In October 2024, the Session, at my request, asked the Presbytery of Winnipeg to reduce my time as minister at Prairie from full-time to .8 time. This was a one-year agreement which is now coming to an end.

This summer, the Session spent time discerning around Prairie’s future, and have agreed to simply allow the minister position to revert back to full time as the one year agreement expires (Sept 30 2025). There are a few reasons for doing so, but chief among them is to focus on a significant area of ministry - to support innovation and the creation of new ministries both within and beyond the congregation.

I believe that landing on a watchword of “Relationships” through the New Beginnings Process was a true gift. While the hope at Prairie is directed toward building relationships within the congregation (and the neighbourhood), my own hope is that in addition to Prairie we might see more communities of faith form where people can find the same kinds of relationships with one another in the peace and grace of Christ. In many ways, my own ministry is more as a catalyst - helping get things going, and then just letting it go. I’m curious about what would be needed to help the next few new communities of faith to sprout up.

In essence, I am convinced that we need more communities where people can have relationships centred around Christ, just like what is happening at Prairie.

Rev. Matt Brough

New Ministries as a primary model

One model is to try and add more people into Prairie and build relationships with them. Of course, we will always welcome new people.
Another model is to catalyze the creation of new ministries that could potentially become their own worshipping communities where new relationships are fostered. We believe this is a good model to pursue alongside strengthening the existing congregation of Prairie. Why not help other communities get established where relationships thrive?
A big question is often “but how?” Cyclical (see below) has amazing resources to work toward this, and, we can obviously talk more about strategies and how to implement them. Often, though, the “how” question is really about “who.” Who will be the ones starting these new ministries? It may be lay people currently at Prairie or people not even part of Prairie. It may be new or existing staff. It may be through strategic partnerships, or the sharing of resources or staff with other communities.
Our initial steps will be learning about new ministry potential and exploring possibilities that could lead to the formation of new ministries, and then creating frameworks (resources, staff, structures) where new ministries can more easily form and thrive.

Does Prairie and does the minister at Prairie have the bandwidth to do this?

The main thing that the people at Prairie must do is keep doing what you are doing - trusting in God and being a healthy, vibrant, community of faith. The health of the congregation is actually what will help provide the strength for new communities and new experiments to be tried. And we already have a track record of experimenting with small groups and experimenting with different staff configurations - neither of which have caused overload.
It is hard to know whether we are able to walk a path unless we start taking steps!
This will all be a major area of focus for the minister. Alongside this work, the session will be considering alternate ministry models and will be thinking through what the longer-term ministry staff needs will be. We need time to work on discerning this longer-term future.
Sunday worship will be essentially unchanged. Most of this work will happen outside of Sunday, other than holding the work of new ministries and Cyclical Winnipeg in prayer.

Cyclical Co-Director

Matt has agreed to serve as one of the two co-directors of Cyclical Winnipeg.
What is Cyclical Winnipeg? It is a ministry of the Presbytery of Winnipeg, resourced through a partnership with Cyclical Inc. It is a “faithful innovation network” that gathers leaders to help them discern and answer the transformative call of God in both existing ministry and new ministry contexts.
Up until now there have been 2 co-directors each working 5 hours per week. This is not enough time to adequately grow this network.
Session has agreed that until the end of 2026, Prairie will allow Matt to use up to 20 hours per week as co-director of Cyclical Winnipeg, though we don’t anticipate it will be this amount of time on a regular basis.
We note that the work of Cyclical Winnipeg aligns well with the focus on new ministries.
Matt will track his hours devoted to Cyclical Winnipeg.
Cyclical Winnipeg will be working on securing further outside funding.
In 2027 and beyond, Prairie would cease “lending” their minister’s time for this work, though Prairie might still supply some funding for Cyclical Winnipeg like any other church or partner.

Minister - Prairie Presbyterian Church - Job Description

September 2025

The following job description does not include the work of Cyclical Winnipeg. It is a modification of the job description agreed to by session in Sept 2024.

Key Responsibilities

Preaching (Vacation is 5 weeks, Study Leave 2 weeks, there may be occasional Sundays away for other duties - e.g. interim moderator)
Provide oversight and set direction for the worship life of the congregation
Plan worship services with other staff (e.g. music director, tech person) and other worship leaders.
Ensure that Reformed Doctrine is adhered to throughout all programs and worship services.
Moderator of Session
Provide support for any committees and teams, especially in any initiatives or activities in the areas of education / spiritual formation / discipleship.
Develop, equip, and support leaders.
Encourage, support, and share in the work of the congregation in building relationships with each other, with the neighbourhood, and with other partners (e.g. Indigenous Ministries, community groups).
Attend to urgent pastoral care needs, and share in the overall pastoral care for the congregation alongside the ruling elders and others who are providing pastoral care.
Work to catalyze the start of new ministries that are connected to the congregation. (Addition in 2025/26)
Share in the work of the Presbytery in consultation with Session.