Jason Ballard on Hope for the Church in Canada, Serving Pastors as a Pastor, and the Importance of Pastoral Friendship

About this episode

Jason Ballard discusses hope for the church in Canada and the importance of pastoral friendship while reflecting on his experiences as a local pastor.

Five years into planting The Way Church in Vancouver and five years into The Pastorate, Jason steps into the guest chair to reflect on what he’s seeing in the Canadian church and what gives him real hope for pastors today. In this role-reversal episode, Jordan interviews Jason about his life as a local pastor, the story behind The Pastorate, and why he still wants to serve pastors as a practitioner, not a commentator. Jordan and Jason talk about: How Jason’s pastoral curiosity shapes the way he hosts the podcast and listens to guests, Planting The Way Church during the pandemic and how that journey has run alongside The Pastorate’s first five years, A concrete story of church revitalization through The Way’s “marriage” with Sutherland Church in North Vancouver, and what it meant for legacy, humility, and hope, The current pastoral landscape in Canada: a shortage of pastors, but a deep hunger, especially among younger leaders, for character, depth, and a real life with God, The power of small pastoral cohorts and friendships: sharing burdens, praying together, rejoicing and mourning with one another, as a key to staying in ministry for the long haul, What’s next for The Pastorate…

People in this episode

Guest: Jason Ballard

Topics covered

• hope for the church in Canada
• serving pastors
• pastoral friendship
• church planting
• church revitalization
• pastoral landscape in Canada
• small pastoral cohorts

Keywords

• The Way Church
• The Pastorate
• Vancouver
• Sutherland Church
• pastoral curiosity
• character and depth in leadership
• national gathering

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Way Church, The Pastorate

Books & works: Serving Pastors as a Pastor, Scripture

Places: Canada, Vancouver, North Vancouver

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