Known & Unknown: Ministry Leadership in Liminal Time

The Vancouver School of Theology proudly presents Known & Unknown: Ministry Leadership in a Liminal Time 

August 25 – 27, 2025

Keynotes

Grace Ji-Sun Kim, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), received her MDiv from Knox College (University of Toronto) and her PhD from the University of Toronto. She is Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion, Richmond, Indiana.

Sarah B. Drummond, a minister of the United Church of Christ, serves as the Founding Dean of Andover Newton Seminary and Professor in the Practice of Ministerial Leadership at Yale Divinity School. Dr. Drummond earned her MDiv from Harvard Divinity School and her PhD in Urban Education from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

Workshops

•       Check the VST website for full conference information! 

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Some call this is a ‘liminal season’ — a time when individuals and institutions are struggling with surprising forces inside and out, often experiencing disorientation, disengagement, and disenchantment. Leadership in ministry today requires dexterity in navigating the ‘known and the unknown’ of this time. 

Susan Beaumont, author of How To Lead When you Don’t Know Where You’re Going: Leading in a Liminal Season [2019]) suggests that leadership in a liminal season is different than leadership in stable times: “An effective leader must help individuals and groups remain in a liminal state for the time that it takes to get clear about identity and to discover new structures that are more appropriately suited to their emerging identity.” (20) Recalling Moses, she suggests that leadership in a liminal time is ‘incredibly dangerous’ because people are unhappy and uneasy in the time of grief, loss, and letting go. Also, like Moses, liminal leaders might not get to the Promised Land. We don’t know the full story in this moment. 

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”

—William Blake

… known and unknown…

It’s a suggestive phrase. Perhaps a bit vague. Intentionally so. Open to possibilities and creative thinking.  

At this Vancouver School of Theology conference, we have invited presenters, workshop leaders, worship leaders, and preachers to offer wisdom into this liminal season from a variety of perspectives. We hope that students, alumni, and church leaders will engage and connect across diverse experiences to live into this liminal season with faithful leadership.  

Where are we going now? And where will we find ourselves in months and years to come?

Coming at the end of the Lilly Endowment funded Pathways Project — Leaders for a New Day — which has focused on renewing and strengthening Theological Field Education (TFE), we hope this conference will be attentive to ‘transitions’ and ‘integration’ as we all seek to attend to the threshold or liminal moments that face us. 

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This conference is financially supported by the ‘Leaders for a New Day’ project that is redeveloping Theological Field Education (TFE) at VST through the Lilly Endowment Pathways Project.