A Letter from David Short

Dear Friends,

Praise God for his ongoing blessing of the Artizo Institute! Under God we celebrated 25 years and 150 graduates this last year. And this fall we have six Artizo training churches in the Lower Mainland. This has made a key difference in the Anglican Diocese of Canada and to gospel ministry outside Canada, as most of our graduates have moved into ministry positions. It is a deep gospel work in our shallow world.

For me, it is a great joy working with the young people the Lord continues to bring into Artizo – seeing firsthand how God is shaping them, equipping them, developing them in godly character, competency and conviction. As you probably know, I have retired from being Rector of St. John’s. I plan to be in Australia for five to six months starting at the end of August, and when I return, I want very much to be involved in Artizo in any way I can. I see training and mentoring as a key way to invest in the future of gospel ministry in our world until Christ comes.

Today, the recruitment and training of ministers is in crisis. In July this year, Spurgeon’s College in London, a pillar of Baptist theological education in the UK for 170 years, closed citing financial strains and a dramatic decline in numbers. The same two reasons were given for the closing of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Chicago this summer. TEDS had been the flagship for training evangelicals in the USA, and though some of the staff will relocate to the Trinity Western Campus here, the numbers tell the story. In 2024 student enrollment fell from 813 to 403 full-time equivalents. These were fine colleges, and they reflect the increasing decline of paid ministry as a vocation, particularly in the West. The number of ordinands in the Church of England has fallen by 38% since 2020.

In the Anglican Church of Canada, the numbers for the entire ecclesiastical province are as follows:

For reference, and in great thankfulness, our diocese ordained 10 individuals in 2024 and, so far in 2025, a further six with two more pending

In May 2024, a broad array of evangelical leaders in the UK representing training colleges, hub/training churches, denominations and networks, parachurch organisations and others met to better understand the ministry recruitment situation more clearly and to explore future pathways more deliberately. The Yarnton Report which came out of this consultation, is mostly diagnostic yet it lays down building blocks for the future, which have already begun to be implemented over the past 12 months. You can read the report here: https://www.ninethirtyeight.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9_38-Consultation-Day-for-publication.pdf

All of this makes the work of Artizo more crucial. We cannot simply assume that God will continue to bless Artizo, that would be presumption. It is striking that the first building block the Yarnton report advocates is “urgent, persistent prayer.” Artizo would not exist, nor would it continue to exist, nor would it be effective for God apart from urgent, persistent prayer. Jesus taught us to “pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matt. 9:38). So, please join me in praying that God would continue to make Artizo more effective in this great work.