The Public Service Christian Fellowship

The 11th annual Faith@Work Forum took place on Saturday November 26, 2011 at Parkwood Presbyterian Church, 10 Chesterton Drive in Ottawa, with approx. 36 persons in attandance. The theme speaker was Gerry Organ, who spoke on ""Dancing with the Star": Discovering your purpose and your destiny by staying in step with the Music Maker!". Gerry coordinates the Marketplace Ministry initiative of One Way Ministries in Ottawa, encouraging and gathering leaders from both churches and the marketplace to foster greater unity and warmer synergy. Along with his extensive career in the CFL, he co-founded The Ottawa Athletic Club, served as a Family Therapist in Guelph and was a Director with Focus on the Family. After pastoring at The Peoples Church, Toronto, Gerry served for 10 years as Executive Director of Christian Business Ministries Canada.

Gerry's address is now available on our site (mp3 format, 43 minutes, 39.5 MB).

2010: Your Work is Your Ministry

The 10th annual Faith@Work Forum took place on Saturday November 6, 2010 at Parkwood Presbyterian Church, 10 Chesterton Drive in Ottawa. Approximately 45 people gathered to hear guest speaker Dr. Barry P. Boucher on the theme "Your Work is Your Ministry". Barry is former lead pastor of The Life Centre, and was previously employed in the Printing & Publishing industry and with the Federal Government (Indian and Northern Affairs, Parks Canada and National Museums of Canada). Barry has also been the Team Leader for Mission Ottawa/Outaouais (a ministry to ministers) for the last ten years.

Those present enjoyed a meal of Chinese food together. The afternoon session consisted of five "breakout" sessions:

• Evangelism in my workplace: Why, how to do it well, what not to do.
• Christian integrity in the workplace: What does it look like? How to have it, keep it, and encourage it in others.
• How to make my existing workplace small group more seeker-sensitive
• Creating bridges with non-believers: Discuss whether there is a need to create or join existing groups that are not specifically evangelistic, but provide an opportunity for people of with different points of view (including Christians) to dialogue together over common-interest topics and issues affecting our society today.
• How to start a new group in my workplace.

Barry's notes are available on Barry's blog (barryboucher.com), and the audio file of Barry's address is now available (59 minutes, 13.8 MB).

2009: Religious freedom in today's workplace:
            challenges and opportunities

The 9th annual Faith@Work Forum took place at the Ottawa Citizen building, Baxter Road, Ottawa on Saturday November 14, 2009 with some 40 people in attendance. The guest speaker was Janet Epp Buckingham, associate professor at Trinity Western University and the Director of TWU’s Laurentian Leadership Centre. Janet is the former Executive Director of Christian Legal Fellowship (1991-94) and general legal counsel with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (1999-2003) and EFC’s Director, Law and Public Policy (2003-2006). She is also a regular columnist in the periodical ChristianWeek.

An audio copy of Janet's talk (53:05 minutes, 12.5 MB) is available on our site, as are Janet's notes (in the form of handouts from her PowerPoint presentation). Also available is a handout based on the presentation given by Promise Sanipe of CCRI. To download either file, right-click on the link and choose "Save target as".

2008: Here to Help:
            an assessment of the many groups around Parliament Hill
            that try to bring a biblical perspective to bear on public policy issues

The 8th annual Faith@Work Forum was held Saturday November 8, 2008 in the conference room of the Ottawa Citizen Building on Baxter Road in Ottawa. The speaker was Lloyd Mackey, a publisher, author, analyst and journalist working out of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Lloyd's most recent book is Stephen Harper, the Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006). He writes regularly for ChristianWeek Ontario and BC Christian News. At the time of Lloyd's address to the forum, his Hill analysis, OttawaWatch, written from a Christian perspective, appeared weekly on www.canadianchristianity.com.

An audio copy of Lloyd's talk (51:26 minutes, 12.1 MB) is available on our site, as are his notes.

2007: A Life of Faith in the Workplace:
            the Challenge of Personal Integrity and Pluralism

The 7th annual Faith@Work Forum will took place Saturday, November 3, 2007 from 9:30 to noon at the Laurentian Leadership Centre, 252 Metcalfe Street (at Maclaren) in Ottawa, with 55 people present. The speaker was Ian Shugart, a public servant with over 25 years experience on Parliament Hill and in the public service. Ian is a husband and father, church elder, and student and teacher of the Scriptures. He spoke from life experience, with many references to the book of Daniel. The forum was sponsored again this year by CCRI, Government Professionals Exemplifying Christ, the Ottawa Canadian Chinese Christian Professional Fellowship and the Public Service Christian Fellowship.

An audio copy of Ian's talk (1:07:24 minutes, 16 MB) is available.

2006: Living out the life of Christ in our bland consumer society

The 6th annual forum was held Saturday November 4, from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Laurentian Leadership Centre, 252 Metcalfe Street in Ottawa, with over 50 people in attendance. Guest speaker was Roland Priddle, who recently retired as Chair of the National Energy Board (NEB) where he served two five-year terms. He spent the previous twelve years at the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, where he was latterly Assistant Deputy Minister, Petroleum. Mr. Priddle holds an M.A. in Economic Geography from Cambridge University and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Ottawa. He has done graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. Roland will guide us through these questions: "Is Christ truly in me (Colossians 1:27b)? If so, how is He reflected in my work life, home life and, above all, in my thought life (2 Corinthians 10:5)? Is the society I live in a bland one seen from a Christian perspective? How can I escape the spiritual trap of hedonism?"

We welcome as co-sponsor in 2006 (along with CCRI, the OCCCPF and the PSCF), Government Professionals Exemplifying Christ (GPEC), a group working out of the Metropolitan Bible Church.

An audio copy of Roland's talk (44:52 minutes, 8 MB) as well as his notes are now available.

2005: Following Jesus into the workplace...
            Reflections from Matthew, the urban civil servant

Ottawa's fifth annual Faith@Work Forum was held Saturday September 17, 2005 from in the conference room of the Ottawa Citizen Building. The theme speaker was Glenn Smith, Executive Director of Christian Direction in Montreal (www.direction.ca) and former Ottawa resident. Christian Direction is a ministry of evangelism and discipleship in the province of Québec, with roots going back to the Sermons from Science pavillion at Expo '67. It was founded by Keith Price, and Glenn has been its Executive Director since Keith's retirement in 1983.

For 2005, the usual sponsors, CCRI, the PSCF and the OCCCPF were joined by ACTs (a Cluster of Tentmakers), a group that at the time held monthly meetings of business people in the Ottawa area aimed at encouraging faith at work among business leaders.

2004: Experiencing God at Work

At the end of the morning many people shared what God had been doing in their place of work. Also, Dr. Frank Jones gave a summary of new Faith@Work initiatives he has been involved in and some biblical background for the work in general.

2003: Being Salt and Light in the Workplace

The purpose of these annual gatherings is to encourage workplace spirituality. We feel that it is important to connect with and encourage one another annually in the Lord. Dr. Frank Jones gave a brief address on the theme "Being Salt and Light in the Workplace", based on a larger piece of research on the same topic, entitled "A Manual of Classic Guidelines and Prayers" (pdf format, 152 KB, 48 pages). Dr. Jones provided the audience with several handouts (all 8 pages, in pdf format):

• Classic Prayers for the Employed
  
• Classic Prayers for Guidance for Bible Study
  
• Classic Guidelines for Dealing with Workplace Stress and Temptation
  
• Classic Guidelines on the Use of Time, for the Employed
  

2002: Faith@Work: opportunities and challenges

The event was attended by some 50+ people, most of whom are actively involved in workplace bible studies or prayer groups. Represented were a cross-section of public and private sector groups. A number of these groups are listed in the Directory of Workplace Faith Groups, initially housed on CCRI's site but migrated to the PSCF site in 2011; while most of the public sector groups are also listed on the PSCF website. Groups from the public sector included the Downtown Prayer Group, Statistics Canada, the Military Christian Fellowship, the Communications Security Establishment, and from the private sector groups from Nortel, Cognos, Telesat, Alcatel and the Chinese Entrepreneurs Association as well as local Alpha representatives. Several local individuals and a couple of pastors attended as well. See the detailed group reports on a separate page.

The morning of fellowship was led by Edward Ng. Gord Walford led the group in a number of songs and choruses, as well as prayer. After the theme talk the group were encouraged to make known prayer needs, both for praise and intercession. Several groups had submitted theirs ahead of time. The needs were lifted up in prayer led by Promise Sanipe. A time of fellowship followed, and interested parties were led on a tour of the building by Dr. Page.

Dr. Frank Jones prepared a a paper for the forum based on his experience with study groups at the University of Ottawa, entitled One Route to Encouraging Faith in the University. It is available on our site in PDF format.

2001: First Annual Faith@Work Forum