Over 500 attendees joined us in Banff or online for a time of refreshing, renewal and restoring. Every session was inspiring, challenging, and a reminder that none of us do this alone, we are Together. Check out how to playback the sessions.

Why we disappoint ourselves by breaking resolutions we make.

2021 has been an exhausting season for many. I don’t know about you but I don’t feel like I have too much gas left in the tank for 2022. It’s tough to prepare mentally for a new season when you feel the light at the end of the tunnel is growing dim.

A prescription for perseverence

Obsession may seem like a sinister thing in Hollywood movies, but it's fuel when it's directed toward godly outcomes. Those who obsess over their mission are likely to stick with their work well beyond the time the non-obsessed have given up. Obsession is a passion of the resilient.

Resilience can be developed by anybody of any age. Leaders across Canada offered their personal practices that helped them build resilience. Good for you, your family and your team.

If you are lucky enough to never experience any sort of adversity, you won’t know how resilient you are. It’s only when you’re faced with obstacles, stress, and other threats that resilience, or the lack of it, emerges: Do you succumb or do you surmount? The good news is, resilience can be developed in unlimited quantities. Take it from Gandalf, science and the apostle Paul.

Great teams learn how to bounce back after a loss. Great people do as well. So, how do you bounce back after a difficult Sunday? Or Board meeting? Or a message you weren’t fully prepared to deliver? Or a volunteer resignation? How do you deal with the raw emotions that surface and work to rise above them? What’s your bounce-back plan?

A Canadian Olympian, a psychotherapist, a hip hop dancer, a pastor and two global development workers walk into adversity. And no, this isn't a set-up line for a joke. These are real people in real adversity and what you can learn from how they developed resilience to be their best.

This Christmas will be unlike any other in your lifetime. That's why putting resilience on the top of your gift list serves you well. Resilience is not reliant on the comfort of explanations but the courage from God’s presence in the deepest dark.

Four essential ingredients to self-care.

When faced with continuous criticism, health concerns, stress, opposition, or discouragement, resilience is how well a pastor can adapt to the events in her or his life. Resilience is the secret sauce of pastoral fitness.

Leaders are learners. We learn as we lead. A season of major change is a dangerous time to lead poorly. Poorly handled change is at the root of a huge portion of church conflicts, splits and exits. Learn well to lead well.

There is only a one-letter difference between “rest” and “reset” but there is a world of difference in outcomes. Pastors wouldn’t be blamed if they need to rest. We're all COVID exhausted. But the antidote to exhaustion is not just rest. It's reset.

There are a lot of factors that cause pastors to lose the passion for their calling. Pastors start out fired up and end up burning out. COVID hasn't helped. There is one simple switch that can keep pastors on fire for God.

The source of fatigue may not be physical. It is imperative that we learn to find rest for our soul.

If you want to your organization to grow, you have to grow as a leader. The kicker is that the law of the lid eventually applies to every leader. Every leader will become the lid to their own organization.

The task of gearing up onsite services while maintaining high quality online experiences, in a season when most leaders and churches gear down, makes the summer of 2020 one of the most stress-filled times of the century for pastors.