Tammy Giffen: Her Story of Finding Jesus Through Alpha, the Value of Partnering With Other Churches & an Encouragement for Female Leaders
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In this episode, Jason interviews Tammy Giffen. Their conversation explores Giffen’s conversion story through the Alpha Course and her subsequent call into pastoral ministry. More than that, Tammy shares wisdom from her journey of planting a new church. All the way from the birth of the dream, to the envisioning of a new community, to stepping out in faith and launching a new community with the desire to reach people far from God.
Leading others may be difficult, but self-leadership may be the most formidable challenge of all. Yet without an ability to lead oneself well, how can the leader expect others to follow? Tammy tackles this topic in a gracious manner without diminishing the crucial importance of a leader investing in their emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
Tammy is a gifted church planter and a lead pastor, who also happens to be female in a church world that is male saturated and dominated. She speaks vulnerably about her early decision to not engage in all the arguments and drama that clings to conversations about women in ministry. Instead, she chose the path of obedience and developing the gifts that God had given her, trusting Him to take care of the rest. She also speaks movingly about the power of being welcomed by her male peers and given a seat at the table. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Tammy Giffen.
Tammy Giffen
Tammy Giffen is the lead pastor of Groundswell, a multi-site church in Central Nova Scotia. Groundswell is a church plant that launched in September of 2018 with a vision to be a church unchurched people love to attend. She came to know Jesus as an adult when she was invited to attend Alpha. Since then she has been passionate about breaking down barriers to church and helping people meet Jesus. Tammy is married to Peter and has three children; Taylor, Wesley, and Mya.
“The hardest person to lead is you.”
“I’m a big proponent of not reinventing the wheel. If someone else is doing something really well, why wouldn’t I want to learn from them?”
YouTube Links
We have also posted some of our favourite sections of this interview on our YouTube Channel - here is one of them:
This episode was brought to you by Compassion Canada.
This episode was brought to you by Compassion. The mission of Compassion is to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. And they’re doing exactly that in 25 different countries. Now, here is what is unique about Compassion—100% of their work is done in partnership with local churches. In fact, for many of the communities Compassion serves, they don’t know a large international NGO—they simply know the people of the local church who serve the most vulnerable in their community. Compassion’s heart for the local church extends here, to Canada, too. They are experts at equipping the Canadian church for mission in ways that are tailored to each church’s unique context. We want to encourage you to begin a transformative missions partnership with Compassion.
Coming Up Next
Brett Ullman, Aaron White, Andy Steiger, & Alistair Sterne
Next up is a conversation with four Canadian authors: Canadian speaker Brett Ullman, Aaron White of 24/7 Prayer; Andy Steiger of Northview Community Church in Abbotsford, BC; and Alastair Sterne of St. Peter’s Fireside in Vancouver.