Sidewalk Skyline Podcast

Rev. Sileen Phillips is the children’s minister at The Church of St. Peter and St. Simon The Apostle Anglican Church in Toronto. In this session at ‘Our City Toronto 2023’ she brings her insights from working with the vulnerable sector in government institutions and the community.

Dagma Koyi is a visionary woman with an unconditional love and passion for people. She has an overwhelming desire to see all people live enriched and thriving lives and has become known as a social innovator, humanitarian, Minister, impactful teacher, leader, coach, author, and an entrepreneur. Her passion for social innovation has led her to pioneering several remarkable ventures including REST C...

After pastoring for 21 years at a large city church, Karen took the risk 12 years ago to live on raised funds as an urban worker, joining with what God is doing in East Vancouver, one of the most unchurched neighbourhoods in Canada. She lives a shared life intentionally in a 100 year old, six bedroom house, as a base to seek the flourishing of her community and extend generous hospitality to neigh...

Our conversation today is going to focus primarily on Christians that were born in Africa and are now living in Canada. What strikes me demographically is that the African continent has a higher percentage of the population identifying as Christian than we do in Canada. Prior to 1960, black Africans comprised a very small, scattered and almost unknown group of newcomers to Canada, although African...

Charles and I work together with Mission Canada, a Christian ‘ mission agency to reach Canada with the gospel in unique ways. There are many contexts where there is a gap; campuses, people groups, regions, and communities where Jesus is inadequately represented. Mission Canada is committed to identify and equip those who will pursue their calling to fill these gaps. ’ [1]   I am the urban min...

From her childhood in Guyana to a life of ministry in Canada, Denise Munroe has had a fascinating journey. Currently she serves as the Family Life Pastor at The Embassy Church in Oshawa, Ontario. She is in regular contact with people in the community that seek assistance from the church. We talk about being a newcomer, experiences of racism and the societal needs of Canadian born citizens.

Rob Good is the founding pastor of Promise Church in Bradford, Ontario. They describe themselves as ‘A community united to show God with us, making all things right.’ Pastor Rob has found innovative ways to do community service, empowered the congregation to initiate good things in their city and interactive technology to assist in their discipleship journey. Bradford is a bedroom community north...

Ben and Emma Narayanan moved their young family from Australia to plant churches in the Vancouver area. Avant Life Church lives by the mantra: Remain Helpful Remain Humble Remain Hopeful Remain His. They are now located in North Vancouver, Squamish, and Surrey with a desire to see a movement of church planting in smaller BC communities.

Wendy Burton has had a lifetime working in corporate settings and ministry experience in churches, but in recent years her focus turned to her community. Prompted by the Spirit, she began to make herself available at a local coffee chain to meet people, build friendships and enter into a life of community pastoring.

David W. Fisher has been an organizer since his teen years when he ran a neighbourhood racing car fan club, the Eliminators Car Club. He later organized Couriers for Christ, in which young people helped run weekend crusades. He ran a local bookstore and helped start the Kawartha Church Slo-Pitch League. He founded the Epistle Sports Ministries, a charitable organization which over thirty years or...

From a childhood in Nigeria to his education in Germany to a life in Canada, David Ibhaluobe has had a path filled with signs and wonders of God’s leading. More recently, he has moved to Peterborough with a desire to plant a church among the homeless. Listen in to his fascinating story.

Bill Reilly and I shadow the team of Street Level Advocacy in Peterborough, Ontario. Scott Couper, Leigh-Ann Davidson, Chris and a growing number of people are spending their days on the streets, in the Overflow tent city, shelters and agencies that work with street affiliated people. You will meet Joe, the Aboriginal man run over by a snow plow and Will the bicycle recycler. Join us as we find Go...

On this episode I travelled to McCrary Park in Peterborough and sat by Little Lake to meet a new friend. Todd Carlton is host of The Toddcast where he interviews a wide range of people about their journey to faith. His own story bears repeating. Todd is connected to a movement called ‘Disciple A City’ with an emphasis on equipping believers to share their faith on the streets, in parks and in the...

Graham Gibson is the Director of Cultural Engagement Studies at Master’s College and Seminary in Peterborough, Ontario. He and his wife Linda have a life centred in students and mission. In this interview we talked about seeing Canada as a mission field for the Gospel and the importance of cultural engagement.

Bill Reilly is the video producer for Sidewalk Skyline Podcast. In this episode we are on a road trip to Peterborough, Ontario where we will record several people involved in urban ministry. As the voice and face of the podcast, I am always aware of the guy standing a few feet away behind the camera. Bill’s experience and ability to tell stories make him a great accomplice with pursuing the story...

Andrea Chang works part-time for the Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre (TIM Centre) as an Assistant Leadership Consultant where her role includes research, grant writing and an intercultural development facilitator. Andrea also works for Anchor and Serenity where she is a Spiritual Director and consultant.  She has assisted churches and organizations in navigating the grant writing for...

Brian Yu has been with the Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre for more than five years, where he serves as a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI®). He coaches and facilitates intercultural learning for individuals, teams, and organizations. Brian has been serving as a pastor for over 14 years and is currently one of the lead pastors of The Change Community...

Heskias Mandefro has been serving in pastoral ministry for over 17 years at the Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Toronto. As the English pastor in an Amharic language church, he finds himself functioning as a cultural translator between generations. Heskias strives to lead with ideas that are well thought through biblically, and culturally. He is passionate to engage ethnic churches in reaching the...

Ejay and Cheryl live above a coffee shop on Queen Street in Toronto. As parents of a toddler, they exemplify urban disciples of Jesus living on mission in their neighbourhood. In this session from the Our City Toronto conference (2022) they share life lessons and guiding principles on the power of collaborative relationship. They depend on each other and rely on other community members in accompli...

Bill Ryan started his ministry in Toronto after graduating from Ontario Bible College in 1982. This led to his work at Yonge Street Mission where he served for over 25 years in numerous roles first serving as Program Co-ordinator at Evergreen, Pastor of Church on the Street, Director of the Christian Community Centre, Director of Staff care and Interim Program Officer. He later served as Director...

Erinn Oxford was born and raised in Toronto, a city that she loves. She has been working in Parkdale, a neighbourhood in the city’s west end since 2007. In 2012 she was invited into her current role as Executive Director and Pastor. Tasked with re-visioning the work, Erinn sought the feedback of the community and proposed a full reboot, one that would include giving up a building, spilling into th...

Pastor Vir Mateo and his daughter Rhema Annett started the Good Measure Foodbank out of their church. Listen to their story as to how they saw a need in their community, responded to serve and found critical partnerships to feed their hungry neighbours in Mississauga. This session was recorded at Our City Toronto Conference 2022.

My guests today are ‘Patmos People’, a term I coined to describe people that remind me of John the Revelator. From their embedded history in a city, they are uniquely poised to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church in their location. Just as Jesus expressed his love through John to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, these Patmos People are living messages of Jesus’ love for Montreal. Patti M...

This is part 2 of my conversation with John Engels, Kelly Johnson, Jazelle Johnson and David Ritz. We talk about the effects of deconstructing faith and how university campus leaders are engaging in meaningful conversations. Many students are experiencing an awakening of conscience and sorting through what to believe about right and wrong.

It is no secret that public education finds its roots in the Christian faith. Study the roots of any historic university and you will find that clergy and prominent Christian community builders believed that education held the keys to greater wisdom and understanding. Christian faith is built on curiosity and wonder about all of Creation and unveiling its mysteries. But today if you walk onto the...