty, the Williams Treaties of 1923, traditional
	protocol was nowhere to be seen or heard. Canada would follow that
	mockery of treaty-making by shutting down treaty negotiations for half a
	century. It was not until the James Bay Cree and Nisga’a got the state’s
	attention by means of court decisions in 1972 and 1973 that the federal
	government rediscovered its ability to make treaties with the First Nations
	whose lands and resources southern entrepreneurs coveted. The Calder
	decision of 1973 led to the creation of a claims process that included a
	comprehensive claims settlement mechanism by 1974. The interim
	injunction the James Bay Cree obtained in 1972 resulted from difficult
	negotiations in the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA)
	of 1975. The JBNQA is generally regarded as the first modern Canadian
	treaty, and comprehensive claims settlements have the same legal and
	constitutional status as territorial treaties. These events ushered in the
	modern treaty-making era (Miller 2013, 6).

	Since then, the James Bay Cree have continued to benefit from effective
political leadership (Hamilton 2016). This has led to a series of new,
ground-breaking agreements with the Canadian government (Strahl et al. 2008;
The Government of Canada et al 2008). Despite this, the effects of the cultural
genocide are still evident with abuse, addiction, tragic deaths, and educational and
employment challenges featuring more prominently in the cultural landscape than
in most white communities. Adults and adolescents alike are aware of these
challenges, as depicted in the documentary Mistissini Healing, which featured an
intergenerational discussion of the difficulties faced by the community (Vizi
2017). The fact that these challenges persist is a testament to how much damage
was done to indigenous people. The solution will need to be long-term and
multifaceted, with people inside and outside of the community contributing.

	Fortunately, many Cree individuals have managed to overcome the

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difficulties facing them and are seeking to be part of the solution. Some of them
have found it helpful to blend their First Nations cultural practices with the
teachings and lifestyle of Christianity. As with most First Nations communities,
Mistissini’s relationship with Christianity is complicated. On one hand, churches
helped undermine indigenous culture, particularly by helping run residential
schools (Miller 2000, loc 2061). On the other hand, not all missionaries or
denominations were equally focused on forced assimilation, preferring to focus on
sharing their faith relationally (Miller 2000, loc 2381).

	Cree people experienced both firsthand, with some suffering abuse at the
hands of religious leaders in residential schools, and others benefitting from
friendly relationships with missionaries who came to live in their community. As
such, leaders like former Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come acknowledge the
harm done by the Church (Dueck 2000), while attempting to draw Christians and
indigenous people together by appealing to their common interest in
reconciliation (McLaughlin et al. 2006, 2). This has contributed to a sizable
population of Cree Christians in Mistissini—enough to support Anglican,
Pentecostal, and Baptist congregations as well as a number of independent
churches and camp meetings. They are motivated by their faith to try and improve
their people’s wellbeing. The Grand Council of the Cree generally views local
churches as allies in this regard, and their government functions often include
overt references to the Christian faith.

	Many Cree people are particularly concerned about their children and

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youth, since they represent the future of the community. It is sometimes difficult
for Cree adults to invest in their young people, however, because residential
schools separated children from their parents, which in turn made it difficult for
them to relate to their own children. Sometimes this results in active abuse, but
more often it results in neglect, which means that young people are often more
influenced by their peers than adult role models. Those that are able to parent well
frequently choose to leave the community for the sake of their children, pursuing
educational options for themselves and their families in Montreal or Ottawa.
There has also been a rapid lifestyle shift across generations as Cree communities
become more connected to the broader Canadian society and they introduce new
technologies such as video game systems and cell phones. As such, even parents
who remain in the community and avoid the worst kinds of neglect find it difficult
to relate to their children. The result is that there is a perceived shortcoming of
positive role models within the community, which leads local churches to rely on
people from elsewhere. This is what takes place at Sonrise Camp (Sonrise), a
Christian camp located a short distance from Mistissini.

	Sonrise is owned by Faith Bible Chapel (Faith), the local Baptist
congregation. Sonrise and Faith were both started by a settler missionary who
arrived in the 1970s and still lives in Mistissini. Faith recently became part of the
Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec. Most Sundays around twenty people
attend Faith’s worship services, the majority of whom are Cree. Since they do not
have their own church building (unlike the Pentecostal and Anglican churches),

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throughout the school year they meet in Mistissini’s only hotel. They often meet
at Sonrise during the summer. They are led by a Cree pastor and board, although
the missionary who planted the church still attends and is respected by the formal
leaders.

	Since Faith and Sonrise were both started around the same time by the
same person, the church continues to see the camp as one of its primary
ministries, although Christians from other local churches also help out there. They
also run an Awana program for younger children. They do not currently have a
ministry for older youth aside from the camp. This may be because the
Pentecostal church has a youth ministry—albeit one that seems to reach different
youth than Sonrise—or because they do not have the capacity for more at this
time, given their relatively small size. Faith’s former pastor, James, and his wife,
Carol—both of whom are Cree—serve as the camp directors.

	Cree schools only have a six-week-long summer break to accommodate
hunting breaks during the school year. Cree youth already experience significantly
more independence than settler kids tend to, and this increases over the summer.
During this stretch, it is not unusual for preteens and teens to be outside with their
friends until dawn, after which they return home to sleep until early afternoon.
Because Mistissini is well-off financially, youth also have access to most of the
conveniences that urban settlers take for granted, including internet-connected
smartphones. With this level of freedom, Cree youth face tremendous peer
pressure, which makes it difficult for them to make healthy decisions. This

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inevitably carries over into the school year, where youth are prone to skip classes
and party on the weekends. The schools and other youth services run a number of
initiatives to try to alter this. For their part, Faith sees the camp as one part of the
solution, since it gives youth something positive to do when they have the most
time on their hands. Many Cree parents appreciate this and are excited to send
their kids when the time comes, which is why the camp tends to draw more than
its capacity of attendees.

	The staff at Sonrise hold five weeks of programming every summer: a day
camp for five- and six-year-olds, followed by overnight camps for seven- and
eight-year-olds, nine- and ten-year-olds, eleven- and twelve-year-olds, and
thirteen- to seventeen-year-olds. Despite the fact that the camp was started in the
1970s, it was not until 2012, under James and Carol’s leadership, that the ministry
was expanded to include teenagers. As mentioned in my Leadership Narrative,
James and Carol invited Paul to design the new programming, since he was
already engaged in sports camps and counselling youth there. He, in turn, invited
me, because he knew I could recruit and train a team of volunteer counsellors.
This was important because James and Carol’s experience was that Cree
Christians were happy to support the camps financially, but not interested in
volunteering because of their age (they tend to be older on average) and the
perception that they should be paid for their work. Since that year, we have been
involved with Teen Week at Sonrise every July. Our aim is to create a safe space
for campers to explore God’s love and build relationships with Christian leaders,

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with the hope that this will improve their sense of self-worth and enable them to
pursue healthier lives. The programming includes indoor and outdoor activities,
worship, biblical teaching, and small group discussion and prayer, most of which
is currently led by Paul, myself, or the volunteers we bring.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Problems

	We seem to have accomplished our basic objective of creating a safe space
for campers to experience love from God and Christian leaders. Many campers
return every year and the feedback we receive is consistently positive. We always
have enough registrants that we have to exceed our capacity, and campers have
been increasingly willing to participate in games, worship, and discussions. In
2016, we baptized six campers, and in other years many teenagers have
committed their lives to Christ, come forward to receive prayer from leaders,
taken communion, and participated in voluntary workshops on how to read the
Bible. Two comments from 2017’s camp season reinforce my sense that we are
succeeding. During Mistissini Healing one young woman stated that “camp is the
only place I don’t feel like drinking” (Vizi 2017), and another told me that one of
her favourite parts of camp is that the leaders don’t see themselves as better than
the campers, but as their friends. These comments reflect our vision that the camp
would be a safe, loving environment.

	However, despite our success on this front, the limitations of camp
ministry have become increasingly apparent over the past few years. Although the

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campers have had positive experiences with God and Christian leaders, they seem
to have experienced minimal life change. Most of them continue to struggle with
addictions. A number became pregnant as teenagers and are now single mothers.
Even less drastic behaviours like bullying persist, despite the positive shared
experiences they have at camp. We were aware that what we are doing would not
single-handedly solve these issues, but as time progresses we have begun to
recognize just how limited the impact of a single week is.

	There are a couple of particularly noteworthy limiting factors. The first is
the cultural and geographic gap between our counsellors and campers. Most of
our cabin leaders are from Ottawa and Peterborough, where Paul and I live,
respectively. This means that they have difficulty relating to the issues Cree teens
face. It also means that they only see the campers in-person once a year. The most
natural solution would be to develop leaders locally, which we have attempted to
do. Because people are hesitant to volunteer, we have applied for and received
grants from the Mistissini council and the federal government to hire summer
interns a number of years in a row. Unfortunately, the results have been mixed.
Some have successfully fulfilled their responsibilities, but more often they
struggle, in part because the camp directors are not able to give them much
individual attention since they are so busy overseeing the camp and church. The
interns often lack confidence and commitment and have even on occasion crossed
serious boundaries, such as sneaking alcohol into camp. Thus, despite our efforts
we are still dependent on outside leaders and have to navigate the cultural and

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geographic distance.

	Alongside this, the nature of camp ministry is that it only lasts for a short
time and is separate from the campers’ ordinary activities. This is both a strength
and weakness. On one hand, it would be hard to cultivate such a safe space in the
community. Inevitably, the issues they face there would affect their level of
engagement. Because they are living in close proximity to one another, outside for
good portions of the day, constantly physically active, away from parties and
access to addictive substances, and following a more standard sleep cycle rather
than staying up and waking up late, the campers are mostly free from their usual
harmful habits. This makes it easier to provide a positive experience. On the other
hand, this also means that campers’ learning and experiences do not easily
translate into their everyday life. Even simple changes like reading the Bible
every morning can be hard to maintain once a teen has gone home. In this sense
there is a bubble effect to camp ministry. It becomes a world unto itself with no
clear relation to the campers’ regular lives.

	We were not surprised by either of these limitations, since Paul and I both
had prior camp experience. However as the ministry has stabilized, the limitations
have become more pressing. We have become increasingly convinced that we
need to figure out how to accompany the camps with some other form of ministry
that won’t be constrained by the same barriers. My research project is a good
opportunity to begin addressing this need.

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Potential Projects

	There are a handful of issues we could seek to address to alleviate the
effects of the camp bubble. The first is the limited contact we have with the
campers. The second is the lack of local young leaders who can positively
influence their peers. The third is the lack of positive role models in many
campers’ lives. Addressing any of these issues could increase the amount of
overlap that exists between the teens’ experience at camp and throughout the
school year.

	The first and most obvious shortcoming with our ministry is the fact that
we only see the campers for a single week in the year. We may tell campers that
they are valuable to God and us, but for the other fifty-one weeks of the year
competing claims are more prominent in their lives. Similarly, our volunteers may
be effective at building relationships with their cabin members throughout the
week, but the depth of these relationships is inhibited by the fact that they only
see each other once a year. We have sought to address this limitation by utilizing
social media, since most of the campers have their own cell phones and are active
on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, among others. Cabin leaders are
encouraged to befriend and keep in touch with campers online. There have been
times when teens have reached out because they were hurting or at risk, but these
occasions have been few and far between. The primary result is that the
counselors see the campers’ intoxicated, emotional, and conflict-ridden posts,
which facilitates a deeper level of understanding on their part but does not really

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enhance their relationships. We have also attempted to leverage Facebook groups
that contain photos, stories, and biblical teaching, but engagement with these
groups has been too low to maintain. These attempts at follow-up have revealed
that expanding the impact of the leaders we bring with us requires more in-person
meetings throughout the year.

	As good as it would be to increase the frequency of personal contact with
the campers, there will always be a limit to how much this can take place, since
we live over a thousand kilometres apart. The teens themselves, on the other hand,
can see one another as often as they like. This is problematic insofar as the
campers encourage one another to perpetuate harmful thinking and actions, but if
a handful of youth were to emerge as healthy leaders they would have ample
opportunity to influence their peers. Unfortunately, there are not many youth or
young adults who have managed to achieve this to date. A more comprehensive
leadership development program at the camps could improve this. If we could
identify upper-year and graduated campers who have leadership potential and
provide them with training and opportunities to serve at the camp, over the course
of a few years they may be able to stand out from their peers and contribute
positively to their lives. However, as we have seen with the summer internships,
any such program would need to be quite hands-on, because they often lack
confidence and capacity.

	Peers are one thing; adults are another. One of the biggest challenges faced
by Mistissini teens is that their peers are a greater influence in their lives than

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adults. As described above, because of intergenerational trauma, Cree adults are
often unsure of how to engage in relationships with youth, even if the adults
themselves have managed to heal from their wounds and build healthy lives.
Involving local adults in the camp and encouraging campers to connect with them
throughout the school year could provide teens with role models and consistent
emotional and spiritual support. It is unlikely that Cree adults would be willing to
serve as cabin leaders and spend the night at camp, so rather than focusing on
integrating them into the camp ministry directly, it would likely be more effective
to focus on mentorship.

	Although the term is European, the concept of mentorship is ancient (Carr
1999, 6) and part of traditional Cree culture. Historically, Cree youth were
expected to seek out their elders to learn from them while living off the land, and
many traditional skills such as hunting and navigation are accompanied by
teachings about spiritual beliefs and values. This transmission of skills and values
was disrupted by lifestyle changes and intergenerational trauma. Cree elders often
lament the fact that older people are no longer involved in the lives of young
people. Adults who are old enough to remember a time before Residential
Schools talk about how older people were active in passing on their wisdom and
skills, and there are still certain community celebrations that seek to recapture this
experience. Because of the familiarity adults have with this concept, inviting them
to serve in such a capacity would likely be received positively. We could then
recruit and train people to mentor the youth throughout the year and use the

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camps as a means for connecting campers with mentors. To do this would require
recruiting a handful of adults, training them, introducing them to campers during
the following Teen Week, and following up with the mentors and campers to
ensure that mentoring is taking place and working well for the involved parties.
This kind of formal mentoring could be an excellent complement to the camp
ministry.

Evaluating Options

	James, Carol, Paul, and I have been aware of all three of the
aforementioned needs for some time now, and we have discussed possible options
for addressing them, although further evaluation is necessary to determine which
could be addressed through my research project.

	Arranging additional in-person meetings throughout the school year would
be fairly simple because we have a close relationship with Faith Bible Chapel and
we have already helped them host retreats. To do youth-specific programming
throughout the year, we would have to finance the trips, but this too should be
relatively easy to manage since Paul and I both have solid financial support for
our ministries and the Cree would likely cover a good portion of our costs. The
greater challenge may be the time commitment for our volunteer leaders, since
most of our camp counselors are in high school or university and would need to
take time off. We would need to provide notice well in advance and be prepared
for some of the leaders to back out if their responsibilities prove more difficult to
escape than expected.

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	Perhaps the most appealing aspect of this option is that it would not
require a significant change on the part of campers or adults in the community,
unlike the other options. On the other hand, there may be an inverse relationship
between the ease with which we can launch a project and the impact it will have
long-term. There are already many white people running programming for the
youth and, like the camps themselves, additional events would be somewhat
separate from their normal lives. Although the relational and spiritual content of
such retreats would be different from programming they are getting elsewhere, the
impact may still be similar to our camps, resulting in something the youth look
forward to but not much life change beyond that.

	The leadership development option may be the least feasible of the three
because of the challenges we have already faced with internships. The camp
receives funding from the local church and government which means that finding
interns is not difficult, but developing them is another story. Many of the youth
are not accustomed to leadership responsibilities and require a great deal of direct
support as they go about their tasks. Thus far, the camp directors have not been
able to provide this. As a result, Paul or I are generally responsible for leadership
development, which involves the same geographic and cultural limitations that the
camps themselves face. Even if we could successfully implement a training
program and provide the support needed for the interns to fulfill their duties at
camp, it is uncertain if they would be able to provide the same kind of leadership
within their communities; like the campers, leaders’ experiences at camp may be

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difficult to translate into real-life change and it is likely that the interns would
simply return to their unhealthy lifestyles once back in the community. However,
such a program could have a great impact if it were successful. If youth or young
adults could become camp leaders and demonstrate changed lives year-round, it
would give other campers an example to follow and introduce positive change to
their primary circle of influence. As such, a program like this is worth pursuing,
but may be best alongside or after another option.

	The third option of training Cree adult mentors and connecting them to
campers may be the best balance of feasibility and potential impact. It would be
relatively simple to recruit adults from within Faith Bible Chapel and their
network of contacts. This would also make it easy to screen people and ensure
that they were positive role models before assigning them mentees, since the
church leaders would be careful about vouching for someone. Connecting
campers to mentors should also be fairly straightforward. Ensuring that the
mentoring conversations actually take place would likely be the most difficult
part. It is possible that prospective mentors would happily go through training and
affirm the need for mentoring, but then fail to follow through. It is equally
possible that mentees would agree to participate at camp, when it is easy to do so,
but then avoid meeting with their mentor because of the peer pressure or shame
brought about by their usual lifestyle. As such, the program would need to be
developed carefully with clear markers of success and participants would need to
be aware of and committed to the whole process ahead of time. We would also

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need to check in with them to ensure follow through.

	In developing the training component of the program we would want to
ensure that it was culturally appropriate and addressed the particular needs of
Cree adults, but we could also learn from the experiences of others who have
designed mentoring programs. The travel costs and human resources required to
train mentors and follow up with them would likely be smaller than the first
option, since it would rely less on students and more on church and business
leaders. Still, we would still have to account for money and time. If this option
could be successfully implemented the impact would be substantial. If we could
train ten leaders, each of whom committed to mentoring two or three young
people, most of the teens who attend camp the following summer could begin
learning from an older person within their community that school year. This could
partly bridge the generational divide that exists in the community and provide
teens with an example to aspire to as they navigate their own life decisions.
Although they have generally been conducted off-reserve, studies have shown
that mentoring programs can have an impact on the wellbeing of First Nations
youth elsewhere, which suggests that it could be effective in our context as well
(Crooks et al. 2017; Kinley 2015; Eskicioglu et al. 2013).

	Unfortunately, this kind of program would take longer than three to six
months, which is the timeframe for my Doctor of Ministry (DMin) research. With
this in mind, I could break the program up into three stages: recruiting and
training mentors, connecting campers to mentors, and the mentoring process

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itself. The first of these would be the focus of my project.

	The most urgent issue we face is the need for some sort of follow-up to the
camps, since each year that goes by with no plan is another year that some
campers will graduate with nothing but their week of memories to lean on.
Additional programming and facilitating mentoring could both provide this
relatively quickly; developing young leaders is a longer-term objective.
Additional programming is easier to implement, but would likely have a more
limited long-term upside. Facilitating mentoring, on the other hand, has the
potential to ameliorate the longstanding generation gap within the community
alongside addressing the immediate need for follow-through. Given the fact that
Cree adults regularly note their concern about this generation gap, even making
small inroads could be valuable to the community.

	All three of these options would ideally be undertaken in partnership with
Faith Bible Chapel’s leaders, with them taking primary ownership of the project
and Paul and me supporting them. This year, that may be more feasible than ever
because Carol recently retired from her translation job and has indicated that she
would be willing to coordinate a program. This also increases the urgency of
doing something this year because Carol will likely be asked to fill other
leadership roles in the community and her capacity will decrease. It is also worth
noting that we have approached the Cree Justice Department and a private
network of Christian business leaders to see if we can secure some funding for
one or multiple of these follow-through options, which would make the task more

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feasible. No funding has yet been secured.

	With all of these factors in mind, I believe that if we were to pick one of
these options to pursue, the best would be to facilitate mentoring. The other
options may be worth pursuing alongside or after it, but it is feasible, addresses
our immediate needs, and has the potential for significant long-term impact,
which makes it the best priority at present.

Force-Field Analysis

Figure 2: Ministry Force Field Analysis
[ Please contact reposityr@tyndale.ca for Figure 2 details. ]

	A Force-Field Analysis is a helpful tool for evaluating what is required to
generate positive change in a given situation (Connelly 2020). It considers what
elements of the situation serve to promote positive change (driving forces) and
what elements discourage change (restraining forces). Figure 2 conveys what I
believe to be the primary forces at work in the lives of Cree youth as we seek to

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encourage them to live healthy lives. As described in the following analysis, the
effect of facilitating mentoring through the camps would be to enhance the
strength of the bottom two driving forces, those being positive adult relationships
and positive lessons from Christianity.

	From the outset, our hope for the teen program at Sonrise was that youth
would come away with a deeper sense of their worth and be more capable of
living healthy lives. We are not the only people pursuing this objective in
Mistissini. There are a number of workers and programs that are seeking to
encourage healthy choices among the Cree youth, each of which constitutes a
driving factor towards that same ideal state. Some of these are run by the school
and government, while others, like the Pentecostal youth group, are put on by
churches.

	We hoped that our ministry could complement other programs by
facilitating loving relationships with God and Christian leaders. This would
contribute to the campers’ health and move the status quo towards the ideal state.
Our success has been limited. The campers feel valued and capable of resisting
destructive behaviours at camp, but this has little impact on their self-image and
behaviour back in the community. The driving forces that we have
introduced—the relationships between campers and counselors, the teaching
during chapel times, and the healthier rhythms and activities of camp life—are
insufficient to overcome the many factors that keep campers from experiencing
similar things back home.

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	The most prominent restraining force is the tremendous peer pressure
teens face. To care for oneself enough to avoid parties, choose romantic partners
carefully, apply oneself academically, and other such healthy decisions almost
requires exiting the adolescent social scene in Mistissini entirely. There are some
teenagers who have the support and wherewithal to do this but they are few and
far between. Alongside this, the harm that has been done to many teens through
abusive or dysfunctional relationships and the tragedies they have been exposed
to growing up have left them with unresolved hurt and the desire to escape
through pleasure-seeking even if it is destructive long-term. Many youth also have
chemical and/or psychological addictions to alcohol, marijuana, and other
less-common substances.

	Another restraining force is the image that most of the youth in Mistissini
have of Christianity. Local churches are perceived by youth as being legalistic and
judgmental, which discourages their participation in Christian community.
Christian leaders sometimes reinforce this impression by insisting that God is
angry with those who engage in destructive behaviours in an attempt to motivate
life change. Thus, Cree youth tend to think that God condemns them, which
reinforces problematic habits by leading them to believe that they are a lost cause,
rather than declaring with David that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”
(Psalm 139:14) and seeking to live a life that reflects that. All of these factors
serve to perpetuate the harmful status quo, and the driving forces that have been
introduced through our teen program have been insufficient to overcome these

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restraining forces.

	Complementing the camp ministry with a year-round mentoring program
could have a larger effect on the status quo. It would introduce a number of new
driving forces. The first would be an extension of the lessons the teens learn at
camp. Mentors could continue to tell youth that they are loved by God and worth
taking care of, which would hopefully bridge the gap between what campers hear
at camp and what they hear in the community. This could have the added benefit
of changing teens’ understanding of Christianity and God, thus reducing or
eliminating one of the restraining forces. If they receive grace from Christian
adults, they might begin to accept that God, too, is gracious, not condemning.

	Another driving force would be the example set by the mentors. Because
most of them have had to overcome similar challenges to the teens, their stories
and lifestyle choices provide a portrait of what the teens can aspire to. Alongside
this, if mentors are informed of the various resources that are available for youth
in Mistissini, they may be able to influence teens to access these resources, which
would make existing driving forces more effective.

Summary and Conclusion

	In conclusion, I believe that the most effective way to enhance our
ministry at Sonrise would be to introduce a year-round mentoring program that
could build on the things that youth hear and experience during Teen Week. We
have successfully created a safe space for campers to experience the love of God
and Christian leaders. Their sense of self-worth is higher at camp and they do not

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engage in as many destructive behaviours.

	However, the camps are limited in their impact because they are confined
to a single week of the year in an unfamiliar environment. Mentors could provide
continuity and model a different kind of life than campers are used to. Mentors
could also connect teens to other supports that exist within the community, thus
increasing the effectiveness of these programs. Although there are many factors
that sustain the status quo, and any solution to the intergenerational trauma that
indigenous people have suffered will need to be long-term and multifaceted, I
think our campers would benefit from such a program. And, if we were to
combine it with additional programming and/or a thorough leadership
development process, the effect on the lives of those involved could be even
greater.

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CHAPTER 4:
PROJECT REPORT

	The following is a description of my Doctor of Ministry (DMin) research
project. It was written in May 2020 and, as such, is the most recent of the four
documents in this portfolio, however because my Philosophy of Leadership was
written following the project itself, the thinking contained within it reflects what I
learned through the experience. Thus, it seemed fitting to include this report first.
It details some initial resources that motivated and shaped the project, the
methods that I used to conduct it, an overview of the data I collected, and my
thoughts on what the data reveals about the impact of the project.

Introduction

	In this project, I had the opportunity to design a contextually-suitable
mentoring workshop for Cree adults in Mistissini, Quebec. This workshop was
intended to be the first step in developing a mentoring program for youth who
attend Teen Week at Sonrise Camp. The need for this program arose when I and
the other camp leaders recognized that the volunteers, who were largely settlers
from southern Ontario, were unable to provide the consistent follow-up needed to
help campers integrate their learning and experiences into everyday life. It was
determined that recruiting and training Cree mentors to meet with youth

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throughout the year was the best option for meeting that need, and that it could
also play a role in overcoming an entrenched generation gap in the community.
The reasoning behind this is provided in more detail in my Ministry Context
Analysis.

	One of my priorities in designing the workshop was to take into account
the distinct culture, geography, and history of the James Bay Cree. My hope was
that by taking these distinctives into account, the workshop could equip Cree
mentors to build relationships with and respond to the needs of their youth. It
could then be repeated and refined, to train new mentors as needed.

	Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods were used to design the
workshop. Five to ten adult Cree participants were recruited and asked to
contribute to the planning and evaluation of the workshop, in order to take their
unique culture, history, and geography into account. To evaluate the workshop’s
effectiveness, data from interviews, focus groups, activity logs, and a
questionnaire were collected and analyzed. The PAR process led me to revisit my
assumptions and change how I designed and ran the workshop, which in turn
increased participants’ confidence in ways I did not expect. It also deepened my
ministry relationship with the participants, even though I was careful to delineate
between my pastoral and researcher functions.

	In order to ensure that this research took place in an ethical and effective
manner, I was accountable to Tyndale’s Research Ethics Board (REB),
Mistissini’s chief and council, and the leaders of Faith Bible Chapel (Faith), the

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Baptist church in Mistissini that owns Sonrise Camp. The chief and council and
church leaders are all Cree. Prior to commencing research, I submitted an Ethics
Review Application to the REB, which was approved on March 8th, 2018. I then
sought permission from Mistissini’s chief and he granted it on October 3rd, 2018,
as well as assigning us a representative to report to as the research progressed. I
led the project alongside my mentor Paul and a Cree couple named James and
Carol. James retired from pastoring Faith shortly before the project began, and
Carol joined the Mistissini council around the same time. Both of them were also
participants in the research project. Because of my longstanding ministry
relationship with Faith, I knew many of the individuals who were invited to
participate in the study, although a few were recommended by other participants.

	To reduce risk, I included James and Carol in major decisions and sought
feedback from them and the other participants regularly throughout the process. I
also limited the study to adults, provided clear and comprehensive information to
participants, sought verbal and written consent before collecting data, stored data
securely with plans for its ultimate destruction, and took measures to protect
participants’ privacy when sharing information about the project, including in this
report. I used sharing circles to conduct meetings, which ensured that participants
were given ample opportunity to express their opinions, and James and Carol also
offered to provide extra pastoral care for participants if needed, since the
conversations sometimes touched on painful past experiences. Participants were
able to withdraw from the study at any time, without reprisal. I hoped that these

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measures would minimize the effect of my personal biases and ensure
participants’ wellbeing.

Context

	As described in my Leadership Narrative, I am a white pastor, husband,
and father who lives in Peterborough, Ontario. I earned a Bachelor in Politics
from Trent University (Trent) in 2010. Having learned about indigenous issues
and discerned a call to ministry during our studies there, my wife and I accepted
when Paul invited us to help with summer camps for Cree youth in northern
Quebec. We have continued to be involved in the camps since then, and I have
come to recognize that I am called to lead intergenerational and intercultural
reconciliation, which I describe more fully in my Philosophy of Leadership.
Currently, I do this by leading a campus ministry at Trent, pastoring a church at
Curve Lake First Nation, and working with the Cree.

	As described in the Ministry Context Analysis, Mistissini is a Cree
community of approximately 3500 people, with youth composing a sizeable
portion of this number (“Mistissini, Terres Reservees” 2017). It is relatively
homogenous culturally, with most of the permanent population being Cree and
most of the white population being made up of transitory government and natural
resource workers. Like most First Nations communities, Mistissini was affected
by what the government of Canada refers to as the “cultural genocide” committed
against indigenous people by white Canadians (Sinclair et al. 2015,4).
Intergenerational trauma and its effects, such as addiction and mental health

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issues, are more prominent in Mistissini than most white towns. Despite this, they
have been a model of development among First Nations thanks to the first modern
self-governance agreement (Gee-Silverman 2005). The James Bay Cree have
sought to use their ensuing economic success to overcome the challenges of the
harm that was done to their culture.

	Sonrise Camp was established in the 1970s by the Christian community
that would eventually become Faith Bible Chapel, which at the time was pastored
by a white missionary but has more recently been led by Cree pastors and elders.
James was pastoring the church in 2012. At the time, his perception was that the
community was doing a good job of caring for children and adults, but struggling
with teenagers. He hoped that a camp week for teenagers would meet that need.
Paul and I worked with James and Carol to launch the teen programming that year
and today it draws forty to fifty campers each summer.

	Every year campers seem to have meaningful emotional and spiritual
experiences during the week, however a single week of ministry produces limited
long-term life change. Recognizing this, we began to explore opportunities to
follow up with campers throughout the year. We ultimately concluded that a
mentoring program within the community was the best option for doing so, for
reasons detailed in the Ministry Context Analysis. Our long-term objective was to
train a number of Cree mentors, who could then assist the settler counsellors and
develop deep relationships with the youth that could carry on year-round. The
first step in meeting this objective was to train mentors, in a manner that reflected

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the distinctives of Mistissini and the Cree culture.

	As previously stated, Paul, James, Carol, and I worked together to lead the
project. James and Carol were also participants in the study, alongside twelve
other Christian Cree adults, most of whom were members of Faith Bible Chapel.
These participants varied in terms of age, gender, and education.

Models and Other Resources

	As mentioned, intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation is a core
part of my mandate as a Christian leader. This project helped me recognize the
integral role that communal discernment processes play in carrying out that
calling, a topic I deal with in more detail in my Philosophy of Leadership. My
desire to pursue intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation stems from my
conviction that Christians are called to participate in God’s mission to restore the
world to its original goodness (Wright 2006, 22). Christian leaders play a
particular role in this mission, using their various God-given gifts to equip the
church for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16). In this sense, ministry is not
the exclusive property of Christian leaders, but something that all Christians
participate in as part of the body of Christ, which enables the church to be a sign,
instrument, and foretaste of God’s kingdom within the world (Newbigin 1989,
232). One of the essential aspects of this ministry is modelling and calling people
to reconcile with God, each other, and the cosmos (2 Corinthians 5:16-21).

	In twenty-first century Canada, this “ministry of reconciliation” must
include bridging the gap between generations and cultures. The gap between

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generations exists because of rapid changes that have taken place within our
society, which is felt within the church as much as anywhere (Penner et al 2011,
11-19). Of course, cultural shifts have always taken place across generations, and
younger ones certainly have their differences (White 2017, 35-52), but the two
most recent generations seem to have more in common with one another than they
do with previous generations in regards to their lifestyle and values (Parker et al
2019, 2). This contributes to a sense of alienation between older and younger
Canadians. This gap is even more obvious in Cree communities, where
technological and social change has taken place more quickly than in most white
communities.

	The gap between the many cultures in Canada is a more complicated
phenomenon, but to some degree it stems from colonialism (King 2012, loc 896)
and has been exacerbated by the global diaspora, which brought white Canadians
face-to-face with people from all over the world and ushered in many other
changes with it (Krause et al 2018, loc 171). Again, gaps between cultures have
always existed, but these factors made intercultural interactions more common.
Drawing on terms found in the Intercultural Development Index (“IDI General
Information” 2020), this increase in interactions has arguably resulted in cultural
polarization (thinking that cultures are either all good or all bad) or minimization
(thinking that cultures are all basically the same beyond surface differences) more
often than true acceptance and adaptation on the part of white Canadians (Cousins
2019).

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	Fortunately, scripture speaks to the relationship between these people
groups. The Bible encourages older people to pursue younger people so they can
model and teach them to live godly lives (Titus 2:2-6). Younger people,
meanwhile, are called to honour the older people God has put in their lives and to
learn from them (Leviticus 19:32), while still exercising their leadership gifts in
an appropriate way (1 Timothy 4:12). The process being described here is what I
call mentoring. Intergenerational reconciliation involves recovering this practice.
When it comes to intercultural relationships, the Bible implies that diversity is
part of God’s original intention for humanity (Wright 2006, 197), and that people
from different cultures are able to receive God’s grace while practicing their faith
in a way that reflects their distinctions (Acts 15:19-21).

	Particularly moving to me is the scene in Revelation where it describes
people of “every nation, tribe, people and language” worshiping around God’s
throne (Revelation 7:9), which suggests that even in the new Earth, cultural
diversity will exist. In light of this vision, it seems to me that the church’s task is
not to reject, replace, or respect culture as supreme, but rather to redeem culture
by empowering people to identify and reject that which is evil in their culture and
honour Christ through that which is good. Intercultural reconciliation occurs when
Christians from different cultures support one another in that task, rather than
wielding power over one another. As a white Christian leading a group of Cree
Christians, pursuing intercultural reconciliation required ensuring that my views
were not taken as overruling theirs by default.

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	In light of these objectives, I wanted to avoid perpetuating the power
imbalance that has historically existed between white Canadians and First Nations
people. Recognizing that white Christians have often wrongly identified their
culture with true Christianity and imposed their theology and practices on others
(Jacobs et al 2008, 29), I wanted to ensure that we trained mentors in a way that
validated and built on Cree culture. The Principles of Reconciliation from the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided a general framework for doing
this (Sinclair et al 2015, 2-4).

	The DMin program introduced me to communal discernment processes
like Appreciative Inquiry and Participatory Action Research, which I will
describe in more detail in my Philosophy of Leadership and Project Report,
respectively. These processes are reputed to reduce the power imbalance between
researchers and participants (Harder 2013, 87 & 127). Early in the DMin program
I was introduced to a past Tyndale project that seemed to confirm this (Rempel
2014, 93). I also sought to understand the Cree culture more deeply, so I read
books on the history of Settler-Indigenous relations such as The Skyscrapers Hide
the Heavens (Miller 2000), as well as looking up articles on the James Bay Cree
(Gee-Silverman 2005; Hamilton 2016). These built on the knowledge I had
through my studies at Trent University and my first-hand ministry observations.
These resources reinforced my sense that I needed to lead the project in a way that
encouraged participants to share and reflect on their experiences and to contribute
to decision-making. I hoped that by doing so, participants would feel affirmed in

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their values and practices and, through the training, be equipped to build
relationships and respond to the particular needs of their youth.

Project, Methodology, and Methods

	The project took place in Mistissini, Quebec between November 26th,
2018 and February 5th, 2020. I led the project alongside three other people:
James, Carol, and Paul. James is a Cree retired pastor. Carol is his Cree wife and a
member of the Mistissini council. Paul is a white pastor from Ottawa with adult
children. I am a white pastor from Peterborough in my early thirties. I was the
primary researcher and led the interviews, focus group discussions, and planning
meetings. I also collected activity logs from participants. James and Carol
contributed to decisions concerning research processes, and were also participants
in the study, meaning they shared their thoughts during interviews, logs, and
group discussions. I consulted with Paul about the project as necessary, and he
also recruited participants alongside James and Carol.

	Paul, James, and Carol sought five to ten Cree adult participants by word
of mouth. All of the people invited were either members of Faith Bible Chapel or
worked with youth in some capacity. All of them were also Christians, although
this was not a formal requirement. Because of the tight-knit nature of Mistissini,
all of them knew James and Carol personally, and Paul and I knew them from past
ministry endeavours, although some only by face and name. See Appendix A for
a full list of participants and what project elements they participated in.

	My primary objective in designing the workshop was to equip participants

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to build relationships with and respond to the needs of Cree youth. Recognizing
that the kind of training required to do so might be different with Cree mentors in
Mistissini than it would be with white mentors in southern Ontario, I used the
research process to determine what needs were present in the community that
could be addressed in the workshop. With this in mind, the project was limited to
Cree participants from Mistissini. Although this approach may work well in other
contexts, there is no way to know until the attempt has been made, and the
findings should be interpreted as limited in this way.

	Recruiting people via word of mouth also affected the project’s scope,
because all of the participants ended up being Christians. It is hard to know if the
chosen methods would have worked with a more religiously diverse group.
Word-of-mouth recruiting also meant that people who were interested in the topic
were more likely to get involved. As it turned out, all of the participants were
already mentoring youth. The process may not have had the same effects on
someone who was unaware of or disinterested in mentoring. Because this was a
short-term study and the workshop could only be conducted once, I was not able
to determine its effectiveness over a long period of time. Finally, the study was
limited to adults for ethical and logistical reasons, which means that a different
approach may be needed for a project involving youth.

	Participatory Action Research (PAR) was used to design the mentoring
workshop because it lined up with the project objectives with respect to its
iterative approach and focus on empowering participants to make decisions and

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enact positive changes within their community (Stringer 2014, 14). PAR is an
iterative process involving four stages: Observation, Planning, Action, and
Reflection (Bramer 2017, 30). During the Observation Stage, the researcher and
participants work to identify what is currently taking place in the community to
identify possible opportunities. During the Planning Stage, an opportunity is
developed into a plan for some sort of project. During the Action Stage, that plan
is put into effect. During the Reflection Stage, the researcher and participants
evaluate the effects of the project together. In a longer-term project, this cycle is
then repeated multiple times to build on the initial project and adjust as necessary
to ensure the best possible outcomes. In this study, there was only time to conduct
one cycle, but the iterative nature of PAR was still valuable because it provided a
model for planning and evaluating future endeavours based on the project.

	Because PAR is intended to take participants’ experiences into account, I
collected data that described these experiences in each stage of the process.
During the Observation Stage, which involved sixteen participants, I attempted to
understand what was already taking place in Mistissini in regards to mentoring.
During the Planning Stage, which involved twelve participants, I worked with
participants to design the workshop in a manner that could address the
opportunities and needs that were identified in the Observation Stage. During the
Action Stage, seven participants took part in the workshop. And finally, during
the Reflection Stage, which involved six participants, I sought to understand the
effects of the workshop and research process on participants. Afterwards, I

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analyzed the collected data from across the stages to determine what their
emotional experiences were, whether they felt positively or negatively about the
workshop and research process, and how often they reported good or bad
interactions with youth.

	Since this was an illustrative, non-experimental, applied research project
with a focus on understanding our participants’ experience, I selected a variety of
appropriate Case Study methods to use throughout the PAR cycle (Hancock and
Algozzine 2017, 16-17).

	During the Observation Stage participants were asked to complete a
questionnaire to gauge their confidence concerning different aspects of mentoring
youth, which can be found in Appendix B. Carol, James, Paul, and I designed this
questionnaire based on the most common issues we had encountered while
working with youth in Mistissini. I later conducted a simple quantitative analysis
of the responses, determining the average and median score for each question to
see how confident participants felt about navigating those issues. Participants
were then interviewed concerning their experiences of mentoring and being
mentored by others. The questions participants were asked during these
interviews are found in Appendix C. Participants who held a leadership role
within the community were also asked a second set of questions, also found in
Appendix C, which invited their thoughts on intergenerational relationships
within the community at large. For privacy reasons I chose not to record the
interviews but, with consent, took detailed notes and later analyzed these notes

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using Emotion Coding (Saldana 2013, 170-179) and Evaluative Coding (Saldana
2013, 192-199). I also invited participants to log their interactions with youth on a
daily basis. Originally I suggested hand-written logs but Carol suggested that it
would be better for me to text participants, because Cree people do not generally
practice journaling and it would require a lot of initiative from the participants.
The message I texted them was, “Good evening, time for our check-in! Have you
had any memorable interactions with youth today? If you have, please share what
took place in a sentence or two!” I later analyzed their responses using
Descriptive Coding (Saldana 2013, 137-142), Emotion Coding, and Evaluative
Coding. Because this kind of process was a new experience for the leadership
team, I also took detailed notes during our team meetings and later analyzed these
notes using Emotion Coding and Evaluative Coding.

	My hope was that by taking this multifaceted approach, I would be able to
develop an understanding of the participants’ perspective on mentoring. The
questionnaire would provide a baseline sense of how participants felt about
mentoring youth. The interviews would allow me to understand their subjective
experiences in regards to mentoring, as well as leaders’ perception of
intergenerational relationships within the broader community. The logs would
provide concrete data to determine how often participants were actually engaging
with youth and what kinds of experiences they perceived as positive or negative. I
anticipated that these various sources and kinds of data would allow me to
identify specific needs that could be addressed during the workshop, and then I

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could evaluate what had changed as a result of the workshop in the Reflection
Stage.

	During the Planning Stage I facilitated a focus group, in which I presented
an overview of what was shared during the Observation Stage and invited
participants to share their thoughts using the questions found in Appendix D. As I
will describe in more detail in Findings, Interpretations, and Outcomes, one of the
conclusions reached during this focus group was that the participants would teach
one another during the workshop, rather than inviting teachers from outside the
community. In order to facilitate this, I coached participants through the process
of creating lessons. After considering a few other options, I decided to design a
lesson planning tool of my own because I felt that existing tools were too complex
for the participants, most of whom had little or no teaching experience. Carol and
Paul both expressed appreciation for it when I showed them a draft version. I have
included this tool in Appendix E. I did not include the individual lesson plans or
analyze them as an independent source of data but I will detail the lessons in
Findings, Interpretations, and Outcomes.

	During the Action Stage, I facilitated the workshop. Five participants
taught in it, one participated in the whole thing, and one arrived midway through.
After the workshop was over, I led a brief discussion using the questions in
Appendix G to hear how participants felt it went. I took detailed notes about the
workshop and discussion immediately after it was finished and later analyzed
these notes using Emotion Coding and Evaluative Coding. Other than asking

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whether participants thought the workshop was worth repeating in the future, I
intentionally did not try to draw conclusions about its success or failure or
identify potential changes because I first wanted to see how it shaped participants’
experiences over the next couple of months.

	During the Reflection Stage following the workshop, I messaged the
participants who were involved in the workshop daily with the question “Good
evening! Did you have any meaningful interactions with youth today?” I later
analyzed their responses using Descriptive Coding and Emotion Coding. In
February, I returned to Mistissini and led a final focus group to seek feedback on
how participants felt the workshop had gone and what our next steps should be.
The questions for this can be found in Appendix G. I took detailed notes during
this focus group and later analyzed them using Emotion Coding and Evaluation
Coding. Finally, I conducted interviews with all of the participants who
participated in the full workshop using the questions in Appendix H. I took
detailed notes during the interviews and later analyzed them using Emotion
Coding and Evaluation Coding. I originally intended to repeat the questionnaire
from the Observation Stage during the Reflection Stage but chose not to do so
because the workshop did not address most of the topics covered in the
questionnaire and any change in participants’ confidence would likely have been
incidental rather than brought about by the workshop.

	During data analysis, Emotion Codes were arrived at deductively to track
emotions expressed by participants throughout the interviews, daily logs, focus

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groups, and workshop. Evaluation Codes were used inductively to track instances
where participants made comments that affirmed or critiqued the project.
Descriptive Codes were used inductively to analyze the activity logs and track
instances where participants reported positive or negative experiences with youth,
as well as instances where participants reported not having interacted with youth
and the general reason given (if any). If participants did not respond to my
message during daily logging, it was not coded or counted. I also used coding to
analyze my own experiences based on the interactions and reflective notes I
recorded. I took the same approach to Emotion and Evaluation Coding as I did for
participants. I used Descriptive Coding inductively to track instances that seemed
like important relational investments, as well as comments that suggested that
participants appreciated their relationship with me. For a more detailed
breakdown of the codes I used during analysis and how they were defined and
grouped, see Appendix I.

	I think that these methods were appropriate for the context and ministry
primarily because I was told by the Cree leaders and participants that they were. I
was assured at the beginning and repeatedly throughout the study that the plan
was good and the outcomes seem to bear this out. This validated my hope that
PAR and its accompanying methods were appropriate for Mistissini. The fact that
all of the methods were highly personal and centred on participants’ experience
also lines up with the fact that mentoring is a highly relational process and
depends on positive experiences to succeed. I would change the way that I

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collected certain forms of data, and will discuss this further in Findings,
Interpretations, and Outcomes, but the methods themselves were suitable. For a
full timeline of the project, see Appendix J.

	To ensure that this project was conducted ethically, I adhered to
requirements from the Tyndale Research Ethics Board and sought to follow the
principles in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Sinclair et al. 2015, 3)
and the guidelines for research involving the First Nations, Inuit and Metis
Peoples of Canada found in the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2 (2014).

	In order to reduce the power imbalance between myself and the
participants, I provided participants with detailed information about the research
and sought written consent at the beginning of the project and ongoing written or
verbal consent whenever data was collected. Participants were able to withdraw
from the project for any reason at any time, without reprisal. Sharing circles were
used to lead group discussions to ensure that everyone was given equal
opportunity to contribute. I also asked two Cree people—Carol and James—to be
part of the leadership team and consulted them concerning major decisions, as
well as regularly seeking feedback from them as leaders and project participants.
Group decisions were made by consensus. When I met with participants
one-on-one, I allowed them to choose the location and ensured that it was a
shared living space or public location. Group meetings were held in locations that
the participants were familiar with, and often included free food and beverages to
encourage a friendly atmosphere. I believe it was also advantageous that I was

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younger than most of the participants, which means that I did not command as
much natural respect as an older person would have due to the Cree deference
towards elders. Participants were made aware that if they had any concerns about
the project, they could speak with James and Carol, who had a preexisting trust
relationship with the participants.

	Because I am relatively young and do not live in Mistissini, most of the
participants do not regard me as their leader or pastor the way that they do with
James, Carol, and Paul. That being said, I believe my camp leadership and
relationship with Paul have garnered me some respect, so I wanted to be careful
about potential dual roles. At the beginning of the project, I laid out the roles that
each of our leaders were going to play, and specified that my role was the
researcher and encouraged participants to speak with James or Carol if they
needed pastoral care. Whenever participants did seek pastoral care from
me—which happened more frequently as the project progressed—I tried to
distinguish clearly between discussions that were related to the project and more
personal discussions. This was facilitated by the fact that during research
discussions, I took notes on my laptop and asked predetermined questions, which
made it clear that it was a formal discussion. I kept the other members of the
leadership team informed when I did have intimate personal conversations with
people and, when necessary, asked them to follow up with the individual to ensure
that they had the best possible care. I had no formal authority over any of the
participants beyond my role as a researcher so that was not an issue.

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	Although I have become quite familiar with Cree culture through ten years
of ministry and my formal studies, I recognized that my different culture brought
with it the possibility of unconscious bias towards participants. I sought to reduce
the potential effects of this by consulting with James and Carol regularly and
paying close attention to my emotional responses when interacting with
participants. When I had an unusually strong emotional reaction, I tried to record
it in my notes, and later spoke with James, Carol, and Paul about it. At the end of
the project I also analyzed my recorded responses to understand how the project
affected me personally.

	Because my work in the Cree communities was started independently and
supported by free will donations, I did not require special permission from my
employer to conduct this research. However, I did need approval from Tyndale’s
Research Ethics Board, and received it on March 8th, 2018. I also needed
approval from Mistissini’s chief and council, and received it via email on October
3rd, 2018. The latter came with the requirement that I report periodically to a
representative chosen by Chief Neeposh, which I have done.

Findings, Interpretations, and Outcomes

	The following section contains the results of my data analysis, beginning
with the data itself then proceeding to my interpretation of the data and what I
think the outcomes of the project are, based on those interpretations. See
Appendix K for a detailed breakdown of the various types of data that I collected,
how they were collected, when they were collected, who they were collected

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from, and how they were analyzed. For a more detailed breakdown of the codes I
used during analysis and how they were defined and grouped, see Appendix I.

Findings

	Table 1 shows the responses participants gave on the questionnaire from
Stage One of the project. Fourteen participants completed the questionnaire. The
first few questions were used to identify participants and have not been reported
for privacy’s sake. Question six was “How important do you think mentoring is?”
Question seven was “How well do you think you understand the topic of
mentoring?” Questions eight through twenty-five all began with “How confident
do you feel” and then asked about a specific aspect of mentoring youth based on
the most common issues the leadership team had faced while working with youth
in Mistissini. In each case, a response of one indicated very low
interest/confidence, while a score of five indicated very high interest/confidence.
All averages are rounded to the first decimal point. For the full questionnaire, see
Appendix B. Organizing the data this way is helpful for gaining a sense of how
participants felt about various aspects of mentoring at the start of the project.

Table 1: Questionnaire Responses
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Table 1 details. ]




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Table 1: Questionnaire Responses (Continued)
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Table 1 details. ]



	Figures 3-12 show how often codes appeared in different data sets. The
“items” along the horizontal axis are the codes I used. The numbers along the
vertical axis labelled “frequency” show how often each of these codes appeared. I
chose to list every code from the relevant coding method (eg. Emotion Coding),
even if some of the codes occurred zero times during that stage. This was done

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because at times, the lack of an emotion occurring contributed to my
interpretations, and it also made comparing the graphs easier. I chose these
particular graphs because of the role they play in my interpretations and suggested
outcomes. For more information on when each data set was collected and who it
included, see Appendix K. For a description of how I developed these codes, see
the Project, Methodology, and Methods section. For a complete list of the codes,
including definitions and total occurrences, see Appendix I.

Figure 3: Frequency of Emotion Codes from Stage One interviews
[Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 3 details. ]

	Figure 3 shows how often I identified various emotions being expressed
by participants during the interviews that took place during the Observation Stage.
This was helpful for gauging how participants felt about mentoring in their lives

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and community, which was the topic of the interviews. Twelve participants took
part in these interviews.

Figure 4: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from Stage One logs
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 4 details. ]

	Figure 4 shows how often participants reported negative, positive, or no
interactions with youth during logs in the Observation Stage. I also noted what
reason was given for a lack of interactions, be that no explanation, that they had
no opportunity, or that personal challenges were a greater priority. If participants
failed to respond on a given day, I did not count it under any of these categories.
These logs took place immediately before and after Christmas, which likely
negatively affected the number of reported interactions. Despite this, the coded
logs were helpful in determining how likely participants’ interactions with youth

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were to be positive or negative prior to the workshop. Twelve participants
contributed to these logs over nineteen days.

Figure 5: Frequency of Emotion Codes from Stage Two focus group
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 5 details. ]

	Figure 5 shows how often I identified various emotions being expressed
by participants during the focus group discussion at the beginning of the Planning
Stage. This was helpful in determining how participants felt about the findings
from the Observation Stage and my suggestion that participants teach one other in
the workshop, rather than bringing in outside speakers. Eight participants were
part of this focus group discussion.

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Figure 6: Frequency of Emotion Codes from workshop debrief
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 6 details. ]

	Figure 6 shows how often I identified various emotions being expressed
by participants in the conversation we had following the workshop that was
conducted during the Action Stage. This was helpful in determining the
immediate emotional effect of the workshop. Six participants were present for the
whole workshop and one arrived late.

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Figure 7: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from Stage Four logs
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 7 details. ]

	Figure 7 shows how often participants reported negative interactions,
positive interactions, or no interactions with youth during logs in the Observation
Stage. I also noted what reason was given for a lack of interactions, be that no
explanation, that they had no opportunity to do so, or that personal challenges
made mentoring a lower priority to them at that point. If participants failed to
respond on a given day, I did not count it under any of these categories. This was
helpful in determining how likely participants’ interactions with youth were to be
positive or negative following the workshop. Six participants contributed to these
logs over sixty days. The increased logging period was partly due to my travel
schedule and partly by design, to better account for Christmas.

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Figure 8: Frequency of Emotion Codes from Stage Four interviews and focus
group
[Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 8 details.]

	Figure 8 shows how often I identified various emotions being expressed
by participants during the interviews and focus group discussion that took place
during the Reflection Stage. This was helpful for determining how participants
felt about the workshop after applying their learning for a period of time. Eight
participants participated in the focus group discussion and Six participants
participated in the interviews.

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Figure 9: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from my interactions and
reflections in Stages One and Two
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 9 details. ]

	Figure 9 shows how often I identified interactions between myself and
participants that I regarded as affirmations of our relationship or relational
investments on my part, during the Observation and Planning Stages. This was
helpful in evaluating my sense that the project deepened my pastoral relationship
with participants.

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Figure 10: Frequency of Descriptive Codes from my interactions and
reflections in Stage Three and Four
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 10 details. ]

	Figure 10 shows how often I identified interactions between myself and
participants that I regarded as affirmations of our relationship or relational
investments on my part, during the Action and Reflection Stages. This was
helpful in evaluating my sense that the project deepened my pastoral relationship
with participants.

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Figure 11: Frequency of Emotion Codes from my interactions and reflections
in all data types
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 11 details. ]

	Figure 11 shows how often I identified various emotions being expressed
by myself in reflective comments I made in my field notes. This was helpful in
chronicling my own emotional journey as the one conducting the research.

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Figure 12: Frequency of Evaluation Codes from all participants and data
types
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 12 details. ]

	Figure 12 shows how often I identified comments that affirmed or
critiqued the project as it was designed, across all data sets. This was helpful in
determining the perceived success or failure of the project in participants’ eyes.

Interpretations

	Participatory Action Research (PAR) emerged out of work with
indigenous people (Stringer 2014, 277). Researchers have noted its effectiveness
for work involving indigenous people in a number of fields, including ministry
(Rempel 2014, 93), education (Hall et al. 2014, 4), health (Tsey et al. 2002, 279),
and even archaeology (Atalay 2012, 4). By empowering research participants to

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have their voices heard and contribute to decision making about what is done to
improve their community, the power differential between them and researchers is
reduced (Stringer 2014, 15). This is desirable in First Nations communities
because of the ongoing effects of the harm done to them historically. Alongside
this, researchers have noted the importance of accommodating indigenous
perspectives on change (Tuck 2009, 49) and identity (Brown and Strega 2005,
106) while conducting research. PAR makes it more likely that researchers will
take these into account. One study has also shown the effectiveness of taking a
participatory approach to designing workshops (Mittelmeier et al. 2018, 262-263).
With this in mind, I hoped that PAR would aid us in developing a
contextually-suitable mentoring workshop in Mistissini, which continues to suffer
from intergenerational trauma and its side effects despite its relative success as a
community. The findings suggest that it was.

	At the start of the project, my objective was to create a workshop that
could equip Cree adults to mentor youth as part of the ministry at Sonrise Camp.
My assumption at that point was that the reason why people were not already
mentoring youth was that they were unaware of the need or felt intimidated by the
task of mentoring. Because of this, my preliminary research question was “What
kind of training is required to increase Cree adults’ confidence in regards to
mentoring their youth?” During the first stage of the project, I recognized that my
initial assumption was wrong. This realization caused me to change what I viewed
as the most important distinctive to take into account in designing the training.

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Not only was a lack of confidence not the thing holding participants back, they
were not being held back at all: they were already actively engaged in mentoring
youth.

	The findings that led me to shift my focus are reflected in Table 1 and
Figures 3-5. Table 1 shows how fourteen participants responded to our initial
questionnaire, which was the first data I collected after recruiting people via word
of mouth and hosting an information session to orient them. The leadership team
and I designed the questionnaire based on the issues we had encountered while
working with youth in Mistissini. This was motivated in part by my assumption
that participants found certain aspects of mentoring intimidating. I hoped that
identifying these would allow us to select appropriate topics for the workshop.
Instead, participants reported a high level of confidence across the board. No
question had a median score lower than 4.5. The lowest average score was
question twenty-one, which read, “How confident do you feel about doing
activities with youth? (eg. hunting, fishing, sports, or making something
together).” Even this received an average score of 3.5, which indicates the group
was more confident than not in this regard. It is also noteworthy that this average
includes four participants who answered two out of five on this question. This
may have stemmed from a sentiment that some people expressed during
interviews: they wished they knew more about Cree traditional skills, which
includes hunting and fishing. Thus, overall, the questionnaire results show a
remarkably high level of confidence when it comes to mentoring youth.

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	This was also a theme throughout the Stage One interviews. Participants
shared painful experiences from their childhood and linked those experiences to
residential schools and other sources of intergenerational trauma. However, they
also talked about older people who were positive role models and met their
emotional, physical, and spiritual needs so they could overcome their hurt. For
some, these people were present when they were young, for others they were
teenagers or young adults before they had mentors, but in every case they had
someone they could clearly point to as this kind of positive figure. Figure 3 seems
to reflect this. It shows that pain was expressed frequently during these
interviews, and yet, positive emotions like hope, joy, and gratitude were expressed
more often than regret, fear, or anger. This suggests that participants’ mentors
assisted them in developing resilience and overcoming their trauma to a large
degree.

	Another contributing factor could be the participants’ faith, which was
manifest in participants’ comments that they forgave those who had hurt them and
their culture. Mentors played a critical role in this too, since most participants
attributed their faith to a mentor who modeled it for them. The fact that
participants had been successful at processing their past hurt may be part of the
reason why they demonstrated personal confidence so often, even as they
continued to acknowledge the complexity of the needs in their community and
express concern and uncertainty about how to resolve them. Participants also
clearly saw mentoring youth as a key part of addressing those needs. One

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participant, who volunteers with a church youth group, shared an image with me
that summed this conviction up beautifully. He told me that he had a dream in
which he was walking through the woods. As he went, he was carefully making a
path for others who came later to follow. He saw someone else race by without
taking the time to make a trail, but he continued his slow work. When he woke
up, he heard God tell him that this is the purpose of ministry: “You don’t have the
option of going off on your own, you must prepare a trail for others to follow.”
This was his motivation for serving with the youth group, and was reflected in
comments and stories shared by each and every participant.

	Alongside the overall confidence of participants, I began to realize that
they were exercising a range of different skills in their work with youth. This
made me wonder if they, instead of we, should be leading the workshop. I
recorded this thought when it first occurred to me following an interview:

	Four interviews into this I’m impressed at the range and depth of
	experience in this group. I also find it intriguing that the skills in the group
	complement each other well (James is a preacher, George is a planful
	discipler, Ruth is a caregiver and mother figure, Michael and Katherine
	teach traditional skills). Paul, James, and Carol have pointed us towards a
	lot of gifted and involved people. The thought has occurred to me that if
	the majority of the group continues to be this experienced and confident,
	perhaps we could take a slightly different approach to the training. Instead
	of Paul, Carol, and me doing the teaching, perhaps we could get the group
	to teach each other.

The remaining interviews confirmed this and I suggested the idea to Paul and
Carol before leaving Mistissini at the end of that first trip. They thought the idea
was interesting, so I returned home and reflected on it as I collected logs over the
next month. Unfortunately, the Stage One logs were poorly timed, as they started

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two weeks before Christmas and much of the community was already winding
down. Between shopping trips, family visits, and personal issues for certain
participants, not many meaningful interactions happened before the break. Some
participants even implied that this was the wrong time to be asking them to
contribute to a project, but while I might have caught the hints quickly in person,
it took me a while to pick up on them via text. Similarly, community activity took
a little while to resume in the new year, so for most of the time I had dedicated to
logging, people were not as active as they normally would be.

	Despite this, enough was reported to determine that the participants’
interactions with youth were much more likely to be positive than negative, as can
be seen in Figure 4. A question remained about how often those interactions were
happening, but given the confidence participants had expressed in the
questionnaire and interviews, I was convinced that the shift to equipping them to
teach one another was worth trying. I presented what I had observed thus far in a
focus group that January. I then asked the group further questions about how they
felt about mentoring. In it, participants again expressed a high level of confidence,
as seen in Figure 5, which shows that everything expressed during that
conversation was positive. At the end of the meeting, I presented the idea of
coaching participants to train each other. The group seemed excited by the novel
approach and unanimously agreed to try it.

	Nine participants expressed an interest in teaching. Over the summer, I
helped them develop lessons based on skills they were already practicing in their

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mentoring relationships. To do this, I created a simple lesson planning tool with
input from Carol, found in Appendix E. The topics that emerged included praying
with youth, showing love through acts of service, responding to crises, discussing
romantic relationships, connecting youth to community resources, working with
student leaders, and teaching traditional skills. One young man also agreed to
share his testimony as an illustration of the power of mentoring.

	After my fall trip was delayed, I was able to return to Mistissini in
November in order to lead the workshop. We invited participants to come to the
transit house Paul and I were staying in, set up a circle of chairs in the living
room, and placed refreshments on the dining room table. Then we found out that
five participants could not come because of unexpected events that day, so only
seven participated in the workshop. Because of the confusion this caused, the
workshop started late. Since most of the participants were not trained teachers,
they were visibly nervous as they presented, stuck closely to their lesson plan, and
talked for a shorter time than anticipated. One participant brought her daughter
and puppy with her, and another arrived late and brought her two grandsons, all of
which caused quite a bit of distraction. Despite all this, when we debriefed the
experience immediately afterwards, participants’ feelings were exclusively
positive, as shown in Figure 6. Participants also repeatedly expressed that taking
the peer learning approach was different but good, and that repeating it on a larger
scale would be worthwhile. One of the comments that was made then and
repeated in the Reflection Stage was that the most encouraging aspect of the

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workshop was hearing how much they were already doing as a group—something
they did not realize because they were all working independently and had never
come together to share what they were doing until this study.

	Following this, I initiated another round of activity logs with those who
participated in the full workshop. This time the logs started sooner and ended
later, which meant that the pause for Christmas did not have the same limiting
effect. The result is that even though there were only half the number of
participants reporting, the number of positive interactions was almost as high as in
the Stage One logs, as can be seen in Figure 7. The logs were also more reflective
of the participants’ normal lives, with many meaningful interactions stemming
from activities at the church, youth centre, or participants’ workplaces. Then I
returned to Mistissini and conducted a final focus group and second round of
interviews to discuss participants’ impression of the workshop and what our next
steps should be. Figure 8 shows the emotions that were expressed during these,
and again, positive emotions were significantly more prominent than negative
ones.

	A handful of comments illustrate the value of the peer-learning approach.
One participant said, “You encouraged us to see that we have the capacity and the
ability [to mentor youth.]” Another said, “This way somebody at my level is
teaching me something they know on a personal level, which made it that much
more meaningful and stuck with me more than a teacher teaching us beside the
powerpoint or something.” Speaking about how this workshop compared with

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others that she had been part of, another participant noted that most workshops
involve teachers saying, “Here’s what to do, now you’re on your own to do it,”
whereas she appreciated the consistent, ongoing follow-up that this project
involved. One participant also remarked that she had never considered that her
personal experiences could be used to teach others. Carol, who was on the
leadership team as well as a participant, also shared with me that she found the
research process beneficial because it required planning more carefully than she
or her fellow Crees typically do. The comments were not all simple
encouragement, however. A challenge was issued by another participant when he
said that the workshop made him ask, “How do we work together? Because we
are all working alone not as a team.” In his closing interview he would vocalize
this to me in a positive sense, saying that, “We need to come up with something
and come together and do something,” which has been motivating for me as we
plan next steps.

	It is also worth noting that the negative emotions that do appear in Figure
8 were not generally connected to participants’ perception of the research project.
Rather, during these final discussions, participants were more likely to tangent
from the interview questions to share about things taking place in their personal
lives, which sometimes included uncertainty, regret, and pain. This reflects
another phenomenon that I observed during the process and saw spelled out in the
data: my developing pastoral relationship with some of the participants. Although
I was careful to maintain the boundary between my researcher role and pastoral

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ministry—as described in the Ethics section—the fact that I was in such regular
contact with participants resulted in many opportunities to build trust. They began
to share about their personal lives and ask for dedicated pastoral meetings when I
was in the community. Even as I was writing this report, one of the participants
sent me an unprompted message to ask for prayer and advice, something that
would not have happened prior to this project.

	Although most of these interactions came outside of the formal interviews
and logs, there were enough meaningful interactions during formal conversations
that I decided to code them descriptively. Figure 9 shows that in the first two
stages of the project, I identified a number of moments that I suspect built trust
between me and a participant. Figure 10 shows that those moments continued in
Stage Three and Four but that alongside that, participants began to express that
they appreciated the role I played in their lives. During the final interviews, in
particular, there was often a link between participants’ positive comments on the
study and their appreciation of the support I offered them through personal
challenges. This was not something I anticipated at the outset, especially since I
was careful to frame my role as a researcher and keep communications about the
project professional. But it was encouraging to witness, as reflected in Figure 11,
which shows the emotions I attributed to myself when coding the interactions I
had with participants and reflective notes that I took. There were many moments
when I felt uncertain, and others when I felt fear, concern, or even pain, but far
more common were joyful experiences that increased my respect and gratitude for

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my Cree friends.

	With all this in mind, it appears that the project was a positive experience
for leaders and participants alike. This is reflected in Figure 12, which shows the
frequency of comments that participants made affirming or critiquing the study.
At first, I broke down the codes by earlier and later stages as I did with the
Emotion and Descriptive codes, but there was not much difference in the ratio of
positive to negative evaluations throughout the process. At every point,
participants tended to be positive about the study; what changed were the things
that they felt positive about. In the earlier stages they appreciated the opportunity
to share about their experiences and to work together on an important project. In
the later stages, they appreciated the novel approach I took in designing the
workshop and the things it helped them realize about themselves, as well as the
relationship that developed between them and me.

	The result is that participants expressed their appreciation for the project
seventy-five times, while offering critical feedback fifteen times, with many of the
critical comments being taken into account throughout the study or forming the
basis for our next steps. It is not surprising that the number of negative comments
was relatively small; Cree people tend to avoid direct criticism. However, when
they are disappointed, my experience is that they will withhold feedback
altogether instead of giving false praise. I asked Carol whether she thought this
observation and interpretation were reasonable and she thought they were. As
such, the fact that participants were so affirming throughout the process seems to

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confirm that the approach I took was good, and worth considering as a model for
future endeavours.

Outcomes

	Revisiting my original research question, I realize that although the path to
doing so was different than I anticipated, the workshop did increase participants’
confidence as mentors. Unlike what I assumed at the outset, however, this did not
happen by bringing in specialists to speak on the topics that Cree mentors found
intimidating. Instead, I recognized that this group of participants was already
actively mentoring youth and confident in their abilities. What they were lacking
was awareness of how much they were already doing throughout the community
as a group, and how that reflected on their ability to care for their youth. By
bringing them together, the project allowed them to learn from one another and
envision ways that they could collaborate instead of always working
independently. In this sense, it increased their confidence, not by shoring up their
weaknesses but by highlighting and building up their strengths.

	This project has also yielded a workshop that can be expanded and
repeated within the community, leveraging this group’s experiences to introduce
others to the concept of mentoring and share some of the skills that they have
learned. Alongside this, the Participatory Action Research cycle provides a
process for evaluating and improving the workshop over time. This is also true for
other elements of the mentoring project as it develops. Intentionally observing,
planning, acting, and reflecting should create a sense of ownership among

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participants and allow them to learn from successes and mistakes more
consistently than they would if decisions were simply left to the leaders. I am
already planning next steps with James, Carol, and Paul, with the intention of
building on the work participants are already doing so they can “come together
and do something,” as the one participant put it.

	The fact that this research project increased participants’ confidence as
mentors and produced a workshop that can be used to train new mentors in the
future means that it was a significant step forward in our objective of equipping
Cree adults to build relationships with and respond to the needs of their youth. It
also deepened my ministry relationship with the participants, in a way that the
camps never did because my focus was on the campers and volunteer leaders I
brought with me. I am enjoying keeping in touch with people since the end of the
study and look forward to seeing how those relationships develop in the months
and years to come. These are two positive outcomes from this process.

Conclusion and Implications

	In November 2018, I set out to identify what kind of training could equip
Cree adults to mentor their youth. I believed this required increasing their
confidence as they confronted complex issues within their relationships. Doing so
required accounting for the distinctives of our context. With this objective in
mind, I used Participatory Action Research (PAR) to observe what was already
taking place in the community, plan out a workshop, facilitate the workshop, and
reflect on the effects of the training. This involved participants filling out a

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questionnaire, going through interviews, logging their interactions with youth, and
discussing the project in group environments at different stages in the process. As
it turned out, because participants were recruited via word of mouth, those who
signed up were already sold on the concept and living it out. What they did not
realize was how much the others in the group were also doing. By shifting to a
peer-learning approach, participants were able to appreciate one another in a new
way and envision a future where they work together to walk alongside youth in
their community. This also resulted in a workshop that can be repeated and
refined to train mentors in the future. As such, although the process did not unfold
as I expected, my hoped-for outcomes were met and surpassed. PAR made it
possible for me to take into account the distinctives of the context and create a
workshop that increased participants’ confidence, and can be used to equip
mentors in the future.

	I expect this project to benefit the ministry in a number of ways. First, the
workshop can be expanded and repeated with other Cree adults so they can learn
about mentoring from their peers. Alongside this, the participants are eager to
work together on further mentoring projects, and the PAR process provides a
framework for defining and evaluating those next steps. Finally, the project
deepened my relationship with the participants because of the abundant
opportunity it presented for me to listen to and communicate with them. These
outcomes serve as an example of the good that can come from using PAR to lead
change in First Nations ministries.

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	This is also useful to me personally. It taught me the value of PAR and
other communal discernment processes. Even as this project was unfolding, I was
able to take lessons learned from it and apply them to my other ministry settings. I
believe that I am called to lead intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation,
and doing so is facilitated by inviting groups of people to slow down and listen to
each other so they can see what is actually taking place in their midst. This also
ensures that historic power imbalances are reduced. Because I defined my role as
a researcher and focused on facilitating group learning, I was able to partner with
my Cree friends rather than making decisions for them. I also found the rigour
required by the data analysis beneficial, because it forced me to take detailed
notes, revisit them, and study them closely to maximize my learning. Although I
doubt that I will be able to invest this much time and energy into projects all the
time, I have learned why it is advantageous to do so when you can. These are just
a couple of the ways that I have grown personally as a result of this project.

	I believe this project is also useful as a Case Study for others who wish to
enhance their ministry to indigenous people. PAR makes it possible for leaders to
work more in step with the community’s needs and empowers community
members to participate in the decisions that affect them. This is necessary as
indigenous people recover from the harm that was done to them. Alongside this,
because PAR begins with observing what is taking place within the community, it
by design allows leaders to account for the differences between contexts, which is
important since every indigenous community is distinct. Although it would vary

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from place to place, I also suspect that there are many indigenous communities
where, like Mistissini, a great deal of good is being done already, but it is hard for
locals to see because they are so used to deferring to outside specialists. In
situations where this is the case, PAR may allow people to see more clearly the
gifts and opportunities that they have, which surely lines up with the Apostle
Paul’s call for Christian leaders to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

	In general, I recommend that Christian leaders learn to pay closer attention
to the experiences and abilities of their followers, as a means of evaluating and
enhancing their ministries. PAR is a good tool for doing so, although its
implementation will need to vary and other communal discernment processes may
be more suitable for contexts that differ a great deal from mine, such as large
churches with a top-down leadership structure. It is worth noting that all of this
assumes a preexisting ministry that is being strengthened. Although PAR could be
useful in starting a new ministry, my experience was shaped by the fact that I
already had a relationship with some of the participants and others trusted me
because of my relationship with Carol, James, and Paul. As such, I can only speak
to PAR’s effects as a tool for strengthening a ministry, not starting a new one.

	This project has, of course, left some questions unanswered and raised
some new ones.

	First, I wonder what kind of training would benefit the average Cree adult
in Mistissini. Because the study ended up involving a highly engaged group of

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participants, the content of the workshop was less important to them than it would
have been for most people. I think the topics were good, and I suspect that hearing
from people within the community will be equally encouraging to less-engaged
individuals, but different teaching methods and topics may be necessary to benefit
a different demographic.

	Second, I wonder what the next steps should be beyond the workshop
itself. I am beginning to discuss those next steps with James, Carol, and Paul, and
some good suggestions have already emerged. However, I want to make sure that
what happens next builds on this study’s findings, including the importance of
involving community members in decision making and evaluation. This will be
especially relevant if a formal mentorship program emerges, because it will not
only be the mentors who are affected but the youth, too, and paying attention to
their experiences will be key to its success.

	Finally, I wonder how this process would translate to other environments,
in part because it may have relevance to my other ministry contexts. As I said
before, I have already begun using communal discernment processes in my other
work with students and First Nations people; might there be a time when
something as rigorous as this study would be beneficial? If so, what would be the
appropriate time and manner to initiate it? Another question is how this process
would have worked with a more religiously diverse group, since the participants’
Christianity may contribute to their resilience and perspective on mentoring. I am
sure that other questions will emerge over time, but these are the ones that occur

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to me now.

T	here are two changes I would make if I were to do this project again. The
first is that I would time things differently, so the research began earlier in the fall
and there was more time before Christmas to collect data. This was not our
original plan, and the fact that circumstances forced us to start so close to
Christmas dampened our initial round of logs, which makes it hard to gauge
whether there was any change in people’s behaviour between the beginning and
end of the project.

	The second change is that I would have reduced the logging frequency.
Daily was too much for the relaxed pace of life in Mistissini, and it created a false
sense of pressure. Because of this, the logs were the only aspect of the project that
seemed to make participants uncomfortable. I suspect that asking for logs once or
twice a week would have provided a satisfactory amount of data, while reducing
that sense of pressure. I also recognize that at the start of the project I made a
major assumption in thinking that it was the challenges of mentoring Cree youth
that needed to be addressed in the training. Although I do not think it hindered the
project, since I was able to adjust my expectations fairly quickly, this has taught
me how important it is to avoid assuming and ask good questions. It would have
been easy for me to focus narrowly on that original vision and miss the
opportunity to empower these capable mentors to teach one another.

	Finally, it would probably have been ideal for me to be in the community
more often throughout the project. Part of the reason it took as long as it did is

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because I could only go two or three times during the school year. If I had been
able to increase that to five or six, it might have made communication more
consistent and kept up the momentum so I could accomplish the project sooner.
Again, in the end I do not think this detracted much from the outcomes, but it is
worth keeping in mind for future endeavours.

	Altogether I am pleased with how this project turned out. It was a good
learning experience for me and the others who were involved. I will be using PAR
and other communal discernment processes more regularly in my ministry, and
recommend that other Christian leaders consider doing the same.

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CHAPTER 5:
PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

	The following is my Philosophy of Christian Leadership. It was written in
April 2020 and reflects the contributions that the DMin program and my research
project made to my thinking. Because of this, despite the fact that I have edited it
to reduce redundancy, a number of details from the prior documents are repeated,
in a manner that facilitates my reflections on leadership.

Introduction

	The Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program has provided me with ample
opportunity to reflect on what I believe about Christian leadership. It has forced
me to wrestle with the question of what leadership is, how Christian leadership
differs from other forms of leadership, what God has called me to do as a
Christian leader, and how I can best fulfill that calling. In my Philosophy of
Leadership, I would like to consider each of these in turn. I will first argue that
leadership is a social phenomenon in which individuals take initiative, influencing
others to achieve an impact. Then I will present the case that Christian leadership
aims to glorify the Father by submitting to the Spirit and emulating the Son,
which is what makes it distinctly Christian. After this, I will share how my
upbringing, education, and ministry experiences have led to my sense that I am

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called to lead intercultural and intergenerational reconciliation. Finally, I will
share why I view communal discernment processes as a core part of how I carry
out that calling. Together, these elements make up my understanding of leadership
on a general and personal level. Ultimately, my philosophy of leadership is to lead
intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation using communal discernment
processes. To work towards this conclusion, I will begin by providing a general
definition of leadership.

Defining Leadership

	I believe that leadership is a social phenomenon in which individuals take
initiative, influencing others to achieve an impact. This definition is a revised
synopsis provided during our course on the Theory, Theology, and Art of
Leadership (Krause 2018). It covers a number of different branches of leadership
theory, each of which seeks to understand a different aspect of leadership. As
such, I am going to consider each of the different elements of this definition. I
will address the fact that leadership is a social phenomenon, is carried out by
individuals with particular traits, involves taking initiative and influencing others,
and is conducted with a desired impact in mind.

Leadership is a Social Phenomenon

	The fact that leadership is a social phenomenon seems self-evident and yet
it does not tend to feature heavily in leadership literature. Historically, leadership
thinking tends to focus on the individual who leads, but individuals do not exist in

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a vacuum (Harkiolakis 2017, loc 268). There is always a set of circumstances that
leads to them having the capacity and opportunity to lead, and these
circumstances are largely, though not entirely, social in nature (Harkiolakis 2017,
loc 323).

	The social dynamics that shape a leader exist on multiple levels. One is the
broad context into which a leader is born. Inevitably, a leader’s context shapes his
or her values and opportunities. For example, a woman born in ancient China or
renaissance England would have been afforded different opportunities than if she
were born in twenty-first century France. A person’s lineage and social
development plays a similar role. One’s friends, family, and neighbourhood all
contribute to one’s development, which will in turn shape one’s capacities and
possibilities. Someone born to poor parents can remain poor or become a
self-made millionaire, but he or she cannot inherit a fortune. Finally, the
immediate social situation of a leader also plays an important role in shaping him
or her. Leadership in a Fortune 500 company requires a different skillset than
leading a declining rural church, and the people in each of those contexts will,
consciously or unconsciously, turn to a certain kind of person to provide that
leadership. None of these assertions is to suggest that individuals cannot
overcome the challenges presented by their context, development, or immediate
surroundings, but simply that those challenges shape them and their leadership
(Harkiolakis 2017, loc 305). Leadership is a social phenomenon.

	The implication of this is that understanding leadership cannot be divorced

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from understanding human beings on a more general level. Social sciences inform
our understanding of how groups function, which will shape the kind of leaders
they produce and demand. Biology teaches us about the role that genetics play in
a person’s personality and skills. Psychology informs our understanding of how
individuals are shaped by their experiences, including the role that their families
and communities play in this. Philosophy raises theoretical questions that can
shape how leadership is conducted. Theology calls attention to the fact that God
has a purpose for humanity and its leaders. Even the arts have a role to play in
understanding leadership, since they encourage us to grapple with existential
realities on a deeper level than direct communication. Although it is impossible
for an individual leader to understand all of these fields deeply, the study of
leadership inevitably involves each of them.

Leadership is Carried Out by Individuals

	If the social element of leadership has been under-studied, the opposite is
true of the study of individual leaders. Historically, the kind of individual who
makes a good leader has been the primary focus of leadership literature. Even if it
has been given too much relative attention, it is true that leadership is carried out
by individuals. Even when leadership takes place in teams, each individual plays a
role in how it unfolds. Because of this, understanding leadership requires
understanding the individuals who lead. Trait theory, probably the oldest branch
of leadership thought, seeks to do this by considering what traits make an ideal
leader (Northouse 2016, 29).

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	Although there is a fair amount of fluctuation across time and cultures,
there are certain traits which appear repeatedly, including charisma, ambition,
teachability, integrity, and wisdom (Northouse 2016, 30-31). Leaders and their
followers need to be able to identify whether they have these traits and how to
develop them over time. The term character is often used as shorthand for these
desirable traits (Banks and Ledbetter 2004, 97). Leadership occurs when
charactered individuals are able to develop leadership skills and capitalize on the
opportunities presented by their context. Leadership is carried out by individuals.

Leadership Involves Taking Initiative
and Influencing Others

	Another branch of leadership literature focuses on the skills required to
lead (Northouse 2016, 56). These skills fall into two broad categories: taking
initiative and influencing others. The latter is what we generally refer to when we
say that someone is leading; leaders get people to do something that they would
not otherwise. However, prior to performing this essential task, leaders must first
become motivated to do something that others do not care to do. They must take
initiative or, put in other words, they must lead themselves (Brown 2015, loc
192). As such, these two skills are two sides of the same coin, one inward-focused
and the other outward-focused, but both essential for leadership to take place.
Leadership involves individuals taking initiative and influencing others.

	Taking initiative is closely connected with the character of the leader, and
many of the skills associated with it are also associated with character

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development. Leading oneself is a matter of being disciplined about pursuing
health in one’s private life, moral decisions, relationships, and work (Brown 2015,
loc 571). A great deal of Christian leadership literature has this focus. These
books recognize the value of intrinsic motivation, which requires cultivating a
sense of calling (Guinness 2003, 8). It requires healthy habits and continuous
introspection, so that one’s strengths can be maximized and weaknesses
minimized (Scazzero 2015, 55). Leaders must be active learners, seeking out
wisdom from others so they can be equipped to fulfill their mandate, while at the
same time being conscious of how their communities shape them so they can
remain self-differentiated (Barton 2012, 128).

	Leaders must also recognize their own limits and pace themselves so they
can lead sustainably, while being willing to challenge false limits that may be
imposed on them by others or themselves (Palmer 1999, 410). They also
recognize their capacity for evil and the need to address the root causes for
problematic behaviour (Mangis 2011, loc 100). They seek to cultivate private and
group disciplines that aid in the process of discerning what is truly good (Barton
2012, 206). They prioritize their closest relationships as essential to their
wellbeing (Scazzero 2015, 87). All of this falls under the category of leading
oneself or taking initiative, and shapes the way that leaders, Christian or
otherwise, should carry out their responsibilities. Although all of these skills are
inward-focused, it is worth noting that they also play a role in influencing others
because people learn through modelling, and as such, what leaders do will be

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observed and imitated by their followers (Brown 2015, loc 192).

	When the time comes for a leader to influence others, a number of
approaches can be taken, each requiring a slightly different skillset. Leadership
exchange theory views the relationship between leaders and their followers as
mutually beneficial, focusing on the way that leaders and followers negotiate their
needs and ultimately benefit one another (Northouse 2016, 137-139). Situational
leadership emphasizes the role that the leader plays in directing and supporting his
or her followers to motivate them to grow (Northouse 2016, 217). Path-goal
theory focuses on leaders setting goals and equipping their followers to achieve
them (Northouse 2016, 267). Authentic leadership focuses on earning followers’
trust by building intimate relationships (Northouse 2016, 430). Finally,
transformational leadership focuses on the role a leader plays as a catalyst for
change (Northouse 2016, 161-163). The latter has been the most influential in
popular leadership literature. According to transformational leadership theory,
leading change requires guiding people to envision a better future (Nelson and
Dickens 2015, 71), pressuring them enough to keep them motivated (Heifetz and
Linsky 2017, loc 1783), and developing the group’s internal capacity so they can
achieve the desired outcome (Heifetz and Linsky 2017, loc 2017). Leading
change in this way is a common enough challenge that models have been
developed to provide leaders with a framework for doing so (Kotter and
Rathgeber 2006).

	Christian theorists have also called attention to a distinctly Christian

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approach to leadership called servant leadership, which considers the example
Jesus set and challenges the way that leaders often wield their power, focusing
instead on influencing others by putting their needs first and earning their trust
(Northouse 2016, 496). These different approaches to influencing others are not
mutually exclusive. There are times when a transformational leader will need to
resort to transactional methods, and servant leaders can still gain something by
earning the trust of their followers as per leadership exchange theory. However,
each approach will prioritize certain aspects of leadership over time, and as such
they may be more suitable for particular leaders or contexts. Regardless of one’s
preferred approach, however, a leader by definition influences others to do what
they would not otherwise.

Leadership Aims to Achieve an Impact

	Finally, having acknowledged the importance of a leader’s social context,
character, and skills, it is important to recognize the teleological aspect of
leadership. Leadership always has an aim. It serves some sort of a purpose within
the community in which it takes place. Wielding power without an end in mind is
not the same as leadership (Northouse 2016, 41). A sociopath takes initiative and
influences others but rarely with any objective besides his or her narrow
self-interest. Leaders, on the other hand, have a vision for what their community
can become and try to lead in a way that maximizes the possibility that that vision
will become reality. Within an organization the primary leader’s task is to “clarify
the mission, keep the institution on mission, and assure that all new personnel

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believe in the mission” (Smith 2015, 46). Leaders do what they do in order to
achieve an impact.

	To acknowledge the fact that leadership is teleological in nature raises the
question of ethics, since ethics is rooted in teleology. Is there such a thing as an
objectively good or bad leadership objective, and if so, how do good and bad
objectives relate to our tendency to label leaders as good or bad themselves?
Although there are some commonalities that span ethical frameworks and most
people would agree that leaders should be ethical (Northouse 2016, 496), it is
inevitable that there will be some—perhaps substantial—variance in what leaders
regard as good based on their personal views and context. As such, I think that
understanding leadership as a general phenomenon requires treating the
teleological aspect of leadership and its ethical dimension separately.

	Teleologically, a “good leader” is simply one who successfully guides his
or her community towards a more desirable state. In this sense, goodness and
effectiveness are synonymous; a good leader is one who achieves a desired
impact. However, this leader may still be regarded as ethically bad based on the
evaluator’s worldview. As such, the wording “to achieve an impact” is suitable for
a general definition. It does not delve into whether that impact is good or bad,
although presumably the leader thinks it is when he or she pursues it. When it
comes to Christian leadership specifically, of course, ethics inevitably plays a
larger role.

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Conclusion

	In summary, leadership is a social phenomenon in which individuals take
initiative, influencing others to achieve an impact. This general definition
provides a foundation for my philosophy of leadership, but is insufficient in and
of itself because it does not adequately reflect how I personally seek to lead. To
understand that requires defining Christian leadership over and against other
forms of leadership and then considering what God has called me to do personally
and how I can effectively accomplish that. I will now seek to answer the first of
these questions: what sets Christian leadership apart?

Defining Christian Leadership

	Having provided a general definition of leadership, it is important to
acknowledge that I am a Christian, which shapes the way that I understand my
task as a leader. Although there are many ways in which Christian leadership is
unique, the source of that uniqueness is the relationship we have with the triune
God. In this sense, Christian leadership is distinct in the same way that other
aspects of the Christian life are distinct. My summary of the relationship that all
Christians, and, consequently, all Christian leaders are supposed to have with
God, is that they should seek to glorify the Father by submitting to the Spirit and
emulating the Son. Framed as questions, these criteria form an ethical framework
that shapes the objectives and means of Christian leadership: “Does this glorify
the Father,” “Does this line up with what the Spirit seems to be doing here,” and

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“Does this resemble how Jesus himself would lead?” I would like to consider
each of these and how they apply to leadership in turn.

Christian leaders should aim to glorify the Father

	The Christian worldview begins with the understanding that God has
existed eternally as a self-contained community that we call the Trinity—three
beings who are distinct as persons but united in their essence (Aquinas 2002, 35).
Within the Trinity, God the Father is viewed as the ultimate initiator or the
“unmoved mover” (Aquinas 2002, 9). Even the other two members of the Trinity
owe their existence to him despite the fact that they too have existed eternally
(Aquinas 2002, 37). With this in mind, it is the Father who receives primary credit
for initiating the creation of the cosmos and everything in it. The Father’s motive
in creating the cosmos is to glorify himself—that is, to allow others to experience
his goodness. In this sense, everything is created by the Father for the sake of
glorifying himself (Piper 2001, 27). Sometimes the notion that God aims to
glorify himself is pitted against the idea that God created the world out of love,
but this is a false dichotomy. Since God is good, the most loving thing he can do
is to share that goodness with others, and, in sharing that goodness with others his
goodness is recognized. Thus, the Father’s intention of glorifying himself
throughout creation is itself loving (Piper 2001, 36-37).

	In the creation narrative, human beings are given a special role in line with
that purpose. God created human beings in his image (Genesis 1:27). Historically,
this has been viewed as a reference to unique human traits, including our capacity

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for relationships with God and one another, but contemporary theologians also
view it as a reference to our role as God’s representatives within creation
(Wenham 1987, 173-180). We were intended to rule over and care for creation in
the same way that he would (Wright 2006, 425). In order to achieve this, we were
created with capacities that other animals were not, including relationality and
what Christians refer to as “free will,” which is not so much absolute freedom in
decision-making as a choice to follow or resist God’s will (Augustine 2002, 202).
In this sense, God’s intention in creating human beings was to have lesser partners
in creating and caring for the cosmos. For this reason, Christians generally agree
that people play a special role in the Father’s plan to glorify himself. We are
unique among earthly creatures in our ability to consciously recognize the
Father’s goodness and to emulate that goodness in the way that we live (Wright
2006, 422). This is what we were created for.

	That being said, because the original human beings rejected God out of
fear and pride and set in motion a pattern that we would be beholden to (Mangis
2011, 105), our lives no longer fulfill their original purpose as fully as they
should. Rather than glorifying the Father we fall into idolatry, worshiping other
things that we think will satisfy us (Keller 2009, xix-xx). But instead of
abandoning us or destroying us, the Father chose to rescue us by initiating a
covenantal relationship with Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites (Wright
2006, 199). In Genesis 12:3, God declares to Abraham that “all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.” He revealed his glory throughout his relationship

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with them and, through them, brought his Son into the world, “ushering in the age
in which all the nations will be blessed” (Wenham 1987, 283). Following Jesus’
life, death, resurrection, and ascension, his earliest followers began to call people
from all people groups to glorify the Father by following his Son (Acts 10:34-43).
In this sense, those who choose to follow Jesus turn away from their idols and
fulfill their original purpose of glorifying the Father and, in so doing, experience a
renewed relationship with him, one another, and the cosmos (Wright 2006, 313).
This is the aim of the Christian life, and our desire, like God’s, should be for all
people to be saved this way (1 Timothy 2:3-4).

	How does this relate to Christian leadership? The primary effect is
teleological. As I argued above, all leadership has an aim. Leaders seek to achieve
an impact within their communities. However, the aims of the Christian leader
can never be divorced from the Father’s purpose of glorifying himself by
restoring humanity and creation to its original goodness. Christian leaders will
certainly have differing motives and objectives based on their particular contexts,
but they are motivated and constrained by the overarching mission of God.
Because of this, Christian leadership cannot simply be evaluated based on its
effectiveness in achieving an anticipated impact, it must also be evaluated based
on whether it glorifies the Father.

	As such, for the Christian leader, the teleological and ethical dimensions of
leadership are inseparable. Christian leadership is only good if it conforms to a
higher standard. The church is intended to serve as a “sign, instrument, and

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foretaste of God’s redeeming grace for the whole life of society” (Newbigin 1989,
232). There are many passages that summarize what this entails. Perhaps the most
well-known is the “great commandment,” to love God with your whole being and
to love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40), but the one I turn to most
often is Micah 6:8, which reads: “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what
does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God?” I will return to the topic of social justice at a later point,
but for now it is worth highlighting that this synopsis contains three elements:
creating a just society; providing for one another’s physical, emotional, and
spiritual needs; and humbly acknowledging God’s goodness (Baker et al 1989,
245). In other words, Christians—including and especially their leaders—should
seek to glorify the Father in the things they say and do, individually and
communally, so the world might come to know him too.

Christians leaders should submit to the Spirit

	Although traditionally the second person of the Trinity is the Son, in
scripture the Spirit of God makes an appearance long before there are even hints
of the Son’s existence. The first biblical reference to the Spirit is found in Genesis
1:2, which states that “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was
over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the
waters.” This suggests that the Spirit played an essential role in ordering the
cosmos according to the Father’s plan, almost as if he is incubating an egg about
to hatch (Wenham 1987, 17). Throughout the remainder of scripture, the Spirit

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shows up frequently and in a variety of ways, but always towards this same end:
to enact the Father’s plan within the world. Most often, this occurs via the Spirit
doing something that enables people to live in a godly manner. This includes
empowering people to create sacred objects (Exodus 35:30-34), prophesy (1
Samuel 10:9-13), exercise wisdom (Ephesians 1:17), see visions (Revelation
1:9-11), interpret dreams (Daniel 4:18), preach (Acts 4:8), confront sin (Acts
5:1-11), and endure suffering (Acts 7:54-60). The Old Testament also contains a
number of promises that God would “pour out his Spirit” on people en masse,
which the New Testament authors describe following Jesus’ ascension. Jesus
himself is also described as operating in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke
4:14-15).

	All of this shows that the Spirit plays an important role in God’s purpose
being fulfilled among people. Notably, the Bible also shows that the Spirit
empowers individuals to lead God’s people (Numbers 11:17). Ephesians 4:11
even contains a list of leadership roles within the early church that Paul saw as
being a gift from Christ, notably made possible by the Spirit that unites God’s
people as one so they can grow to be more like him (Mitton 1973, 151). In other
words, godly leadership is made possible by the Holy Spirit.

	Despite the myriad of functions that the Spirit plays throughout scripture,
it would appear that human beings bear some responsibility for the way that they
respond to him. There are a number of dire warnings throughout scripture against
“grieving the Spirit” (eg. Ephesians 4:30), and a handful of individuals serve as

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examples of what happens when this takes place, including Saul, who is rejected
as king and tormented by an evil spirit (1 Samuel 16:14), and Ananias and
Sapphira, who are struck dead for their deceit (Acts 5:1-11). The reverse is also
true, however: there are great promises for those who walk in step with the Spirit
and many examples of the positive transformation that takes place when people
do, including David, whose willingness to listen to God differentiates him from
Saul and his brothers (1 Samuel 16:7) and results in God promising him an eternal
dynasty (2 Samuel 7), and Paul, who goes from Christianity’s greatest foe to one
of its greatest advocates (Acts 9).

	As such, it appears that people are responsible for submitting to the Holy
Spirit. Doing so allows a person to glorify the Father joyfully, whereas refusing to
do so means serving as a cautionary tale. This is summed up beautifully in
Romans 12:1-2, which says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is
the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

	How does this relate to Christian leadership? It reveals something of the
mechanics of how godly leadership takes place. If Christian leaders want to
glorify the Father, they need to be alert to the Spirit’s activity, in their own lives
and in the community around them, so that they can give themselves over to it.
This requires developing spiritual discernment, which is facilitated by a practice

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of listening prayer (Nouwen 2013, 5). It also requires robust self-awareness, since
it is easy to be deceived by bad guidance and harmful messages (Nouwen 2013,
23). This is especially true when you have failed to address a pattern of sin or
woundedness, both of which make it significantly more difficult to identify what
the Spirit is doing in a given circumstance (Nouwen 2013, 126). This, too, is
facilitated by a practice of listening prayer (Nouwen 2013, 24), as well as
surrounding oneself with true friends who enable us to see God more clearly
(Nouwen 2013, 72). When decisions will have a significant impact on a
community, it is also important to guide them through the process of discerning
what the Spirit is doing (Scazzero 2015, 188), a topic which I will cover in more
detail later. This helps individual leaders know whether they are discerning God’s
will correctly and also unifies and promotes greater ownership within the
community. All of this enables “waiting on a God who waits on us” (Nouwen
2013, 8). Submitting to the Spirit allows leaders to glorify the Father.

Christian leaders should emulate the Son

	What does submitting to the Spirit in order to glorify the Father look like
in practice? Understanding this requires understanding the life, death,
resurrection, and ascension of the Son. In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches that
he is the perfect portrait of the Father (Carson 1991, 494). This is the practical
outworking of the incarnation—the belief that Jesus of Nazareth was God in the
flesh—which is a major theme throughout John’s Gospel (Carson 1991, 95).
Everything Jesus did and taught further revealed God’s goodness, to such a degree

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that when Jesus’ disciples asked him to show them the Father he responded by
asserting that “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Scripture
also states that Jesus’ ministry was empowered by the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14-15).
Given these two claims, I believe that Jesus models what every Christian aims for
when he or she tries to submit to the Spirit in order to glorify the Father.

	Obviously there are too many things that Jesus taught and did to consider
them all in a single paper. Christians have been studying Jesus’ life for millennia
and still glean new things from doing so. However, certain themes are worth
highlighting because of their relevance to the topic of leadership. The focus of
Jesus’ ministry was the poor and disenfranchised members of his community. He
began his work in rural Palestine and offered hope to those who were suffering
because of economic exploitation (King 2016, 14). He lived alongside those
people and often put his own reputation and wellbeing at risk to serve them (King
2016, 152). He also spent time with people regarded as sinful or traitorous by
mainstream Judaism (King 2016, 116-117). When religious leaders challenged
him on these decisions, he stated that they, not he, were out of line with God’s
will (King 2016, 119). Ultimately, these repeated confrontations led to him being
crucified because of the threat he posed to their power (Wright 2006, 310).

	Despite this, Jesus also expressed love and forgiveness for the leaders that
turned against him (Luke 19:41-44). He taught his followers that they, too, should
love their enemies (Matthew 5:44) and stopped them when they sought to defend
him using violence (Matthew 26:47-56). He made it clear that he had the authority

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to put an end to the religious leaders’ opposition but would die willingly to
prevent them from facing divine judgment. He also predicted that God would
validate him by raising him from the dead, which he did. Jesus spent his whole
life surrendering power in order to demonstrate his love for people, and he
expected his followers to do the same. Given the oppression that he and his
followers faced, this message of forgiveness would have been scandalous in a
way that is hard to appreciate for those of us who are relatively wealthy and
powerful (King 2016, 69).

	What does this have to do with Christian leadership? It establishes servant
leadership as the standard for Jesus’ followers. The concept of servant leadership
was not new with Jesus; throughout the Old Testament leaders are referred to as
servants because they serve God (Bell 2014, loc 741). Servant leadership stands in
contrast with “power leadership” (Bell 2014, 761). It holds that leaders should
influence others by earning their trust through service rather than demanding
adherence through coercion. It hinges on a paradox that Jesus teaches: “Everyone
who exalts himself [sic] will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself [sic]
will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). As Jesus demonstrates, the most powerful means of
earning people’s trust is intentional sacrificial love (Bell 2014, loc 4023).

	What this means is that Christian leaders should welcome meaningful
opportunities to put their followers’ needs ahead of their own. Note the careful
way that I have phrased this. Sometimes, the concept of “sacrificial love” is
misused by leaders to justify total disregard for their own needs. This is not what

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Jesus modeled in his ministry. He took time away from his work (Luke 5:16),
spent time with friends (Luke 10:38-42), and avoided physical harm most of the
time (Luke 4:30). When Jesus practiced sacrificial love, it was always intentional.
He risked his health and reputation to touch lepers (Luke 17:11-19), visited tax
collectors’ homes (Luke 5:27-32), and let women learn alongside men (Luke
10:38-42) because he knew these were things they had been denied. In the same
way he allowed the religious leaders to kill him when the time was right (Matthew
26:46) so that they and others might recognize it as a willing act of forgiveness.
These were all meaningful opportunities that Jesus seized on, not idle disregard
for his own needs. Only when you have the ability to say no do you have the
ability to demonstrate sacrificial love (Cloud and Townsend 2012, 51).

	Although this kind of love is costly to the leader in the immediate sense, in
the long-term it earns him or her loyalty and allows his or her leadership to
transform people in a way that coercion cannot (Bell 2014, 7521). Christian
leaders should also be mindful of the ways in which coercion harms people within
their immediate and broader context and do what they can to push back against
coercion and empower those who are oppressed (Keller 2010, 127). This, too, will
be costly for the leader, since it will inevitably require confronting sinful leaders
and social structures, but as Jesus and his earliest followers showed, God is
glorified when leaders and their communities treat people better than the society
around them (Keller 2010, 140). Christian leaders should submit to the Spirit and
emulate the Son in order to glorify the Father.

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Conclusion

	In summary, Christian leadership can never be divorced from God’s
purpose for humanity. Christian leaders should aim to glorify the Father by
submitting to the Spirit and emulating the Son. Defining Christian leadership this
way yields questions that I use to evaluate my leadership: “Does this glorify the
Father,” “Does this line up with what the Spirit seems to be doing here,” and
“Does this resemble how Jesus himself would lead?” By embracing this ethical
framework, I hope to contribute to the transformation of the communities in
which I serve, so they can be a sign, instrument, and foretaste of God’s kingdom.
However, my philosophy of leadership is also shaped by my personal walk with
God and the desire to fulfill my calling effectively. With this in mind, I will now
consider how my context and experiences have shaped my sense of calling.

Describing My Calling

	In order to fulfill my mandate as a Christian leader, I believe that I am
called to lead intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation. I have reached this
conclusion primarily by allowing God to tell me who I am through my life
experiences (Palmer 1999, loc 78). I benefited from intergenerational and
intercultural interactions growing up, sensed a call to extend the same kind of
ministry to others as a young adult, and have developed experience in these areas
through my ministry work and studies over the past ten years. Perhaps most
importantly, I believe that this ministry addresses prominent needs within our

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culture and have sought to develop a deeper understanding of how my calling and
context relate over the past few years.

The role of my upbringing

	My upbringing made a ministry of intercultural reconciliation possible by
cultivating an openness towards other cultures. Although I was born in a rural
community west of Toronto, I was raised primarily in Ottawa throughout the
1990s and early 2000s. Although I did not know it at the time, I grew up in the
midst of the global diaspora that has led to so much visible change within our
culture over the past few decades (Krause et al 2018, loc 171). This was reflected
in my neighbourhood and school, both of which were on the outskirts of the city
in an area that attracted many waves of new Canadians over the course of my
childhood. I also had a mother who enjoyed learning about other cultures and an
evangelical upbringing that taught that all people are equal in God’s eyes.

	Despite this, my experience with other cultures was mostly on a surface
level. The result is that I was raised with what the Intercultural Development
Index refers to as a “minimization” mindset: “Minimization highlights
commonalities in both human Similarity (basic needs) and Universalism
(universal values and principles) that can mask a deeper understanding of cultural
differences” (“IDI General Information” 2020). The effect is that I would need to
develop my awareness and acceptance of other cultures down the road, and I was
open when the opportunity emerged.

	Alongside this, my upbringing taught me the importance of

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intergenerational relationships, planting the seeds for a ministry of
intergenerational reconciliation. As described in my Leadership Narrative, my
father was a pastor who experienced a difficult first pastorate and, after moving to
a new city, failing to find a new position, and working for years in a group home,
had an affair that brought an end to his already-struggling marriage. At the time I
was eight and the oldest of five children. My father was overwhelmed by and
disengaged from us, and hostile towards our Christian faith, which led to me
resenting him. However, my mother remained a committed Christian and kept us
involved in the church, and intentionally sought out mentors to spend time with us
as role models.

	Over the course of my life, I have had at least five older men walk
alongside me as mentors and many others who serve as examples of godly
manhood. As a result of their investment and supernatural encounters, I was able
to forgive my father, build a positive relationship with him, develop my own faith,
and discern a call into ministry. My upbringing is a testament to the impact that
positive intergenerational relationships can have.

The role of my education

	My education also played a role in nurturing my passion for intercultural
reconciliation. As shared in my Leadership Narrative, I earned my Bachelor of
Arts in Politics at Trent University (Trent). I chose Trent because I had extended
family members in Peterborough and my then-girlfriend-now-wife was already
going there. What I did not know at the time was that Trent specializes in

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Indigenous studies. During my four years there, I became aware of Canada’s
history of cultural genocide and the ongoing work of repairing the damage that
has been done to indigenous peoples (Sinclair et al 2015, 5). I was also involved
in a student ministry and church that recognized the importance of social justice.
This complemented the critical lens of my political studies, so I began to take
interest in the intersection of Christianity, social justice, and culture. After
graduating from Trent I earned a Master of Theological Studies from Tyndale
University, which emphasizes missional theology. Missional theology stems from
Newbigin’s teaching that the church exists to be a sign, instrument, and foretaste
of God’s kingdom (Van Gelder and Zscheile 2011, 51), and thus insists that
Christians must seriously engage with the concept of social justice (Van Gelder
and Zscheile 2011, 107). In authors like Newbigin, Christopher Wright, and
Timothy Keller, I discovered a theological framework that allowed me to embrace
the interests that had begun to develop during my time at Trent. Although my
education alone was not enough for me to determine that I was called to lead
intercultural reconciliation, it took the foundation that was laid during my
upbringing and provided me with an intellectual framework that prepared me for
the eventual ministry opportunities that came my way.

	My education also played a role in developing my passion for
intergenerational reconciliation. Although intergenerational relationships did not
factor into my studies at Trent, I benefited from positive relationships with my
teachers and mentors during those years, and being away at university made it

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easier to explore my family background and its effects on me. My relationship
with Shoshanna also flourished and this raised conversations with my peers about
why we were so committed to one another at such a young age. Up until that point
in time I had assumed that my evangelical family values were normal. Although I
had non-Christian friends in elementary and high school, I wrote off their
differing relationships with their parents and romantic partners as immaturity. But
at Trent, I began to realize that I was the oddity, not them, and in reflecting on it I
realized it was, in part, because I saw how my mentors’ commitment to their
families prevented them the kind of hurt that I went through as a child.

	Because of this, during my time at Trent, I consciously began to look for
opportunities to mentor others, and did so frequently within the campus ministry.
During my Master’s degree I studied Western culture’s shift towards
post-Christendom and came to recognize that one of the byproducts of this was a
shift in how people relate across generations. A comprehensive study involving
multiple denominations and evangelical ministries called Hemorrhaging Faith
was released during this time. It highlighted the fact that Canadian children raised
in the church were much more likely to remain in the church if they had Christian
parents and mentors (Penner et al 2011, 52). This drove home the importance of
my relationships with older people and my desire to be a parent and mentor.

	I mentioned that intergenerational relationships did not factor into my
studies at Trent. This is true with one exception: the disruption of
intergenerational relationships played an important role in the attempted cultural

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genocide of indigenous peoples (Miller 2000, loc 1950). During my time at Trent,
I learned about this, primarily through conversations about residential schools.
This would eventually yield a common thread that would bring together my
passion for intercultural and intergenerational work. That being said, at the time I
was not conscious of the connection between that historic reality and my own
experience with mentoring; it would take a few years before that realization
dawned on me.

The role of my ministry experience

	If my upbringing laid a foundation for a ministry of intercultural
reconciliation and my education provided an intellectual framework to build
towards, my ministry experiences have been a process of building towards that
calling without realizing exactly what it was that was taking shape. As I shared in
my Leadership Narrative, my first opportunity to work closely with another
culture arose immediately after I finished my Bachelor’s degree, when Paul
invited me to lead a six-week-long sports camp in Nemaska, Quebec. It was a
difficult endeavour, in part because we did not receive much cultural training and
none of our team members had any significant experience doing intercultural
work.

	Being surrounded by people speaking another language and living by a
different set of values was overwhelming at first, but over the course of the
summer we began to see the good aspects of their culture and how we could learn
from that. We also witnessed firsthand the intergenerational trauma as we worked

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with the children, most of whom were between five and ten. One memory
illustrates this well: we asked the group to share what they wanted to be when
they grew up, and one of the six-year-olds commented that he would probably just
party like his dad. By the end of those six weeks my wife and I agreed that we
wanted to do what we could to heal those wounds. Two years later Paul invited
me to recruit a team for the teen program at Sonrise Camp. Thanks to the
expansion of this ministry over the years, my family and I now spend the entire
month of July up north running camps, and I make semi-regular trips there
throughout the year. Some of our most meaningful relationships have come about
because of this ministry.

	Over the last few years, I have had an increasing number of opportunities
to work with other people groups. I oversee a campus ministry at Trent and as part
of that, I help prepare and host a weekly meal for international students. Last
summer I was also invited to speak at a camp for Chin youth, which may become
a repeat occurrence. Most recently, I have been invited to pastor a church at Curve
Lake First Nation alongside a veteran pastor who wants to work towards
retirement.

	The result is that a good portion of my life is now spent ministering to
people from other cultures. Because of this, I have come to recognize how
different people are across cultures, and yet how much good can come from
working through those differences to cultivate understanding and love (Livermore
2009, 20). Alongside this new pastoral opportunity, I have begun promoting

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awareness about First Nations issues throughout my church network, which has
allowed me to preach, lead workshops, facilitate focus groups, and participate in
planning a conference on indigenous issues. After these events, white people
often tell me that it was the first time they had considered the topic of racial
reconciliation, despite the fact that the government formally adopted the term in
1998 and indigenous people have been attempting to raise awareness about it for
decades (Miller 2000, loc 5419). This shows how big the gap between people
groups within our society is. I want that to change, and have been learning to
contribute to that over the past ten years. This is what I mean when I say that I am
called to lead intercultural reconciliation.

	Similarly, while my upbringing and theological training contributed to my
appreciation of intergenerational relationships, my ministry experience has been a
journey of working to promote intergenerational reconciliation, even though I did
not always think of it as such. Even before I began vocational ministry, much of
my time was spent meeting with people one-on-one and offering them what
wisdom I could. During my time at Trent, this included mentoring younger
students as a volunteer leader with the campus ministry. Then, after graduating
and leading the camps in Nemaska, I applied to be an interim youth pastor at a
local church. I spent two years in that role, and realized that the part that I loved
most was the deep relationships I formed with individuals, rather than running the
group functions, which felt like more of a necessity than ministry.

	During my time as a youth leader, I focused on developing a team of teen

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and young adult leaders and encouraging them to take responsibility for much of
the programming while I focused on mentoring them. After moving on from that
position, I had the opportunity to reboot the campus ministry I had been a part of
as a student and deliberately structured the ministry in a similar fashion, with my
role being focused on mentoring the student leaders as they ran events and
witnessed to their peers. I have now been serving in this capacity for seven years
and have mentored multiple generations of students as they lead Christians For
Trent. Many of them have expressed how meaningful it was to have an older
person intentionally investing in them. These experiences have allowed me to
witness firsthand what Hemorrhaging Faith describes: those who have received
guidance from parents and mentors before going to university are often
significantly more mature emotionally and spiritually than those who had to fend
for themselves (Penner et al 2011, 52).

	It is a little heartbreaking how often I have been told by students that I was
the first person to offer to mentor them. Mentoring university students has also
shown me the accuracy of a follow-up study by the same group that argues that
the generation gap in the Canadian church stems from significant developmental
(Heimstra et al 2018, 21-30), behavioural (Heimstra et al 2018, 31-42), and value
shifts (Heimstra et al 2018, 107-117). In recent years, this has led me to seek out
opportunities to encourage churches to invest more heavily in intergenerational
ministries, rather than focusing solely on age-specific programs. This has included
preaching, running workshops, and consulting with churches and individual

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leaders on the topic of mentoring. Interestingly, as I lead these conversations I
often hear from older people that they assume young people have no interest in
what they have to offer, despite the fact that young people regularly tell me that
they wish they had had a mentor growing up. This reveals how deep the
generational gap in our society is. I want that to change, and have been learning to
contribute to that over the past ten years. This is what I mean when I say that I am
called to lead intergenerational reconciliation.

	Although I have distinguished between these two aspects of my calling, it
is important to note that the two go hand-in-hand. This is demonstrated most
clearly by the camp ministry, which involves settlers and First Nations people
working together to care for campers, and the international meals at Trent, which
involve a diverse group of adults and students working together and building
relationships over food. The church I pastor at Curve Lake has expressed a desire
for me to develop intergenerational ministries as well. This shows that the
intergenerational gap is one that spans people groups. This is partly because the
needs for intercultural and intergenerational reconciliation stem from the same
core issues in our society: the bloody history of western empires, the breakdown
of intergenerational relationships because of trauma, and disorientation caused by
rapid technological and social change (Tickle 2012, 57-87). The result is that
Christendom has declined and as of yet, no alternative has emerged as a rallying
point, with only a loose ethical code binding people together (Heimstra et al 2018,
107). While there are benefits to this kind of privatized faith, it makes it difficult

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to have serious conversations about social values and to bridge differences
between groups, a trend that has been developing for decades (Newbigin 1986,
24) and is reflected in the polarization of contemporary politics.

	Despite the fact that the Church is reeling from these changes too, it also
has an important role to play within this new normal. The Apostle Paul called his
followers to embrace their “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21),
and, in so doing, to embrace those in other social, racial, and economic categories
than themselves (Galatians 3:27-29). It is worth noting that the latter verse, which
is often used to justify the modern notion that distinctions between people groups
do not matter, is actually premised on our differences being an enduring element
of society (George 1994, 289-291). It is the mutual recognition that we are fellow
heirs of salvation despite our differences that allows us to be “liberated from the
demonic forces of racism, materialism, and sexism” (George 1994, 292). In other
words, while deep differences exist, they must not be allowed to divide the
Church, a conviction that seems to drive Paul’s ministry.

	Paul’s focus on reconciling ethnic/cultural groups is particularly striking,
given the fact that first-century Judaism—including Jewish Christianity—was
characterized by fierce nationalism in response to persecution (Dunn 1990,
137-148). His refusal to subject the Gentiles even to nominal adherence to the
Jewish law ultimately resulted in the Jerusalem church embracing mixed
communities of Jewish and Gentile believers rather than insisting that Gentiles
become functional Jews (Dunn 1990, 162), which is reflected in Luke’s record of

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the Jerusalem council’s decree (Acts 15:19-21). My sense is that a similar
commitment to the ministry of reconciliation is needed in our age, as the gap
between people groups grows. The Church must call for people groups to love
one another across deep differences, while modelling what that looks like.

	Although there are certainly more groups that need to experience
reconciliation than those of different cultures and generations—contemporary
battles over sexuality come to mind—my conviction is that God wants me to
focus on these two divisions in particular, and not just as an individual, but as one
who leads Christian individuals and communities to reconcile with those of other
cultures and generations.

	Having detailed why I believe that God has called me to lead intercultural
and intergenerational reconciliation, I want to consider one last question to round
out my philosophy of ministry: what do I think is the best means of accomplishing
that objective? Or, put in more technical terms, what kind of praxis will allow me
to realize the reconciliation I have envisioned? This is an important question for
anyone to ask as he or she reflects on what it means to be a Christian leader.

Describing My Praxis

	Leading intercultural and intergenerational reconciliation requires careful
consideration of one’s praxis. The reason for this is simple: any leader is from a
specific culture and generation. This may seem obvious, however, it is easy to
forget when you are engaged in leading others because leaders often feel set apart
from and, by consequence, superior to their followers. Leaders are generally

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among the most educated and experienced individuals within their community
and, when challenges arise, pressure to find a quick resolution makes it easy to
default to determining solutions by themselves. When this is the norm, it can
result in a small group of people from a particular culture and generation
disproportionately influencing everyone else. This can be partly addressed by
cultivating diversity within leadership teams, but this is surprisingly difficult to
achieve. Because like attracts like, leadership teams tend to develop an internal
culture that makes it hard for deep differences to manifest, and leadership
qualifiers tend to be easier for people from a dominant culture or generation to
achieve. In my experience the result is that, while the final authority in most
churches is a board, and most boards espouse the value of diversity, they still tend
to be relatively homogeneous and hire pastors who suit their preferences.

	To be clear, I am not suggesting that this is malicious or even conscious on
their part. However, even well-meaning leaders can unwittingly create a situation
in which certain groups are favoured over others, which exacerbates historic
tensions. For this reason, if I want to achieve my calling of leading intercultural
and intergenerational reconciliation, it is essential for my praxis to include
communal discernment processes. Three aspects of church leadership are
particularly affected by incorporating communal discernment processes: theology,
leadership decisions, and social justice. Each of these aspects of church leadership
stands to benefit from leveraging the diverse experiences that exist across cultures
and generations, which communal discernment processes permit. I would like to

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consider each of these in turn.

Using communal discernment processes
to shape a community’s theology

	Communal discernment processes can deepen a leader and community’s
understanding of God. In making this assertion, I am assuming what practical
theologians maintain: that theology is not merely an exercise in understanding and
applying scripture and tradition, but requires interpreting our ongoing experiences
of God’s action in the world (Ward 2017, 225). Although scripture and tradition
serve as important guardrails to ensure that our experiences do not mislead us, too
often theologians lose sight of the purpose of theology, which is to answer two
critical questions: “What should we do?” and “How should we live?” (Anderson
2001, 38). As the narrative portions of scripture demonstrate, answering these
questions is not merely a matter of expositing normative sources—in fact, that is
more in line with the Pharisees’ approach than with the Apostles’—it is a process
of understanding how those normative sources relate to our ongoing experience of
God’s grace in a fallen world (Anderson 2001, 32). This is how the Old Testament
authors treated the Abrahamic covenant and Mosaic law as they went through the
exile (Isaiah 1:11) and this is how the New Testament authors treated the
revelation of God in Jesus Christ as they witnessed the reconciling work of the
Holy Spirit (Acts 10). Far from diminishing the importance of scripture and
tradition, practical theology is rooted in the conviction that the God who is
revealed by our forebears is still alive and active today and revealing himself to us

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so we can participate in his redemptive mission (Ward 2017, 229). Understanding
God requires interpreting our experiences and allowing them to dialogue with
normative theological sources.

	The question is, how should we go about this, and how is our approach
affected by seeking reconciliation between people groups? My answer to the first
question is that communal discernment generates this kind of theological
reflection. The New Testament makes clear that the Holy Spirit is active among
the church community as a whole, not simply those with a leadership position.
Many metaphors are used to illustrate this: the church is the body of Christ
(Romans 12:4-5), a priesthood (1 Peter 2:5), a family (Ephesians 2:19), and so on.
Underpinning all of these is the conviction that “where two or three are gathered
in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). Jesus makes this assertion
to teach his disciples that they need to be united when confronting sinful
behaviour, but it also seems to establish that Jesus is present with unified groups
of believers, and that they have the authority to call upon him and expect a
response (France 2007, 1034). In other words, whenever Christians are united, the
potential exists for God to reveal himself—this is not exclusive to those with a
leadership office (France 2007, 1037).

	This does not diminish the importance of godly leadership, which is one of
God’s primary tools for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12). It means
that understanding the living God requires more than just trained theologians who
can teach people about the Bible and historic doctrines. These trained leaders

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must hear and interpret how God is revealing himself in the lives of laypeople.
This is not simply a matter of valuing laypeople, it requires processes for inviting
them to share and reflect upon their stories. Ray Anderson provides a model of
how this takes place:

Figure 13: Anderson’s Model of Practical Theology (Anderson 2001, 29)
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Figure 13 details. ]

In this model, Christians regularly experience Jesus’ ongoing ministry
(“Christopraxis”) as they live out their faith and reflect on it. This forms the
“inner core” of theological awareness. That nascent awareness then needs to
dialogue with the “outer envelope” of theological knowledge: our interpretive
paradigms, experimental probing, historical consciousness, and current
communities’ shared memory. Together, this creates a mutually-sustaining tension
between the past and present understandings of who God is and how he relates to
humanity. I find this model useful for visualizing what should take place when I

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invite a group of people to reflect on how they have experienced God throughout
their lives.

	One communal discernment process that lines up well with Anderson’s
model is Theological Action Research (TAR). TAR aims to generate theological
reflection by inviting a group to plan a project together, do it, and discuss how
what they witnessed during that activity relates to their traditional beliefs
(Cameron et al 2010, 40). It includes questions that allow participants to consider
how their experiences relate to their normative theology, formal theology,
espoused theology, and operant theology, which roughly line up with Anderson’s
categories of historical consciousness, interpretive paradigms, communities of
memory, and experimental probes (Cameron et al 2010, 73). Although I have not
used TAR specifically, I have used its secular equivalent, Participatory Action
Research (PAR), with a group of Cree Christians and can see how that kind of
shared project lends itself to experiencing Jesus’ ongoing ministry. I will consider
PAR more closely later; for now, it is sufficient to say that I see TAR as a relevant
means of generating theological reflection as I seek to live out my calling. This
kind of communal discernment process allows Christian leaders and their
communities to understand God in ways that expositing scripture and tradition
does not.

	How is our approach affected by seeking reconciliation between people
groups? My experience is that this kind of ministry makes communal discernment
processes even more important, because they allow people groups who might

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otherwise be overlooked to contribute theologically. This enables a richer
understanding of God, as well as encouraging a healthy power dynamic between
different groups. As I described previously, leadership teams are often less diverse
than the communities they lead and because of that, it is easy for them to assume
that other people’s experiences are similar to their own. Listening to laypeople’s
stories allows leaders to check their own biases and hear how God is at work in
the lives of those who are different than themselves, which, over time, will lead to
a deeper understanding of how God actually works, which will in turn enrich their
ministry.

	Anderson provides a poignant example of this in sharing how a divorcee in
his congregation asked him to bless her second marriage despite the fact that she
did not view herself as the aggrieved party in her divorce. He had never
considered the possibility that taking a rigid stance on what constitutes an
“acceptable remarriage” might deny the restorative work Christ was doing in
someone’s life, and presumably never would have recognized this if he had not
paid attention to her story (Anderson 2001, 27). The opposite is true as well. It
can cause severe harm when this tendency towards groupthink is ignored and
leaders assume that their perspective is the only right way to think about God.

	Indigenous theologians are quick to point out that one of the historic
sources of harm against their people is that ethnocentric European theology
allowed Christians to justify demeaning them (Jacobs et al 2008, 26). Although
the examples are not as extreme when considering the differences that exist across

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generations, in my experience, young Christians often feel like their skills are
more valued within the church than their experiences and theological
perspectives, which leads many of them to pursue ministry roles outside of
established churches. This tension is exacerbated by the fact that our culture at
large has moved in the opposite direction, devaluing elders and relegating them to
retirement homes while youthfulness is celebrated. Incorporating the insights of
different cultures and generations equips leaders to avoid these harmful power
dynamics. Although leaders should make a habit of listening to others’ stories in
their personal lives, having formal processes for hearing from their community
ensures that everyone’s voice is heard. Intercultural and intergenerational
reconciliation makes it even more important for our theology to be shaped by
communal discernment processes.

Using communal discernment processes
to shape leadership decisions

	Alongside theological reflection, communal discernment processes can be
valuable in shaping leadership decisions, for similar reasons. Just as God reveals
himself in a myriad of ways by ministering to people, he grants people a wide
range of different abilities, all of which are important to take into account in
decision making. Too often, churches value certain gifts over others, which can
lead to a small number of people making decisions without giving due attention to
the needs and insights of those who differ from themselves. This is out of step
with the Apostle Paul’s assertion that “on those parts of the body that we think

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less honorable we bestow the greater honor” (1 Corinthians 12:23). This principle
should guide decision making in the church. Those who are naturally less valued
by the society at large need to be given extra attention by church leaders so that
their gifts can be developed and utilized to further the church’s mission. This is
what Paul meant when he said that Christ “gave the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of
ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12). These leadership gifts were not given so leaders
could hoard the work of ministry, they are an important part of how God nurtures
growth in the church, empowering believers to develop ministry skills of their
own and thus multiplying the ministry of Christ (Hirsch 2017, loc 1287).

	Again, the question arises, how should leaders do this, and how is that
affected by the pursuit of intercultural and intergenerational reconciliation? And
again, communal discernment processes feature heavily in my response. Before
making major decisions, it is wise for leaders to invite their followers to share
what they are observing in order to discern what gifts and opportunities need to be
factored into the decision. Leaders can never independently have a full
understanding of how people are affected by decisions and listening allows them
to consider the effects more carefully. At times, people are also capable of
contributing creative ideas and volunteering their time, energy, and skills, but only
do so when they are asked. In this sense, communal discernment processes
function as a means of information gathering and dispersion. When it comes to
significant decisions, leaders must cultivate a shared vision for the future, which

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is also facilitated by communal discernment processes, since it increases people’s
sense of ownership about the decision. Finally, communal discernment processes
also increase the level of accountability for leadership decisions, ensuring that bad
decisions are addressed instead of compounded over time. Three relatively
straightforward communal discernment processes are Appreciative Inquiry, Asset
Mapping, and guided feedback processes such as 100 Days of Prayer.

	Appreciative Inquiry is best done every few years to cultivate a shared
vision for the community (Harder 2013, 87). In it, participants are invited to share
about their experiences, values, and perceived opportunities to discern where God
is at work in the community and what new possibilities might be emerging as a
result (Harder 2013, 84-86). Asset Mapping is more detailed and strategic, and as
such may be most useful as part of a revitalization project. In it, participants are
asked to take an inventory of all of the gifts in their midst in order to see what
untapped potential exists within the community that can be turned into new
endeavours (Harder 2013, 124-127). This pushes back against a consumerist
tendency to track only easily quantifiable things such as money and attendance
(Harder 2013, 115). Guided feedback processes such as 100 Days of Prayer allow
leaders to seek feedback on a wide range of issues in a short period of time, and as
such are best used as an accountability tool (Bullard 2005, 2). In it, participants
are asked to go on a “spiritual journey” by meeting in small groups and
prayerfully discussing various aspects of the church’s life, with written reports
being sent back to the leaders so they can discern what is going well and what

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needs to be changed (Bullard 2005, 17). None of these approaches is mutually
exclusive and all will have a similar effect of empowering the community to
contribute to leadership decisions.

	How is our approach affected by the pursuit of intercultural and
intergenerational reconciliation? Again, it increases the value of considering
laypeople’s experience in decision making and, as such, increases the usefulness
of communal discernment processes. Just as theology has often failed to
incorporate diverse perspectives and been used to justify harming others,
centralized decision making often disempowers those who are negatively affected
by the decisions. Surely the fate of indigenous people would have been different if
Canada’s government, churches, and schools had seriously considered their
perspective before deciding how they were to be governed, converted, or taught.
Similarly, young people often feel like their opinions are discounted by those in
leadership, which is exacerbated when they are siloed off into age-specific
programs and treated as a means of propping up the functions in which older,
wealthier congregants are more heavily invested.

	These cultural and generational gaps can be bridged, in part, by using
communal discernment processes, which allow leaders to understand the
perspectives of those who are different than themselves. In fact, in my experience,
they are more effective at doing so than the typical solution, which is to try to
build fully representative leadership teams—a task that is more difficult than
many leaders anticipate because “cultural practices are not just lodged in

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cognition, but also embodied feelings,” (Priest and Edwards 2019, 532). Thus, as
with any intercultural activity (Livermore 2009, 326), disorientation can ensue
and cause tension as leadership teams become more diverse.

	Communal discernment processes are designed to account for that
disorientation, and as such can empower those whose experiences are not usually
taken into account, even in settings where those with leadership offices are
culturally and generationally homogenous. I have had the opportunity to use both
Appreciative Inquiry and an adapted version of 100 Days of Prayer during the
past year, both as a result of my transition from a white church to the
congregation at Curve Lake. As I prepared to leave the white church, I led them
through a guided prayer and feedback process, which provided us with ample
information for determining next steps in terms of staffing and other strategic
decisions. Alongside the valuable information, there were a number of people
who felt like the process revitalized their church engagement because it gave them
an opportunity to build relationships with people they would never have pursued
otherwise.

	Then, soon after I arrived at the Curve Lake congregation, I was asked to
lead a planning meeting. I proposed using a light version of Appreciative Inquiry,
and the group took to it very naturally. The outcome was a few ministry ideas,
including the proposal that we hold occasional fundraisers. This was an
interesting proposal because I could tell that the white congregants, including
myself, were hesitant because conservative evangelical churches often view overt

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requests for money as a lack of faith. However, all of the First Nations people
thought it would be a positive experience for the broader community, not just a
means of earning some money for the church. One of the ladies volunteered to run
one soon thereafter and in the end, over $1000 was raised and it was evident that
everyone involved had a good time, including the people who bought into the
event. This reminded me that the things that will and will not work at this new
congregation will differ from my previous one. Communal discernment processes
make this kind of learning possible, as well as generating new relational
connections. As such, I believe that they should be an important part of my praxis.

Using communal discernment processes
to pursue social justice

	There is an increasing awareness within evangelicalism that social justice
is not just a side concern once the primary task of evangelism is complete, but an
important aspect of how the church fulfills its mission. This, too, is facilitated by
communal discernment processes. God has always been in the business of
empowering those who suffer due to others’ sin.

	Perhaps the clearest demonstration of this is the Exodus, in which Yahweh
defeats another divine being in order to rescue a group of slaves from one of the
world’s mightiest nations (Dempster 2003, 97) and then wars against empires to
provide them dominion over their own land (Dempster 2003, 127). This concern
continues throughout the Old Testament, when God disciplines the Israelites and
allows them to be exiled, in part because their idolatry led to rampant injustice

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(Dempster 2003, 173). In the midst of exile, however, God promises to send a
deliverer for his now re-oppressed people (Dempster 2003, 220-221). Jesus
proclaimed himself to be that deliverer (Luke 4:16-19) and although he refused to
become a governmental or military leader, he challenged the authority of the
Jewish and Roman leaders so much that they worked together to kill him (Wright
2006, 310). This challenge came through his teaching (Matthew 16:6),
relationships (Luke 7:36-50), actions (Mark 11:15-18), and miracles (Mark 3:1-6).
Perhaps most significantly, when they did eventually kill him, Jesus’ resurrection
proved that God can and will overcome any weapon of injustice to rescue his
people, including death itself (Romans 8:31-39). This led to his earliest followers
creating equitable communities that sought to care for the disenfranchised
members of their society as a reflection of God’s kingdom (Acts 2:42-47). The
Old and New Testaments are united in their conviction that righteousness and
justice go hand-in-hand (Keller 2010, 10-11). The words of Micah 6:8 bear
repeating: “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require
of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your
God?” Social justice is part of the mission of God’s people.

	So how are we to accomplish this, and how does leading intercultural and
intergenerational reconciliation affect our methods? Again, communal
discernment processes have an important role to play. For many Christians,
pursuing social justice simply means being charitable. The evangelicals I know
are relatively good at supporting charities with their time and money. However,

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charity is often ineffective at addressing the root causes of injustice and
sometimes even perpetuates a power imbalance between those with the means to
be charitable and their beneficiaries (Corbett and Fikkert 2012, 86). As such,
leaders should think critically about how they pursue justice and seek to empower
those who stand to benefit.

	This is not an easy sell in evangelical circles, however, because our history
has led us to be skeptical of social justice movements (Corbett and Fikkert 2012,
60). Communal discernment processes are a good starting point. By inviting
beneficiaries of service projects to share their experiences and insights, the
projects can be improved and those leading the project can begin to understand
the people they serve better, and perhaps even relate to them (Corbett and Fikkert
2012, 82). One process that has been used to accomplish this is Participatory
Action Research (PAR). PAR seeks to empower communities to improve their
quality of life by designing a project together (Stringer 2014, 14). It begins with
facilitated discussions to determine what opportunities exist in their context.
Then, once an opportunity is identified, the group plans to do something about it.
Once plans are in place, they carry out the plans, then close off with some guided
discussions to reflect on what they learned and what needs to happen next. This
repeating cycle of observing, planning, acting, and reflecting can lead to lasting
change, especially when the cycle is allowed to continue for a number of
iterations (Stringer 2014, 10). Within PAR, leaders still have an important role to
play as facilitators, but they seek to leave as much of the decision making in the

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hands of the project participants because it maximizes ownership and skill
development (Stringer 2014, 20). PAR is one of a number of communal
discernment processes that can be used to carry out our mission of creating just
communities.

	How does a pursuit of reconciliation affect things? Again, communal
discernment processes can play an important role when trying to enact justice
across cultures and generations. Young people and racial minorities have often
expressed to me how frustrating it is when other people try to fix them instead of
building relationships with them. They are acutely aware of the fact that often,
those with societal power are prone to view those less fortunate than themselves
as projects, which perpetuates the power imbalance. Most of the time, these
comments are not meant as an attack on well-meaning individuals, they are
simply meant to express a desire for a better approach to correcting our societal
issues.

	When I have had the opportunity to work on correcting issues with those
most affected by them, it has always proven worth the effort. As stated previously,
I used PAR to design a workshop for Cree mentors as my Doctor of Ministry
research project. Originally, I anticipated that I would teach the workshop
alongside other experienced instructors. Instead, as the PAR process unfolded, I
realized that the participants were already doing many of the things that a mentor
needs to do, and so I invited them to teach one another. Although the presentation
quality may not have been as good as what a team of experienced teachers could

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have pulled off, the content was good. More importantly, the participants were
deeply encouraged to see that they were already doing so much for the youth in
their community, and could work together to build on that instead of starting from
scratch. The process also deepened my ministry relationship with the participants,
since it gave me an opportunity to listen to their stories and affirm the work that
God was doing in and through them. Although I do not know how often I will
employ PAR rigorously, this experience taught me that simply inviting people to
share their experiences with one another can bridge the gap between people
groups over time.

	I have seen a similar thing take place in my campus ministry. A few years
ago we were considering ways to meet the needs of international students. One of
our student leaders was close to the international community so instead of
planning something ourselves, we called together a group of his friends and they
proposed that we start hosting weekly meals. They believed that this would
complement the activities of the various international student groups by providing
a regular point of contact for everyone from abroad. Knowing that this would be a
significant endeavour, we partnered with local churches and international groups
and it yielded many meaningful intergenerational and intercultural relationships,
alongside feeding fifty to one hundred students most weeks for the past two
school years. Would we have come up with the idea of meals if we had simply
planned something ourselves? Possibly. But by consulting with the students our
purpose became clearer and we were able to partner with the students from the

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start. I have learned that communal discernment processes can enhance efforts to
meet people’s needs and correct social issues, and for this reason, I am committed
to using them as I try to lead intercultural and intergenerational reconciliation.

	As I stated above, I am convinced that communal discernment processes
are a key element of how I am to fulfill my calling. As a Christian leader, I
recognize that it is vital to listen to people’s experiences and invite them to
contribute to the church’s theology, leadership decisions, and social justice
endeavours. Intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation requires this even
more than most pursuits because of the need to overcome the gap and power
imbalance that exist between these groups. For this reason, communal
discernment processes are increasingly part of my ministry praxis, which, in turn,
has deepened my understanding of leadership.

Summary

	Leadership is a social phenomenon, in which individuals take initiative,
influencing others to achieve an impact. Christian leadership is distinct in that it
aims to glorify the Father by submitting to the Spirit and emulating the Son. For
me personally, this involves leading intercultural and intergenerational
reconciliation using communal discernment processes. This is my philosophy of
leadership, which I have arrived at based on my upbringing, education, and
ministry experiences. To succeed, I will need to continue growing personally and
developing my skills, as well as prioritizing my relationships with those under my
leadership and God, since I play just a small part in his global mission. I am

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certainly not perfect at carrying out these responsibilities but I believe that I am
improving, and am grateful for the role that the Doctor of Ministry program has
played in facilitating personal reflection and sharpening my focus. Hopefully, I
will be able to continue leading intercultural and intergenerational reconciliation
using communal discernment processes for a long time.

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CHAPTER 6:
CONCLUSION

	And thus, I arrive at the conclusion of my Doctor of Ministry (DMin)
Research Portfolio. As I indicated in the Introduction, I believe that these four
documents reflect how much I have grown as a leader thanks to the DMin
program. My Leadership Narrative describes how my life experiences prepared
me to lead in a number of distinct, yet similar, ministry contexts. My Ministry
Context Analysis describes the camp ministry I lead in Mistissini and shows how
I arrived at the decision to train Cree mentors as my research project. My Project
Report details how I went about doing so, including the role that Participatory
Action Research played in challenging my assumptions and empowering
participants to teach one another, which increased their confidence in ways that I
did not originally anticipate. And my Philosophy of Leadership outlines why I
believe that I am called to lead intergenerational and intercultural reconciliation
using communal discernment processes. These four documents reflect more than
three years of work and growth. I have grown in my sense of calling, my
competency, my capacity, and my relationship with God. This growth happened
because I learned about leadership in my classes, applied the ideas in my various
ministry settings, and used my coursework and research to integrate my new
understanding into other areas of my life. This is the effect that the DMin program

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had on my life and leadership.

	Many positive ministry outcomes have resulted from my time in the
program, too. As mentioned in my Project Report, my ministry relationships in
Mistissini were deepened due to my collaborative approach. This is significant
because Paul has indicated to me that he wants me to carry on the ministry there
after he retires. He is not eager to do so, but since he is over sixty now, he knows
that it is important to have a transition plan, and I am a key part of that.

	Paul and I are also exploring how to build on the initial success of the
mentoring workshop. As I described in the Ministry Context Analysis, our
original aim was to build a standalone mentoring program that we could filter
youth into via the camps. Now, thanks to the research project and leadership
development efforts we have made at the camp, we are in close contact with a
number of people leading youth programs, and we are shifting our vision to centre
around what they are doing. Since their activities already require volunteers, we
hope to offer the mentoring workshop as a component of their volunteer training.
Then, we can track with the program leads and trained volunteers to help them put
the skills they learn in the workshop into practice. We were hoping to implement
this idea over the summer in anticipation of programs launching this fall.
Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, travel to and from the Cree communities
has been restricted and our plans have been delayed. However, once we can visit
Mistissini again, I am excited to try this new approach. If possible, I would also
like to research this next stage of our work, because the findings could be

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significant for other First Nations ministry practitioners as they seek to repair
intergenerational relationships in their context.

	New opportunities are also emerging outside of Mistissini. Over the past
few years, my relationship with the leaders of Nemaska Bible Camp has also
deepened, and we have been discussing how to involve local volunteers in that
ministry. As I mentioned in my Leadership Narrative, I am also now pastoring a
church at Curve Lake First Nation. One of the reasons they invited me to serve in
that capacity is because of my experience with First Nations youth. I am currently
exploring the possibility of launching a youth ministry there, using communal
discernment processes from the outset. Alongside this, I have had the opportunity
to lead a number of discussions about the intersection between Christianity and
indigenous teachings over the past year and I anticipate that this will be an
important part of my ministry at Curve Lake.

	The ministry benefits extend beyond my hands-on work with First Nations
people, too. A handful of churches in Peterborough have asked me to preach and
lead workshops on mentoring over the past couple of years. Alongside this, I have
begun leading discussions with other pastors that are engaged in indigenous
ministries throughout my church network, and the leaders of the network have
indicated that they may enlist me as a consultant if the need arises.

	Through this same network, I was invited to speak at a camp for Chin
youth in 2019. The Chin are a persecuted people in Burma that have immigrated
to Canada en masse over the past couple of decades, and their church leaders are

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worried about the changes they see in their young people. They asked me to speak
on a wide array of topics, including drugs and alcohol, romantic relationships,
respecting their elders, and even apologetics, since some youth have been
expressing intellectual doubts. Fortunately, these are all topics I have encountered
in my student and First Nations ministry, and what I said was well-received by the
youth and leaders alike. Between this and the work I have been doing with
international students at Trent, it seems like I may have intercultural leadership
opportunities beyond First Nations people moving forward. None of these
opportunities is as clearly defined as the steps we are taking to facilitate
mentoring in Mistissini, however I anticipate that some, if not all of them, will
play an important role in my ministry moving forward.

	Alongside these personal outcomes, I hope that my journey through the
DMin program has provided a learning opportunity for others. My portfolio
includes changes in my psychology, spirituality, and leadership, all of which
makes it a portrait of deep life change, which is the aim of most ministries. Along
with this I detailed how my theology changed over the years, which invites
readers to think about how they arrived at their own theological convictions. It
also includes details about the generational and cultural divides that exist in our
society and churches, which I hope motivates readers to explore these issues more
fully. Finally, I have shared some of the wisdom I have gleaned from my
leadership experience and studies, including the impact that communal
discernment processes can have on a ministry context. I would like to think that

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this wisdom can be adapted and applied to other ministry contexts, and in so
doing, that other Christian leaders are able to pursue what the Apostle Paul refers
to as a “ministry of reconciliation,” encouraging people who differ to value each
other as an expression of God’s reconciling love (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). The
value of communal discernment processes may differ depending on one’s ministry
context. For example, larger churches looking to develop ministries may find that
they need to take a different approach than the one I used in my research.
Nonetheless, I think we should all strive to understand those who are deeply
different than ourselves, and ministry leaders always need to be mindful of the
effects that their work is having on the less prominent members of their
community. This is especially important for those working with indigenous
people, since historically their perspective has been undervalued. I encourage
those who see a resemblance between their ministry context and mine to seriously
consider communal discernment processes like Appreciative Inquiry, Asset
Mapping, and Participatory Action Research. I suspect that utilizing them will
prove fruitful. Because the ministry of reconciliation is so important in
twenty-first century Canadian society, I would be pleased if that was one of the
effects of my doctoral work.

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APPENDICES

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Appendix A: Project Participants List

	Table 2 contains the full list of participants with relevant details. When
someone is listed as a “full participant” it means that they participated in every
form of data collection and taught in the workshop. If someone is listed as a “full
participant until workshop,” it means that they participated in every form of data
collection during the Observation and Planning stages and were prepared to teach
in the workshop, but for some reason were prevented from doing so and thus did
not participate in the interview and logging during the Reflection stage.

Table 2: Participants List
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Table 2 details. ]

Name	Gender	Life Stage		Point of Contact	Level of  Participation
Angela	Female	Single young adult	Youth worker		Full participant
Carol	Female	Retired			FBC member		Part of the leadership team, and a full participant.
Cindy	Female	Married young adult	Youth worker		Participated in an interview and logs during the Observation stage.
Laurence	Male	Young family	Youth worker		Participated in an interview and logs in the Observation stage.

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Name	Gender	Life Stage		Point of Contact		Level of  Participation
Michael	Male	Married young adult	Youth worker			Full participant in the Observation stage, and part of the teaching team, 
									although he was prevented from teaching because of an unexpected commitment that day.
Rhonda	Female	Young family		Youth worker			Participated in an interview and logs in the Observation stage.
Ruth	Female	Adult children		FBC member			Full participant
Sarah	Female	Young family		FBC member & youth worker	Full participant
Sharon	Female	Adult children		FBC member & youth worker	Full participant until workshop.
Steve	Male	Young family	F	BC member		Full participant.

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Appendix B: Mentoring Questionnaire

Please complete this questionnaire to let us know how confident you feel about
mentoring youth in your community outside of your own children (if you have
any). For the sake of this questionnaire the term youth refers to people 12 to 21
years old.

By completing this questionnaire you consent to the following information being
used in "A Participatory Action Research Project Exploring Training for
Prospective Mentors Among Eeyou Adults in Mistissini, Quebec" being
conducted by Benjamin Peltz. Participation in this study is voluntary and
participants may withdraw at any time. Neither your name or your age will be
published as part of the final project and every effort will be made to ensure your
confidentiality, although due to the small scale of the study and the tight-knit
nature of Mistissini anonymity cannot be guaranteed. For more information or to
voice any concerns please contact [Carol] at [Carol’s phone number] or [Carol’s
email address].

1.	Name

2.	Age

3.	Overall, how confident do you feel when it comes to mentoring youth?
	Mark only one oval.

4.	Are you currently mentoring any youth?
	Mark only one oval.
	Yes
	No

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5.	On average, how many meaningful interactions do you have with youth
per month? A meaningful interaction is any interaction between you and
youth (individually or in a group) that is memorable to you.

6.	How important do you think mentoring is?
Mark only one oval.

7.	How well do you think you understand the topic of mentoring?
Mark only one oval.

8.	How confident do you feel sharing your life experiences with youth?
Mark only one oval.

9.	How confident do you feel discussing addiction with youth?
Mark only one oval.

10.	How confident do you feel discussing relationships and sexuality with
youth?
Mark only one oval.

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11.	How confident do you feel discussing mental health and anxiety with
youth?
Mark only one oval.

12.	How confident do you feel discussing self harm and suicide with youth?
Mark only one oval.

13.	How confident do you feel discussing spiritual matters with youth?
Mark only one oval.

14.	How confident do you feel about praising and encouraging youth?
Mark only one oval.

15.	How confident do you feel about offering correction to youth?
Mark only one oval.

16.	How confident do you feel teaching communication skills to youth?
Mark only one oval.

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17. How confident do you feel about teaching youth how to handle stress?
Mark only one oval.

18. How confident do you feel teaching youth how to handle conflict?
Mark only one oval.

19. How confident do you feel teaching youth how to make career decisions?
Mark only one oval.

20. How confident do you feel about teaching practical skills to youth? (eg.
camping or cooking)
Mark only one oval.

21. How confident do you feel about doing activities with youth? (eg. hunting,
fishing, sports, or making something together)
Mark only one oval.

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22.	How confident do you feel about attending special events to support
youth? (eg. birthdays, athletic competitions, graduations)
Mark only one oval.

23.	How confident do you feel about connecting youth to resources as
needed? (eg. youth services, counselling, or addiction recovery services)
Mark only one oval.

24.	How confident do you feel about setting healthy boundaries with youth?
(eg. not giving them money if asked)
Mark only one oval.

25.	How confident are you that you can mentor youth despite your personal
struggles?

26.	Do you have any additional comments or questions?

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Appendix C: Stage One Interview Questions

Interview Questions for Study Participants

1.	What was your relationship with Cree adults like as you grew up?

2.	Did you have any mentors growing up? If so, what made them different
than other adults?

3.	What is your relationship with youth from your community like?

4.	Do you think that any youth regard you as a mentor? If so, how did that
relationship develop and what does it look like today?

5.	How satisfied are you with your ability to mentor youth?

Interview Questions for Community Leaders Involved with Youth

1.	What does Cree culture traditionally teach about how adults should relate
to youth?

2.	How do Cree adults tend to relate to their youth today?

3.	How do you think that white people and their culture have affected the
way that Cree adults relate to their youth?

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Appendix D: Stage Two Focus Group Questions

1.	What skills are required to mentor youth?

2.	Which of these skills do you feel you are already good at?

3.	Which of these skills do you want to grow in?

4.	What kind of training on this topic would you find helpful?

5.	What other support would you appreciate alongside training?

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Appendix E: Teaching Guide

What topic are you speaking on? (one to three words)

Who’s your audience? (number of people, age, gender, place of origin, education,
unique needs)

What’s the main idea you want your audience to learn in this lesson? (one
sentence)

How did you learn this idea? (one to two sentences)

Why is this idea important for your audience? (one to two sentences)

What’s a creative way to illustrate this idea? (circle one)

A story from my life
A story I heard from someone else
An object
lesson Image(s)
Chart(s) or diagram(s)A group activity
Reflection/discussion
questions

What’s a brief description of your creative illustration? (one sentence)

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Teaching Tips

• The Teaching Guide gives you the skeleton of a lesson. To deliver it,
follow these steps:

	1. Introduce yourself and your topic.
	2. Share your main idea.
	3. Share how you learned this idea.
	4. Share why this idea is important for your audience.
	5. Use your creative illustration to help your audience understand this
	   idea.
	6. Repeat your main idea.

• Thinking about who your audience is can help when choosing what main
idea to focus on. Ask yourself, “How is this idea helpful for people who
are this age, gender,” and so on. Also ask yourself if there are any words
that will be hard for them to understand or things you might need to
explain for them that you might not have to explain to someone else.

• Try and use words you would actually speak out loud as you fill out the
Guide, especially for your main idea. Making this easy to say and
memorizing it makes it easy to be clear during your presentation.

• Depending on the length of time you have to teach, you may want to add
more detail than you can capture in the one or two sentences you used for
each question in the Guide. The Guide is still helpful, though, because it
helps you identify the most important things to share.

• You may want to bring your Guide to use as your speaking notes, or
highlight the things you identified in the Guide in any longer set of notes
that you create.

• It can be helpful to speak with someone you trust and explain what you’ve
written in your Guide before teaching it to a group.

• Most people feel nervous before public speaking. If you do, it can be
helpful to remind yourself that nervousness and excitement are actually
the same thing from your body’s perspective. If you find yourself thinking
“I’m so nervous” try saying (in your head or out loud) “I’m so excited!” I
(Ben) do this every time I speak in public and it really helps!

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Appendix F: Workshop Debrief Questions

1.	What stood out to you about the workshop?

2.	Do you think this workshop would be worth doing again, perhaps with
some of the people who were supposed to teach but weren’t able to make
it?

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Appendix G: Stage Four Focus Group Questions

1. What was good about this process and what could be improved if we were
to do it again?

2. How does the process we went through compare to other training
processes you have been part of? (What is the same/different,
better/worse?)

3. What should our next steps be?

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Appendix H: Stage Four Interview Questions

1. How did you feel about your part in the process?

2. How did you feel about the process overall?

3. What effect, if any, do you think being part of this process has had on your
life?

4. What effect, if any, do you think being part of this process has had on your
ability to mentor youth?

5. Do you have any feedback for me as the one leading this process?

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Appendix I: Coding Tables

Table 3: Descriptive Coding Breakdown
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Appendix I details. ]



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Table 4: Emotion Coding Breakdown1

Code			Definition												Total
Anger		Instances where participants expressed anger towards themselves or another person.				14
Concern		Instances where participants expressed concern about themselves or their community.				39
Confidence	Instances where participants made comments that implied confidence about themselves and their abilities.	87
Excitement	Instances where participants expressed excitement about something taking place in their lives.			24
Fear		Instances where participants expressed fear about something taking place in their lives.			18
Gratitude	Instances where participants expressed gratitude about something or someone in their life.			55
Hope		Instances where participants expressed a sense of hope or specific hopes for themselves or their community.	81
Joy		Instances where participants expressed joy because of something or someone in their life.			92
Pain		Instances where participants expressed pain because of something or someone in their life.			67
Regret	Instances where participants expressed regret that they had done something or something had occurred in their past.	41

	1 Note: I repeated these same codes with the label (Me) tagged onto the end so I could
track my own emotions during recorded interactions and reflective notes, without those codes
overlapping with the participants’.

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Code			Definition												Total
Relief		Instances where participants expressed relief that something negative had ended in their life.			18
Respect		Instances where participants expressed respect for another person.						57
Surprise	Instances where participants expressed that they were surprised about something or someone.			9
Uncertainty	Instances where participants expressed uncertainty about something or someone.					73

Table 5: Evaluation Coding Breakdown

Code			Definition												Total
Project Affirmation	Instances where participants expressed appreciation for the project or the way it was being conducted.	75
Project Critique	Instances where participants expressed concern about the project or the way it was being conducted, or 
			made suggestions about how to improve it.								15

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Appendix J: Project Timetable

	The following table lays out what took place throughout the project in
sequential order, including who was involved in each step and how long that step
took to complete, beginning with our preparations and concluding with the
writing of this report.

Table 6: Project Timetable

Step Taken							Who Else Was Involved	  							Timing
Developed Context Analysis and Needs Evaluation	    	Professor and classmates in DMML 0941						May 2017 to September 2017
Developed Project Proposal			    	Professor and classmates in DMIN 0905 Leadership team2				September 2017 to April 2018
Completed Ethics  Review			    	Professor in DMIN 0905 Tyndale Research Ethics Board  Leadership team		January to February 2018
Gained permission from Mistissini government via email	Leadership team  Angela  Angela’s supervisor Chief Thomas Neeposh		February to October 2018
Finalized project plans					Leadership team									October 2018
Introduced participants to the project through an 
information session and one-on-one meetings; collected 
questionnaires						Leadership team All participants						November 24th to 28 th, 2018

	2 “Leadership team” always refers to me, Paul, Carol, and James. Note that Carol and
James were also project participants but I only list them individually if others on the leadership
team were not involved in a step.

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Step Taken							Who Else Was Involved	  							Timing
Interviewed participants				Leadership team (feedback) All participants				November 29th to  December 12th, 2018
Collected daily activity logs via SMS or Facebook	All participants							December 11th, 2018 to January 10th, 2019, 
																with a break for Christmas from December 
																22nd to January 2nd.
Provided a project update via Facebook			Chief’s representative							December 12th, 2018
Led focus group						Angela  Carol  George  Katherine  Michael  Ruth  A one-time note taker	January 16th, 2019
Developed lesson plans with teaching team		Carol Crystal Angela George John Katherine Michael Ruth Sarah Steve	January to September 2019

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Step Taken							Who Else Was Involved	  							Timing
Helped run Teen Week at Sonrise Camp3			Leadership team Crystal John  Ruth  Sarah  Steve			July 27th to August 3rd, 2019
Met with teaching team to confirm their participation 
and lesson plan						Carol Crystal Angela George John Katherine Michael Ruth Sarah Steve	November 4th to 7th, 2019
Led workshop and discussion about first impressions	Leadership team Angela Ruth  Sarah  Sharon (late)  Steve		November 7th, 2019
Provided a project update via SMS			Chief’s representative							November 13 th, 2019
Collected daily activity logs via SMS or Facebook	Full participants4 Sharon						November 13 th, 2019 to February 2nd, 2020, 
																with a break for Christmas from December 18th 
																until January 7th

	3 The camp programming was not formally part of the study and no data was collected
during it. However, I thought it was worth including in the timeline because helping with the camp
allowed me an opportunity to see some of the participants in person and to discuss their lesson
plans, as well as furthering the ministry relationship I was developing with them.

	4 “Full participants” refers to those who were part of the entire workshop and were later
available for a closing focus group discussion and interview. This includes Carol, James, Angela,
Ruth, Sarah, and Steve. Sharon is not included in this because personal challenges prevented her
from attending the full workshop and participating in the closing focus group and interview.

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Step Taken							Who Else Was Involved	  							Timing
Led closing focus group					Full participants Crystal John							February 4th, 2020
Interviewed participants				Leadership team (feedback) Full participants					February 4rd and 5 th, 2020
Analyzed data and wrote project report			My wife, Shoshanna (editing)							March-May 2020

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Appendix K: Project Data Types

Table 7: Data Sets
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Table 7 details. ]



	5 “Leadership team” refers to Paul, Carol, and James. Carol and James were also
participants, which is why I specify “other participants” when the leadership team is included in a
data set.

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Table 7: Data Sets (Continued)
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Table 7 details. ]




195




Table 7: Data Sets (Continued)
[ Please contact repository@tyndale.ca for Table 7 details. ]


196




Appendix L:	Promotional Script

	The following was stated in order to recruit participants through Faith
Bible Chapel and an information session in November 2018:

	In preparation for our mentoring program, Benjamin Peltz, one of our
summer camp leaders and a student at Tyndale [University], is conducting a
research project to develop an effective training program for volunteer mentors.
This research project will be co-led by Ben, Paul, and [Carol]. They are looking
for 5-10 Cree adults who are willing to participate in this study, which will
involve sharing your experiences and thoughts about mentoring youth via
interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, and journaling, as well as going through
a training program that will be developed collaboratively by the leadership team
and study participants. If you are interested in participating in this study please
contact Ben, Paul, or [Carol] for more information.

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Appendix M:	Information Letter and Consent

Form

Information Letter Regarding Research Taking Place at Mistissini Baptist
Church by Pastor Benjamin Peltz exploring

Training for Prospective Mentors Among Eeyou6 Adults in Mistissini, Quebec
and request for your consent in participating in this study

Over the past six years, Mistissini Baptist Church has partnered with two White
pastors, Paul and Benjamin Peltz, to run a week of programming at Sonrise Camp
that is designed for teenagers from Mistissini and other Eeyou communities.
During this time one challenge has been an ongoing barrier in ministering to
campers: because many of the camp leaders are from Peterborough and Ottawa,
they are not able to maintain an active relationship with the youth during the
school year. In order to overcome this barrier and provide more effective ministry
to the youth in Mistissini, [Carol] is planning on starting a mentoring program
which would connect campers to Eeyou adults so they have a trustworthy person
to turn to for support and guidance during the school year. As part of this program
we want to provide training for those who are interested in serving as a volunteer
mentor, and Ben and Paul have been invited to work with [Carol] to develop and
run this, with Ben being the primary researcher and developer of the training
program.

To help us develop a training program that meets the needs of Eeyou adults we
will conduct a number of interviews and focus groups to find out what those
needs are and what kind of training might best meet those needs. We are looking
for ten to twelve Eeyou adults to be part of these discussions, go through the
training program we develop, and provide feedback on how the program can be
improved in the future. We hope that taking this approach will help us be
respectful of Eeyou culture, focus on the unique needs found in Mistissini, and
help others who want to train mentors in their own communities. This research
will be supervised by the elders at Mistissini Baptist Church7 as well as Ben’s

	6 Note: At the beginning of this study I thought “Eeyou” was the traditional name for
Cree people in Mistissini. I learned partway through that they actually identify as “Eenou” and
“Eeyou” refers to Cree people in coastal communities. Since they tend to use the term Cree most
of the time anyways, I ended up reverting to that in written and verbal communication.

	7 Another thing I did not know at the outset of this ministry: the real name of the church is
Faith Bible Chapel, as reflected throughout the Project Report. Because of the small size of the

198




Program Director Mark Chapman, and Project-Thesis Coordinator Michael
Krause in the Doctor of Ministry Department at Tyndale [University] in Toronto.

This study will follow the requirements of Canadian ethical guidelines as outlined
in the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving
Humans and the Tyndale Research Ethics Policy Manual.

Participation in this study is completely voluntary and participants will be free to
opt-out at any time without consequence. Participants will be invited to share as
much or as little as they feel comfortable with during these discussions and
consent will always be sought before data is collected or used. Participants’
privacy will be respected and all data will be collected electronically and stored
on secure servers. Total anonymity in this study may not be possible because of
its small scale and the tight-knit nature of Mistissini and the local church, so
please do not agree to participate in this research if you are averse to such risk.
You are not waiving any legal rights if you choose to participate in this study.

The study will take place between May 2018 and April 2019. Ben’s final
[portfolio] will be presented to the faculty at Tyndale [University] early in 2020.
A paper describing the results of the study will be made available by April 2020
and alongside this a public presentation of the study’s findings will be held in
Mistissini.

If you have any questions please direct them to Benjamin Peltz at [Ben’s phone
number] or [Ben’s email address]. If you have any concerns about this research
please contact [Carol] at [Carol’s phone number] or [Carol’s email address]. If
you have any questions or concerns about the ethical nature of this study please
contact the Chair of the General Research Ethics Board at Tyndale [University] at
reb@tyndale.ca.

Thank you for considering participating in this study as we work together to
minister to the teenagers in our community.

God bless,
Pastor Benjamin Peltz
Pastor Paul
[Carol]
__________________________________
community, people seldom refer to churches by their brand name, they simply call them “the
Baptist church” and “the Pentecostal church.”

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Consent Form

Exploring Training for Prospective Mentors Among Eeyou Adults in Mistissini,
Quebec

Name (please print) _________________________________

I have read the above Information Letter outlining the purpose and details of this
research project and have had an opportunity to ask any questions.

I understand that I will be participating in a study that involves sharing personal
information concerning my relationship with teenagers in Mistissini. I will be
asked to participate in focus groups and personal interviews, go through a training
program led by Ben, Paul, and [Carol], and provide feedback.

I understand that my participation in this study is voluntary and I may withdraw at
any time without consequence. I am not waiving any legal rights by participating
in this study.

I understand that every effort will be made to maintain the confidentiality of the
data now and in the future. The data may also be published in professional
journals or presented at conferences, but any such presentations will be of general
findings and will never breach individual confidentiality. A copy of the findings
will be made available to me if I am interested.

I understand that due to the small scale of the study and the tight-knit nature of
Mistissini and the church, complete anonymity may not be possible, but my
privacy will always be respected.

I am aware that if I have any questions about study participation they may be
directed to Benjamin Peltz at [Ben’s email address] or [Ben’s phone number].
Any concerns about this project can be directed to [Carol] at [Carol’s phone
number] or [Carol’s email address]. Any ethical concerns about the study may be
directed to the Tyndale Chair of the General Research Ethics Board,
reb@tyndale.ca.

I have read the above statements and freely consent to participate in this study

YES  ____________
NO  ______________

Signature: ______________________  Date: __________________

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Appendix N:	Volunteer Information Letter and

Confidentiality Agreement

This confidentiality agreement is being used for volunteers participating in the
research project conducted by Benjamin Peltz in Mistissini during the period of
April 2018-March 2019. Nondisclosure of research conducted for this project and
data management require a confidentiality agreement to be signed by volunteers.
All volunteers must sign a confidentiality agreement before participating in the
following: interviewing, recording or editing image or sound data, transcribing,
interpreting, translating, entering data, destroying data.

Thank you for volunteering to help conduct this research. If you have any
questions about the research you can contact either myself or Mark Chapman at
Tyndale [University]. You may contact us at any time if you have questions about
this study.

Contact information:
Benjamin Peltz
[Ben’s email address]
[Ben’s phone number]

Associate Professor of Research Methods at Tyndale [University].
Mark Chapman
[Mark’s email address]
[Mark’s phone number]

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Confidentiality Agreement

Exploring Training for Prospective Mentors Among Eeyou Adults in Mistissini,
Quebec

The plan for this study has been reviewed for its adherence to ethical guidelines
and approved by the Research Ethics Board of Tyndale [University]. For
questions regarding participant rights and ethical conduct of research, contact the
Research Ethics Board at REB@tyndale.ca.

Name (please print):

Role:

I agree to:

	• Keep all the research information shared with me confidential by not
	  discussing or sharing the research information in any form or format (e.g.,
	  disks, tapes, transcripts) with anyone other than Benjamin Peltz or the
	  project leadership team.

	• Maintain confidentiality by not discussing or sharing verbal or written
	  information from the one-on-one interviews other than with Benjamin
	  Peltz or the project leadership team.

	• Maintain confidentiality by not discussing or sharing verbal or written
	  information recorded during focus groups other than with Benjamin Peltz,
	  the researcher or the Design Team.

	• Maintain confidentiality by not discussing or sharing verbal or written
	  information recorded during the mentor training other than with Benjamin
	  Peltz, the researcher or the Design Team.

	• Keep all research information in any form or format (e.g., disks, tapes,
	  transcripts) secure while it is in my possession.

	• Return all research information in any form or format (e.g., disks, tapes,
	  transcripts) to Benjamin Peltz when I have completed the research tasks.

	• After consulting with Benjamin Peltz, the researcher, erase or destroy all
	  research information in any form or format regarding this research project
	  that is not returnable to Benjamin Peltz (e.g., information stored on
	  computer hard drive, paper notes, journals).

Signature:

Date:

202




Appendix O: Group Covenant

Exploring Training for Prospective Mentors Among Eeyou Adults in Mistissini,
Quebec

The plan for this study has been reviewed for its adherence to ethical guidelines
and approved by the Research Ethics Board of Tyndale [University]. For
questions regarding participant rights and ethical conduct of research, contact the
Research Ethics Board at REB@tyndale.ca.

Name (please print):

As a participant in the focus groups that are part of the above project, I agree to
maintain confidentiality concerning personal and other sensitive details that are
shared within our meetings. I will do this by seeking permission from the affected
party or parties before sharing sensitive details with anyone outside of the study.

Signature:

Date:

203




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