The Principal’s Tour is an initiative of St. Andrew’s College at the University of Saskatchewan. Supported by The United Church of Canada Foundation, the project is based on the ongoing and successful College Sunday program, which allows St. Andrew’s to network with existing congregational partners.
As a program of mutuality, the College is able to maintain awareness of its program and develop connections. Faith communities, in turn, benefit from access to workshops that are intended to build resilience and capacity in these times of change.
The tour intends to raise the profile of the College in respect to development, including both leadership recruitment and sustainability. We recognize that both of these developmental components are embedded in new relationships we intend to foster.
To that end, the Principal’s Tour can include:
- Workshop opportunity: Appreciative Inquiry: Exploring the Provocative and Social Media and Evangelism are offered as part of this opportunity;
- Legacy & Leadership: An evening presentation and question-and-answer session will explore the programs and opportunities for leadership that St. Andrew’s College provides for the church and community; and,
- College Sunday: A worship and giving opportunity that focuses theologically on Legacy and Leadership.
As part of St. Andrew’s College’s development strategy, the Principal’s Tour embraces building relationships, nurturing lay leadership and those interested in ordered ministry, and stewardship that ensures the continued stability of the College.
The workshops and information evening are opportunities to offer continuing education to current lay and ordered leadership. They will also serve as models to invite reflection for those who might be considering a call to ministry.
Plan Your Gathering
We look forward to finding ways to build relationships together and, in so doing, find exciting means of sharing the Good News in these changing times. If you or your faith community are interested in learning more about how to bring the tour to your area, please contact:
Melanie Schwanbeck
College Secretary
(639) 398-5565
[email protected]
Appreciative Inquiry: Exploring the Provocative Workshop
This workshop is intended to introduce participants to Appreciative Inquiry as a practical change philosophy. Unlike some workshops that focus upon training the trainer, this one endeavours to allow participants to experience one central part of the practice: developing a provocative proposal. The intention is to allow participants an opportunity to experience what is life giving about the philosophy and to acquire/refine/refresh skills that can immediately translate into use, not only in their ministry context, but also in their own journey.
This workshop is not prescriptive, but rather suggestive. One of the tenets of Appreciative Inquiry is the community has its own wisdom about how to harness what has been best and to creatively bring it forward. From this generative position, Appreciative Inquiry recognizes that part of that wisdom is grounded in lived experience and invites designers and participants to claim their own capacity as change agents in their faith community’s culture.
Social Media & Evangelism Workshop
We live in a time and place in which it has become clear that how we once nurtured relationships and shared the Good News has dramatically changed.
When once social events occurred in basement gyms, fellowship halls and sanctuaries, they now often begin in digital venues. How we enter these new social places will help us appreciate how to nurture new, life-giving and Christ-centred relationships.
This workshop is intended for participants who are excited about the possibility of imagining ways to harness social media as one component in visioning and revitalizing mission in communities of faith. As well, it can serve to (re)connect missional activities such as social justice, pastoral care and life-long learning.
For those who imagine discipleship as an ongoing exploration in which change is a constant, this workshop will challenge, excite and energize.
Legacy & Leadership
During one evening of the Tour, a presentation and Q&A event will be held, hopefully following a time of food and fellowship. It will explore the many programs and ways the College is nurturing leadership in this time of change; and,
College Sunday
A dedicated worship and giving opportunity, which focuses theologically on Legacy and Leadership, and uses the lived-experience of the College as a model of how St. Andrew’s has done that as an ongoing and innovating theological educational institution.