We are people of the Spirit

We are animated by following the Holy Spirit wherever that takes us.

  • New Leaf came into being through the Holy Spirit, continues to exist by the Spirit, and will only find its future in the Spirit. Our Network will organize itself according to this reality. This isn’t just a theological commitment it continues to happen to us. Here’s a snapshot of what we mean:

    • New Leaf came into being through the Holy Spirit
      New Leaf was born through prayer and the laying on of hands of one of our leaders. 

    • Continues to exist by the Spirit
      New Leaf came into being when a small group of people resonated with what the Spirit was birthing among us. 

    • Will only find its future in the Spirit
      Our New Leaf leadership structures have as always practiced listening prayer and group discernment when we meet. To the fullest extent that we are able, we will try to incorporate this into all of our leadership spaces.  

  • We are animated by what God is doing in Canada. The Spirit has been seeding Canadian cities, towns, neighbourhoods, networks and denominations with the future of the Canadian church. These seeds grow into new communities that are, living breathing demonstrations of the truth of the Gospel. 

Given the above, here is what we do:

  • New Leaf Network exists to unite planters, starters, networks and denominations around a common task: to discover, nurture, and support these seeds wherever they are found.

  • We will operate as a discernment community. We will encourage each other to listen and respond to the leading of the Spirit. God started this. So, we will want to keep in step with where God is taking us.

  • We will help each other care for what is growing among us.

 
 

We are people rooted in Canadian Soil

We are animated by what we are learning about Canada. We will do what it takes to understand, invest in, and build resources that support and nurture planters and starters in the Canadian context.  

  • We believe that our contexts and cultures matter to God. Since we see God at work in Canada we want to pay special attention to what is going on right HERE right NOW. 

  • Incarnation is the means by which God entered our world and made ours and all of creations redemption possible. Incarnation is also the path the church must follow if we hope to form credible, intelligible, and authoritative gospel communities in the towns, neighbourhoods, cities and networks we find ourselves in.

Given the above, here is what we will do:

  • Do the hard work of being rooted in Canadian soil.
    The hard work of understanding the changes that lay beneath the surface of Canadian culture. The hard work of being honest about what we see and what that might means for how our denominations assume things work. The hard work of developing thoughts, models and experiments in response to what we see in Canada. The hard work of communicating and sharing our ideas and efforts with each other. The hard work of talking about and collectively learning from the results - good and bad. The hard work of developing and supporting systems that encourage a connected learning community.

  • We are unapologetically Canadian.
    We elevate the voices doing the hard work in Canada. We may not always go after the big names but we will always go after on the ground practitioners.

  • We are open-sourced.
    We learn and grow and adjust our perspectives based on what we learn from our work in Canada.

  • We Work Together.
    Nurture a wider learning community by going out of our way to work together. 

  • We Are Incarnational
    Foster and encourage church planting practices that are both faithful and incarnational. We want to see churches that are uniquely tuned to their context and faithful expressions of credal Christianity.

  • We Hold Multi-Disciplinary Perspective
    Our understanding of the changes that lay beneath the surface of Canadian culture; our developing thoughts, models and experiments in response to what we see; the communicating and sharing our ideas and efforts with each other and the work of talking about and collectively learning from the results - good and bad will be resourced from as many areas of the Canadian landscape as possible. We welcome the voices of theologians, sociologists, academics, artists, practitioners and researchers.

 
 

We are Jesus people

Jesus is glue that holds us together.

  • Jesus is the head of the church and has gifted it with diverse roles, responsibilities, spiritual giftings, and unique perspectives.

  • The Nicene Creed shapes our understanding of what it means to be faithful to Jesus. 

  • We are convinced that God has given gifts (charisms) to the various churches in Canada. Each church is called by God to share their gifts with others in the spirit of Christian unity, for the good of the world, and in line with who God has made them to be. 


Given the above, here is what we will do:

  • We will encourage each other to bloom where we are planted. We encourage each other to foster healthy connections to their home denominations and networks. They need us and we need them. We need to encourage each other to stay connected with where we live and who we live with.

  • We will attempt to walk with each other in mutual respect. We will be honest, humble and sincere as we hold our convictions and beliefs.

  • We shape New Leaf experiences so that people are thinking about how it connects to their home context and denomination as much as possible.  

  • We will spend time helping Starters and Planters apply what they are learning within their respective denominations and networks.

  • We will encourage Starters and Planters to speak respectfully of/with people from different theological contexts.

 
 

Our Blueprint for Being Together

A Recognition: New Leaf is a collection of individuals, organizations, and churches gathered around a joint mission: to help the Canadian church discover, nurture, and support innovators, missional leaders and starters. 

We practice and work at the deep development of a catholic spirit and connectionalism. Projects and events hosted by New Leaf will offer various perspectives of participants in the effort to bring to the surface the genius in the room (be it onsite or virtual). As a Learning Community, we are rooted in our shared identity as followers of Jesus and we seek to humbly learn from each other in our differences. In our desire to serve the breadth of the Body of Christ in Canada, we learn from, listen to and work with those from various theological traditions and convictions and welcome all voices, including historically marginalized voices in the Canadian church, such as women in pastoral ministry, queer Christian leaders, and BIPOC pastors.

  • We support innovators, starters and missional leaders because they are key to: 

    • addressing our common experiences of plateau and decline. We all have work to do.

    • living out and demonstrating the Good News about Jesus in a way that our neighbours will understand. 

    • our future collective faithfulness to God. 

    • creating new wineskins within our respective organizations.

A Posture: Grace in the face of change

  • Canada is changing rapidly. The pace of change means it can be really challenging to be both faithful and incarnational in our respective contexts. The pace of change also means that Canadian denominations are struggling to adapt. Sometimes we’ll get it wrong. Sometimes we’ll get it right. Sometimes our responses will be a mixture of both. So, with God’s help, we are all going to need to be gracious to each other as we work this out. 

  • It may be that even after all of our hard work some of us land at different places on what it means to be both faithful and incarnational. When this happens we will be honest, respectful, and gracious with each other at these departure points. 

  • At our departure points, we will still:

    • Work hard together to maintain a wide learning community that brings out the best in each other. 

    • Hold out hope for each other. 

    • Trust and encourage the Spirit’s work in each other.

  • At our departure points, we will also:

    • Give each other the freedom to self-select what aspects of the network are most helpful.

    • Work at understanding and honouring these departure points. 

    • Remain committed to building a wide learning community that brings out the best in each other.