Citygate and Sanctuary Community Development Plan
Have you longed for your church to respond more fully to the mental health challenges facing us today? Now is your opportunity to build that response together with other local churches.
Citygate Vancouver and Sanctuary Mental Health are inviting teams of up to five people from a church to join a cohort of churches to explore a Community Development Response to issues of mental health after taking The Sanctuary Course.
The Sanctuary course (more information below) on mental health has been viewed by over 200,000 people around the world and is reshaping the church’s perspective on issues of mental health. Now we want to take a next step by developing a communal response as Vancouver churches.
The main objective
By the end of this process, we hope to have a collective plan to implement in and with participatory churches that increases our capacity to respond holistically and effectively to persons facing mental health challenges. By working together towards these responses, we hope to build together what we could not easily build alone.
The main outcome
Towards this end, Citygate and Sanctuary are facilitating a group for Vancouver area churches who are using The Sanctuary Course. The goal of this process is to discern 1-3 next steps that each of the participating churches can implement individually and/or corporately to continue the important work of supporting mental health and wellbeing in their communities.
Our hope is that this process will then be made available to other cities so that the churches in cities around the world we may all better come alongside each other in our human journey toward mental health.
Process for Registration
- Find 2-4 people from your church—who have either taken the course or who are willing to take the course—and invite them to be part of your church’s cohort in the community development process.
- Fill out and submit the application for the community development cohort by January 18th.
- Prepare to participate in the two discussions and discernment with out church leaders planned for January 24th and April 11th.
Session Outline
Session 1 / Online / Learning about community development process/brainstorming ideas (your group could prepare by watching the online recording of the first session)
Session 2 / Refining and prioritizing ideas / divvying up research
Session 3 / Moving forward with an implementation plan
Timeline
| Session 1 | Tuesday, October 25th, 2022 | 7pm PST | Zoom |
| Session 2 | Tuesday, January 24th, 2023 | 7pm PST | St. Andrews Hall |
| Session 3 | Tuesday, April 11th, 2023 | 7pm PST | St. Andrews Hall |
Apply Now
Application Deadline – September 30th, 2022
Download invitation in pdf here
More about The Sanctuary Course:
The Sanctuary Course was created to inspire and equip communities of faith to become sanctuaries for those facing mental health challenges. Developed in consultation with mental health professionals, theologians, and people with lived experience, this eight-session study guide explores key mental health topics and examines meaningful ways to offer companionship, support recovery and promote wellbeing.
Who is it for?
The Sanctuary Course is a study guide for small groups, designed to raise awareness and start conversations in local churches regarding mental health. Your group might include:
– People with questions about mental health
– Mental health professionals with a wealth of knowledge to share
– Leaders who want to engage their community in mental health conversations
– People supporting loved ones with mental health problems
– People living with mental health problemsThe Sanctuary Course is for anyone who wants to learn about faith and mental health. It requires no previous training or expertise—just a willingness to engage in dialogue with other believers.
