Named in honour of CML Fellow and pioneer of the missional church movement, Dr. Darrell Guder, the retreat provides a place to equip and encourage pastors through an intensive learning environment. This year the focus will be Spiritual Practices and Missional Practices in the Church.
Opens: November 26, 2025
Closes: February 27, 2026
Pastors serving in their first 15 years of ministry
The Guder Pastoral Retreat is an annual August gathering of a select number of ministry leaders with programming provided by the Centre for Missional Leadership at St. Andrew’s Hall. The program is named in honour of CML’s Fellow in Residence Rev. Dr. Darrell Guder, a pioneer of the missional church movement.
The purpose of the Retreat is to equip and encourage pastors in their first fifteen years of ministry through an intensive learning environment at St. Andrew’s Hall on the beautiful UBC campus exploring...
The Guder Pastoral Retreat is an annual August gathering of a select number of ministry leaders with programming provided by the Centre for Missional Leadership at St. Andrew’s Hall. The program is named in honour of CML’s Fellow in Residence Rev. Dr. Darrell Guder, a pioneer of the missional church movement.
The purpose of the Retreat is to equip and encourage pastors in their first fifteen years of ministry through an intensive learning environment at St. Andrew’s Hall on the beautiful UBC campus exploring a theme of missional leadership in the church today. Program costs, meals and a travel bursary are generously provided to participants selected each year.
The next cohort of Guder participants will gather at St. Andrew’s Hall from August 5-7, 2026. The focus of this years retreat will be Spiritual Practices and Missional Practices in the Church.
Together with guests Rev. Albert Chu, Dr. Keas Keasler and the CML team, attendees will worship and refresh, share good food and explore a fresh vision for witness.
The Guder Pastoral Retreat runs from a Wednesday morning through a Friday afternoon.
Scholars travel to Vancouver on Tuesday and we begin exploring the theme with our guest speaker on Wednesday.
Thursday morning features a “field trip” to a ministry site in the Vancouver area connected to the annual theme. The field trip sparks imagination and discussion amongst the scholars and the CML team. Thursday evening features a public lecture offered by our guest speaker, where participants join with others in person and online. This public lecture has been a gift to the wider church, including the congregations of the retreat attendees who can join in the learning from home online.
Friday is focused on reflection from our time of learning and what that means for Guder Scholars in their ministry context as they anticipate a return home.
The program provides a rich and transformative learning environment that sparks the imagination of pastoral leaders and helps fuel their passion for ministry in their home context. Pastors leave encouraged and energized for the year ahead in ministry. Congregations report their pastors return with new ideas for ministry and a sense of pride in being selected as a Guder participant. The wider church is blessed through congregations and leaders who lean into what God is up to in their local community, helping to invite people to follow Jesus and find joy in discipleship.
It is impossible to understand the Missional Church movement apart from its pioneers, and no one has been more formative to its theology and practice than Darrell Guder. As he profoundly shaped my life, Dr. Guder has led so many into the profound joy of staying on the move with the gospel. These essays offer a compelling glimpse into ways his own life incarnated the call to be Christ’s witnesses.