Anne Miranda: Creating Cultures for Emotional Healing, Discovering Gifting in Your Volunteers & Why She Left the Marketplace for Ministry
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This week, Jason is joined by Anne Miranda, Pastor of Women’s Ministries at Village Church Canada. In this conversation, Anne shares vulnerably about past trauma and the influence of her childhood on her work life and eventual journey into church ministry. She also gives insights on what has helped her lead great teams and to empower and release people, especially young adults, into serving roles. Jason and her take the time to explore how important it is for the church to be a safe place for conversations and how investing in young people wrestling with doubts is often a long game requiring perseverance.
Anne is a first-generation Canadian, born to Lebanese parents who Immigrated when she was young. As the eldest child, success and achievement in school and activities were essential, which led her to pursue multiple degrees and be extensively involved in social justice organizations as a youth.
She describes her faith coming alive through an altar call at 19 and the journey of finding healing from childhood abuse as an adult. She worked in government for multiple years before stepping into ministry at 35. Anne says that her desire is to help those she leads and disciples to also find healing from past hurt, which doesn’t mean forgetting what happened, but it hurting less than it used to. Her heart for her teams is evident as she goes on to tell Jason about working with young adults and empowering people to serve in their giftings. She says that a key need for young people is a strong “why” and clear role descriptions with accountability.
They end the conversation by exploring the need in the church for more great leaders and pastors and how Anne’s story might give insight into the path others can take. Instead of only traditional steps, many leaders may enter ministry from other workplaces later in life. For the church, we need to explore how we can enable those transitions to go well and what strengths it could bring to church teams across Canada.
We loved having Anne on with us and hope you enjoy the conversation.
“The church needs to be the place to have safe conversations. It has to be the place of peace.”
Anne Miranda
Anne is currently the Pastor of Women’s Ministries at Village Church in British Columbia. In her love to develop women in leadership roles, she co-founded Leverage, a ministry that equips leaders with practical resources, inspired by the Word of God, and connect with like-minded "leaders of leaders". Anne is involved as a board member of Ally Global, an organization that focuses on empowering women and children who have been rescued from human trafficking.
Born and raised in a Lebanese heritage, Anne understands the challenges and beauty of being a first-generation Canadian. Her personal background includes developing Crime Prevention Programs for youth under the Attorney General’s Office in British Columbia and as an educator, teaching high school Spanish and English Literature. She lives in Surrey, British Columbia with her husband Carlos and their children Nathaniel and Hannah, and her Mom.
Coming Up Next
Darren Rouanzoin
Darren Rouanzoin lives in Long Beach, California, with his wife Alex and their two boys, Ezra and Amos. Darren is the founding pastor of Garden Church, a community in the heart of one of the most diverse cities in the US. He is passionate about leading people to know and experience the extravagant generosity of God and the abundant life Jesus brings here and now.