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June 28th, 2021
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Contact Judy Paulsen
Phone: 416-946-3534

Judy Paulsen

Professor of Evangelism, Director of the Institute of Evangelism

BA (Western), MScA (McGill), MDiv (Wycliffe)

DMin (Fuller Theological Seminary)

Biography

Born while my parents were on furlough from their work as missionaries in northwest India, we returned home to the foothills of the Himalayas when I was 8 months old.  I still wonder how on earth my parents carted five children under the age of 8 to the other side of the world in the late 50s. My father served as an Anglican priest to a local parish church and to a leprosy mission.  My mother served as an obstetrical nurse and in a medical van that visited the various villages in our area.

When I was five we moved to the Anglican diocese of Ottawa and my father became the priest for a large new suburban church. It was 1962 and while cracks were beginning to show in Christendom’s foundations most Anglican churches were still full and my father’s church was no exception. I grew up attending Sunday school, singing in the Junior Choir, working in the nursery, and running Sunday breakfast sandwiches over to my dad between the three morning services. The rhythms of my life were thoroughly shaped by Scripture, weekly worship, and the great festivals of the Christian faith. The idea that I had any say in the matter, or that God might want a response from me, simply didn’t occur to me. All that changed when at age fifteen I committed to living my life as a follower of Jesus. While heartfelt at the time it was certainly not the strongest of commitments.

At twenty I married my highschool sweetheart; a bonafide Jesus freak who knew the Bible way better than I did. Some said we made a strange pair but our marriage has lasted for 40+ years and has been a great gift of love, companionship, and tool of Christian formation in my life. During my 20s and 30s I trained and worked as a Speech and Language Pathologist, until experiencing a call to become an Anglican priest.

I presently hold degrees from Western (B.A.), McGill (M. Sc. A), Wycliffe (M.Div.) and Fuller Theological Seminary (D. Min.). After serving in parish ministry in the GTA for 15 years I accepted a position on the faculty of Wycliffe, where I serve as the Professor of Evangelism and director of the Institute of Evangelism. My primary interest lies in the effective communication of the gospel in today’s culture.

Areas of Expertise

  • Evangelism
  • The interactions between the Gospel, Church and Culture
  • Contemporary Christian Worship
  • Missional Leadership
  • Theological interpretation of Scripture

Select Publications and Media:

Books

  • Judy Paulsen (Ed. and joint author), Patrick Paulsen & Susan Bell. Christian Foundations: A Grounding for a Life of Faith , Wycliffe College, Toronto, ON, 3rd edition, 2019.
  • Judy Paulsen (co-author) & Susan Bell.  Invited: Exploring Genuine Christian Invitation, The Incorporated Synod of the Diocese of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2015.

Chapters

  • “How to (and How Not To) Pastor”, in Hard Words for Desperate Times:  Going Deep with Ezekiel, Caleb Gunlach (Ed.), Wycliffe Studies in Gospel, Church and Culture, Wipf & Stock, Eugene, OR, 2020. (p. 70-76)
  • “Being Intentional in Leadership” in Good News Church: Celebrating the Legacy of Harold Percy. John Bowen & Michael Knowles (Eds.) Burlington, ON: Castle Quay Books, 2018. (p.49-62)
  • “Standing Fast in the Meantime” in Behold, I am Coming Soon, Mari Leesment (Ed.), Wycliffe Studies in Gospel, Church and Culture, Wipf and Stock Publishers: Eugene, OR, 2018 . (p.44-48)
  • “Hedonism”, in Confronting the Idols of Our Age, Thomas Power (Ed.), Wycliffe Studies in Gospel, Church and Culture, Wipf & Stock, Eugene, OR, 2017.(p. 8-14)
  • “Does Messy Church Produce Disciples?”, in Messy Church Theology: Exploring the significance of Messy Church for the Wider Church, George Lings (Ed.), BRF, Abingdon: UK,  2013. (p. 68-90)

Articles

  • “How by doing what churches told them to do, parents failed their kids.”, Wycliffe College Blog, March 2, 2020.
  • “The Evangelism Spectrum – Where are You?” in Good Idea, e-letter of the Wycliffe Institute of Evangelism (June 2018)
  • Blog entry, “Maybe the Church Should Make a Spectacle of Itself More Often”, for Faith Today, November 27th, 2017.
  •  “Unwrapping All Our Gifts: A Neglected Key to Evangelism”,  The Wycliffe Booklets on Evangelism, Digory Publishing, Richmond B.C. (October 2004)

Creative Professional Activity

Webinar, “Helping Our Churches Grasp Their Apostolic Calling”, Diocese of Niagara Clergy Day, Hamilton, ON, May 21st, 2020

Workshop, “Contextual Evangelism & Discipleship”, Missional Leadership Cohort of Fresh Expressions Canada, Toronto, ON,  November 16th, 2019.

Training Sessions, Development of a Missional Coaching Team for the Diocese of Calgary, Calgary, AB, October 21st to 24th, 2019.

On-Line Workshop, ”Christian Foundations: Getting to Know this Discipleship Resource”, St. Andrew’s Hall, Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, BC, September 26th, 2019.

Keynote addresses, “Churches That Evangelize: Our Apostolic Calling”, presented at the Diocese of Florida clergy conference, USA, October 22-23, 2018

Workshop, “Dioceses that Evangelize”, presented to the Bishops/Exec. Track at Disciplulus ‘18, a national discipleship conference, Toronto, ON, October 19th, 2018.

Keynote addresses: “Discovering, Claiming & Living our Apostolic Calling”, presented to the Diocesan Conference of the Diocese of Caledonia, northwestern B.C., October 11-13th, 2018.

Keynote addresses: “Cultivating a Diocese that Evangelizes”, presented to the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Calgary, Alberta, September 28 -29th, 2018.

Keynote addresses, “Leading Churches That Share the Faith”, presented at the Diocese of Huron Clergy Conferences, Windsor, Ontario, April 26th, 2018, and London, ON, May 4th, 2018.

Workshop, “Rediscovering Our Apostolic Calling” presented at Jacksonville and Tallahassee, FL, Anglican Diocese of Florida, USA, April 21st and 22nd, 2018.

Keynote addresses, “Christian Invitation and Formation”, Diocese of Fredericton Clergy Conference, Fredericton, NB, 21st and 22nd, 2016.

Keynote addresses at Diocesan Conference on Evangelism, Vancouver, BC, “Reaching Up. Reaching Out”, Diocese of New Westminster, British Columbia, November 13, 2010.

Keynote addresses, National Evangelism Conference for the Christian Reformed Church, Milton, Ontario, January 19, 2008.

Workshops, “Leadership in Interesting Times” and “Turnaround Churches: What We Can Learn”, Queen’s Theological College:  Shaw Transformational Leadership Program, Kingston, Ontario, May 4, 2006 & May17, 2007.

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