Living in the Light

In the winter term of 2025, I got to do something that seems unlikely, at the Vancouver School of Theology. Along with my colleague Rev. Marnie Peterson, and with help from then-student, Rev. Afonso Issa, I got to be a part of designing and leading a course on church planting, called Living in the Light.

I say that it was unlikely, first, because for a long time in Canada the focus has been on maintaining ministries, rather than planting new ones, within the denominations most consistently represented by VST students. But also, because it was a much more hands-on, integrative way of learning what it means to be a part of and lead a church than I have ever experienced in an academic setting. We got to actively work through the whys and whats of Christian community, from the ground up. And even better, we got to see it come partly to life. Our culminating service was an exercise in creating the kinds of spaces that we prayerfully imagined, where people would encounter and be encountered by God, through a variety of worship movements and practices.

Working with a framework of “Gather, Transform, and Send,” we had opportunities to try new things, reimagining what it means to welcome others into worship, wrestling with tradition and discovering the rich blessings of a wide range of Christian expressions, all in the service of forming people for Christian witness outside of worship. Part of the strength of our group was the diversity of denominational and worshiping experiences that we each brought. We had Canadian mainline representation, alongside those raised in Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions from around the world. We had cradle Christians and new converts, those who had deconstructed and reconstructed the faith of their youth, and lots of space to wonder about the traditions we hold dear and the ones we might have been wary of. It was a remarkable opportunity to get out of our own Christian subcultures and experience some of the wild diversity of Christ’s Body.

All of this was indicative of the forward-thinking leadership and appetite for experimentation within traditions that are part of the fabric of VST. There is a deep awareness that the Church for which students are being equipped to serve is, more often than not, an institution in flux.

And therefore, we take seriously the call to “hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church,” in this particular time and place. While some of the students in the class may go on to plant new ministries, in pitching the course, President Richard Topping pointed out that, irrespective of the context in which students end up in ministry, much of the work of congregational leadership will require adaptation and innovation in order to embody the Gospel in compelling ways. This course was one example of VST putting resources behind its commitment to form “thoughtful, engaged, and generous Christian leaders,” not for the Church as it was, or even is, but as it will be.

Aaron Miller is the congregational minister of University Hill Congregation and the United Church of Canada Campus Minister at the University of British Columbia.