The Canadian Christian podcast landscape has a new show that features conversations that connect research and ministry. The
Faith Trends Podcast launched in November as an initiative of the research department of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, to better connect research with its ministry implications for the Church in Canada.
“Faith Trends will highlight Canadian Christian researchers, both established and emerging, and provide a platform for their work,” says Rick Hiemstra, EFC’s director of research and co-host of
Faith Trends, along with Researcher Lindsay Callaway. “We want to help build a bridge connecting researchers to ministry practitioners who might benefit from their work.”
Listeners can anticipate monthly releases about topics like Alpha Canada’s new research on the state of evangelism in Canada, a deep dive into research on clergy wellness and how that impacts the Church, and insights on how Canadian religious people are numbered by the government, and how religious polling works.
“Often the outworking of a research project is motivated by a deeply personal desire to know and love God and his people more,” says Hiemstra. “We’ve seen this in the interviews we’ve done so far in the PhD work of a pastoral spouse who wanted to learn how pastors develop resilience in ministry and the research on Gen-Z and evangelism that flowed from an impassioned desire for the next generation to know Jesus.”
Research doesn’t exist to benefit just the researcher, but to benefit the wider research population and community.
Faith Trends provides a glimpse into the heart and community behind research that is happening for the Church in Canada.
“The Canadian Church is often exposed to research and literature that is written from an American perspective that doesn’t acknowledge the many cultural and regional distinctives in Canada,” says Lindsay Callaway. “We will highlight researchers and the research that helps us understand who we are as Canadians and the Canadian Church.”
Each monthly episode will include a 30–40-minute conversation with a researcher, followed by a debrief with Hiemstra and Callaway about their impressions and the takeaways. Listeners can enjoy the podcast on all the normal podcast platforms and also find it at wwwTheEFC.ca/podcasts.
For interviews contact:
mediarelations@theefc.ca
Access high-rez images of the Podcast logo
here.