Imagine If We Could Eliminate Canada’s Leadership Pipeline Crisis

According to the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Church will need 625 new senior pastors every year for the next 20 years, just to keep pace with retirement and natural turnover. And that doesn’t include associate pastors, missionaries, church planters, or other vital ministry leaders who serve our communities.

If you were living in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, and learned that your senior pastor was preparing to retire, who would you find to readily replace them?

Or if you were serving in Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba and your youth pastor stepped down, you shouldn’t have to hope someone uproots their life to move across the country. What if you could raise up someone who’s already sitting in your pews?

What if there were trained leaders, local leaders, ready to step up to enter these roles with confidence?

And imagine this:

Your church not only receives leaders but sends them. When God calls someone from your congregation to serve elsewhere, you release them with joy because you helped prepare them.

These aren’t hypothetical scenarios. They’re real stories, happening today through Horizon College & Seminary and our growing number of church-based training hubs across Canada. Together with local congregations, we are confronting the leadership gap head-on, helping the Church to not only survive, but flourish.

In many translations of the Bible, the word flourish means to multiply.

In Genesis, God says, “be fruitful and flourish.” He promises Abraham that his descendants will flourish. Luke used the same idea to describe the explosive growth of the early church, even in seasons of pressure and hardship. When circumstances have suggested the church should shrink, it has grown.

We believe Canada is entering such a season again.

For decades, especially since the 1990s, Canadian church engagement has declined and attendance has thinned. “Regular” involvement shifted from multiple touch-points a week to perhaps one Sunday a month. Belief and participation waned.

But now, something unexpected is happening.

Recent Canadian research shows a renewed openness to faith conversations. Interest among 18–34 year olds has nearly doubled in the last few years. Young adults are choosing Christ, and their faith is more intentional, personal, and resilient. Similar renewals are happening in the US and UK as well. ¹

But increasing attendance does not automatically form disciples. ³ Faith must be formed. Hearts must be shaped. Minds must be sharpened.

Since 1935, our mission has never changed. Ever since Horizon College began in Star City, Saskatchewan, we have existed to prepare leaders for the Church.

Originally founded to serve the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Horizon now partners with a wide range of denominations including the Church of God, Mennonite Brethren, and the Christian & Missionary Alliance.

In the past year, we have expanded our national footprint:

• Forming a strategic partnership with MCS in Ontario
• Building relationships with churches from Newfoundland to British Columbia
• Supporting 100+ church-based training hubs raising leaders from within their own congregations

We’re not scaling to keep pace with culture, we’re scaling to keep pace with God!

Where You Come In

You may have influence, or perhaps affluence. Maybe both.

Your influence matters. A simple conversation that says “I see something in you,” can redirect the trajectory of a young life. Many leaders begin with exactly that moment.

Your affluence matters too. As Canadians, we are resourced, and God calls us to steward that well. When we expanded our partnership with MCS last year, we deliberately lowered tuition to reduce the burden on students, even though the cost of delivering high-quality theological education continues to rise.

Supporting over 100 churches as they develop leaders is not inexpensive. But we are not asking for support to construct a building, because our churches already have buildings.

We are asking you to build leaders.

Will you join what God is doing?

This is a pivotal moment for the Church in Canada. God is stirring hearts. Young people are responding. Churches are awakening to their role in raising local leaders.

Together, we can eliminate the leadership pipeline crisis and see a generation of disciples flourish.

Thank you for investing in this mission.

Dr. Jeromey Martini, President
Horizon College & Seminary and Master’s College & Seminary