Wanda Malcolm - Navigating The Ups And Downs Of Ministry Leadership

Wanda Malcolm is Professor of Pastoral Psychology at Wycliffe College. She joined Wycliffe College’s faculty in 2007 where she teaches in the Pastoral Theology department. She is also a registered psychologist with a part-time private. Prior to coming to Wycliffe, Wanda was a member of faculty at Tyndale University College for five years.  Her PhD dissertation research is the foundation of workshops and teaching she does in the area of forgiveness and reconciliation in the wake of interpersonal hurtfulness within close relationships.

Wanda has the privilege and pleasure of being Tyler, Van, and Leah’s mother, and Christine’s mother-in-law. She and her husband Stan particularly enjoy family gatherings at their cottage where kayaking, gardening, reading fiction, and enjoying friendly board game competitiveness are among Wanda’s favorite restorative pastimes.

Wanda’s primary focus at Wycliffe is to promote practices of self-care that reflect each person’s unique value in Christ and replenishes the spiritual and psychological resilience. Students who take the Boundaries and Bridges: Care of Self, Care of Others course with Wanda are helped to reflect on and cultivate their gifts and strengths in ethically and spiritually responsible ways as they prepare for and go about the (lay or ordained) ministry each of them are uniquely called to in Christ.

The Wycliffe Wellness Project explores the ups and downs of ministry life, and is a natural extension of the Boundaries and Bridges course out into the larger Christian community. Those who take part in the project complete a set of online questionnaires and subsequently receive a confidential report summarizing their personal pattern of ministry-related “stressors” and “satisfiers.” The report highlights the particular ways in which this pattern may be impacting their ministry life or personal well-being, and suggests possibilities for change. In completing the questionnaires, those who participate in the project are also contributing to a program of research aimed at improving our ability to equip and support people engaged in church or community-based ministry.