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Congregation and Religion Research Gathering 2026
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Thursday, December 10
 

9:00am EST

The Myth of Decline: Rethinking the Story of the Canadian Church
Thursday December 10, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am EST
The dominant story of Christianity in Canada is one of decline: fewer people attending, churches closing, denominations shrinking, and religious influence fading. But what if that story is only partly true? Drawing on longitudinal data from Canadian congregations, this talk examines the difference between institutional decline and religious change. It explores church closures, consolidation, migration, congregational growth, changing denominational patterns, and the emergence of new forms of Christian community. Rather than asking simply whether Christianity is declining, the talk asks a more useful question: what exactly is declining, what is growing, and what is being transformed? The result is a more complicated picture of Canadian Christianity, one in which genuine decline exists alongside resilience, redistribution, demographic change, and significant pockets of growth. The challenge is not to replace a pessimistic narrative with an optimistic one, but to develop a more empirically accurate account of the changing Canadian church.

Speakers
avatar for Stephen Hewko

Stephen Hewko

Director, Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research, Wycliffe College
With backgrounds in the natural sciences and theology, Steve leads Wycliffe Colleges new Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research. Steve has a passion for data-informed decision making and a keen interest in discovering some of the deeper contours and dynamics of the Canadian... Read More →
Thursday December 10, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am EST

1:30pm EST

The Stories Congregations Tell: Flourishing in the Face of Transition and Change
Thursday December 10, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm EST
Congregations are story-telling communities. The stories they tell, which link a community's past, present, and future, can play an important role in whether a congregation flourishes or not. This session builds on a collaborative book project – The Stories Congregations Tell – centered on detailed case study research led out of the Flourishing Congregations Institute, housed at Ambrose University. Featuring seven dynamic Canadian congregations across theological traditions and geographical regions, attention will be given to social scientific analysis and theological reflection on the stories congregations tell and the function those stories play for a congregation's culture, along with practical and hopeful applications to arise from this research.
Speakers
avatar for Joel Thiessen

Joel Thiessen

Professor of Sociology, Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute, Social Sciences Department Chair, Ambrose University
I am a sociologist of religion who specializes in religion in Canada, religious nones, congregations, millennials, and more recently, death and dying. I have (co)authored 6 books and over 20 articles, plus delivered over 135 invited public lectures with scholars, church, and denominational... Read More →
Thursday December 10, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm EST
 
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