No new coaching contracts will be engaged until May 31, 2023, as these EDGE services and others are assessed in conjunction with the new Strategic Plan. EDGE staff will continue to offer already planned programming for 2023 (visit CHURCHx.ca for several of these offerings).
EDGE announcement: EDGE Announcement from The United Church of Canada
If you have any questions, please contact edge@united-church.ca.
EDGE has over 12 years of experience consulting with and coaching communities of faith and community ministries through various processes. Through our experiences we’ve learned that longer-term coaching (6 months and more) is more effective in achieving real change than one-off retreat days.
Coaching is a long-term relationship, usually of 6 months or longer where a coach is able to work with a small leadership team who then works with the whole congregation to introduce change and experimentation with innovative ideas. The focus is on empowering and resourcing a leadership team within the community. EDGE has found that this approach is much more effective in establishing real change or mindset shifts.
Consulting is when a facilitator works directly with the whole congregation, often this looks like a one-day or half-day workshop around visioning, strategic planning, or some specific task that the congregation would like to accomplish. Although these sessions can be energizing and helpful, if they are not part of a broader plan within the congregation, they are less effective in leading to real change.
Facilitation by an outsider can sometimes be intimidating but is sometimes very helpful in allowing the leadership of a congregation to fully engage with a process. EDGE has worked with hundreds of communities of faith and community ministries through a wide variety of challenges. Our facilitators have experience with theories of change, strategic planning, and systems theory, but they self-identify faith, compassion, and hope as the values that are most important to pursue their work with EDGE.
What we do:
Coaching Support: $345/month or $2000 for a 6-month process
This pricing is based on a 90-minute meeting with a coach once per month, plus preparation, follow-up, and some support between meetings. Co-design a plan with one of our coaches to meet the specific needs of your congregation. Please contact Bronwyn Corlett, for more information.
CHURCHx – Signposts: Free to $100
Please check out CHURCHx.ca for EDGE programs. There are resources available that your congregation can work through at their own pace, and/or hire a facilitator to run an activity. Some resources are free, others vary in price up to $100.
Why hire EDGE?
We know that this is a challenging time for many communities of faith and community ministries. We would like to assure you that we do not bring answers or solutions, but rather are hopeful that the tools and resources, as well as our facilitated processes, can and have helped communities discover new purpose and capacity within their context. Our coaches and consultants have access to an online toolkit of resources that focus on capacity building, adaptive learning, congregational support, and sustainability initiatives.
There is no one right answer for any community so we’d like to share with you some of the options that might work well for you to begin or continue your faithful journey.
