Office of Ministry Inquiry

"We're convinced that CMU is in an excellent position to help young adults discern their calling and gifts for ministering in congregations and to the world beyond the church. The CMU community, in partnership with many diverse church communities, provides a wonderful opportunity for this discernment to take place."
— Andrew Dyck, Assistant Professor of Ministry Studies

"God calls people from many different walks of life and in diverse ways to participate in God’s mission of bringing healing, hope, and love to the world. Through its interdisciplinary studies and its focussed ministry formation events, CMU offers students the opportunity to discern their own gifts and calling and to explore what ministry might mean for them in an increasingly complex world. "
— Sheila Klassen-Wiebe, Associate Professor of New Testament

CMU’s Office of Ministry provides undergraduate and graduate students with an opportunity to experience a process of discernment around their calling, interests, skills, and potential vocations in congregational ministries.

Co-chairs of this student program Andrew Dyck and Sheila Klassen-Wiebe work in consultation with members of the CMU community and interested congregations.

CMU’s predecessor colleges, MBBC and CMBC, had a long history of successfully launching many undergraduates into church ministries. Through the Office of Ministry Inquiry CMU continues this role in a variety of ways, through courses, pastoral internships, retreats, and many informal discussions.

CMU’s Office of Ministry Inquiry is located within CMU’s Biblical & Theological Studies Program and Graduate School of Theology and Ministry.

Upcoming Events

Ministry Inquiry Retreat – January 30 to February 1, 2026 (Camp Assiniboia)

Ministry Inquiry Retreat – expanded

Background

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) was founded on the premise of “a university of the Church for the World,” whose focus is on shaping students who are simultaneously rooted in the world around them and attentive towards ministerial and sacred matters. The biannual Ministry Inquiry Retreat, which happens in January, is part of this tradition. Every two years, students are invited to spend a weekend in community with each other, faculty, staff, and local church leaders, discerning their calls to ministry.

In 2023, CMU expanded the idea of ministry to include parachurch, religious non-profits, faith-based relief work, and hospital and prison chaplaincies.

Now in 2025, The Initiative for Faith Formation and Leadership Development, funded by The Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) allows CMU to grow this discernment process:

Scale up the Ministry Inquiry retreat through pre-retreat, retreat, and post-retreat experiences.
Expand our invite to students outside of CMU from across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, providing stipends for travel and lodging costs.
Nurture inter-faith dialogue and relationships by integrating students from other faith communities, while still maintaining a Christian framework for discernment.

New Retreat Components

Pre-Retreat: Faith Leadership Fellowship (October–November)

A pre-retreat component, which we are calling a Faith Leadership Fellowship, allows students to engage with faith communities even before the retreat weekend, allowing them to bring informed curiosities for dialogue at the retreat.

Because we are not assuming that participants are churched and/or invested in faith communities, the Faith Leadership Fellowship, incentivized by honouraria, asks retreat participants to participate in two events in a local faith community:

a worship service or another congregational gathering of a faith community, and
a ministerial engagement of a faith community (Examples: a grief support circle, Bible/sacred texts study, soup kitchen, homeless ministry, prison ministry, etc.) Students will be encouraged to complete participation in these two components in October and November and then write one-page reflections for each experience, preparing students to have something to refer to at the retreat.

Retreat Experience (January)

Two full days of retreat in January create time for deeper discernment. Components include:

an interactive workshop on vocation
engaging with call stories of pastors/resource persons
time for reflection and writing
evening and morning prayers
prayerful listening and discernment in small groups
dialogue with resource persons and facilitators

Post-Retreat Experience

After the retreat, students will be paired with mentors of relevance to their faith frameworks. Starting from our identity as a Christian Mennonite institution, we seek to partner with an ecumenical network of faith-based leaders of communities and organizations to create opportunities for faith formation and leadership development. A post-retreat experience continues and deepens pre- and retreat curiosities and discernment by facilitating one-on-one mentoring conversations with faith leaders.

FAQs

How can churches and church leaders help? We need your help to shoulder tap students (18 years and above) who you think would be good candidates for exploring ministerial formation and leadership. You may choose to shoulder tap someone who is already actively involved in church life, or you may tap someone who you think would be a good ministerial candidate as you think about the future of the church for the next decades. Our vision is to create spaces for discernment and the freedom to “try it out” in safe and nurturing environments.
Can non-CMU students apply to participate? Yes! We are opening the retreat to students at CMU and beyond, including students from across the Canadian prairies and beyond, providing stipends for travel costs and lodging
How will participants outside the Winnipeg area be paired up for pre-retreat and post-retreat experiences? Out-of-Winnipeg and out-of-province participants will require mentorship opportunities in their own local contexts. We’d work with their local faith leaders to facilitate those placements.
What if a participant has unique discernment needs? We will bring in speakers and facilitators of particular relevance to the cohort. Our current application requires a description of the applicant’s faith journey, a description that outlines their relationship with God, their ministry and/or mission experiences, and avenue(s) of ministry that currently or potentially interest them. After selection of participants, we will consider participants’ interests based on their faith journeys and then draw on corresponding speakers and facilitators.
How many participants are you aiming for? We are looking to get around 20 participants.
How do I “sell” this to my congregation and local community? The number of young people who self-identify as “spiritual but not religious” but do not necessarily have associations with religious institutions is increasing. While some religious people perceive “drop” in membership as a crisis, the challenge we identify is of a different kind. We define this challenge as a longing in students to grow as persons of faith and develop as leaders of communities, but that is difficult within a context where young people are often isolated from communities of faith.
Can participants from other faith backgrounds participate? Yes! Pursuing leadership with an interfaith approach is vital for leadership in today’s multicultural society. We seek to also create spaces for participants from other-than-Christian faith backgrounds to also discern their own calls to ministry. This would open opportunities for students across faith traditions seeking mentorship as they pursue ministry, service, and leadership. As a general approach, participants will be mentored and encouraged to tap into their own religious traditions, texts, and practices.
Does an interfaith approach dilute the Christian framework for discernment? No. While we would be open to interfaith dialogue, such dialogue is not the primary framework for the retreat. If a participant expresses a desire to be paired up with a faith leader from another religious tradition to learn about leadership, we will have an exploratory conversation to assess feasibility.

Vision

Through its Office of Ministry Inquiry, CMU provides a focused and intentional approach to discernment for ministry, through:

Encouraging students to take courses that may assist in further discernment around their Christian ministry and help prepare students for ministry
Providing pastoral internships for students, and helping discern potential students for pastoral internships
Training and supporting supervisors of pastoral interns
Intentional discernment around calling and gifts for congregational ministries
On-campus Ministry Inquiry lunches with visiting pastors and church leaders
Ministry Quest retreats as cooperative ventures with denominational leaders
Professional discernment and placement of CMU students in congregations with openings in entry-level ministry positions

Contacts

If you are a CMU student interested in ministry or would like to learn about the work of the Office for Ministry Inquiry, please contact:

Andrew Dyck
adyck:@:cmu.ca
Tel. 204.487.3300 (ext. 627)

Sheila Klassen-Wiebe
sklassen-wiebe:@:cmu.ca
Tel. 204.487.3300 (ext. 335)

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