Governance and Leadership
We are seeking to cleanse our ways from the colonial, empirical mindsets common to the leadership structures we are most familiar with. We are committed to listening, shared power and consensus-building. At the present time, our leadership consists of a Board of Directors, two Conveners, and three Working Groups.
As we press into these callings, we invite you to consider where God might be leading you to offer your gifts of presence, participation, or prayer with us.
Our Conveners
The Good Table story began with these two women; without their courage and early leadership, we wouldn’t be here.
Elle Pyke
Elle is a dreamer, doer and peacemaker, captivated by the idea that the beautiful news of Jesus is for everyone. She is one of the directors of a Canada-wide ecumenical missional learning ministry. She was a Founding Member & Director of Marketing for a Sales & Marketing firm in the tech sector. Starting things is just what she does. She has coached startups in the non-profit and for-profit sectors, served as a lay minister, and worked on numerous church, and entrepreneurial boards. She is completing her MA in Theology and Culture at St. Stephens University in New Brunswick. She dreams of the Church in Canada becoming fully engaged in Christ’s mission to see the renewal and restoration of all things. Elle and her wife Richelle reside in the Waterloo Region in Ontario.
Lea Wilkening
Lea lives in Oakville, Ontario with her husband, John, and sons, Jack and Josh. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Calvin Seminary, an Accounting degree from University of Illinois, and is a graduate of the Improvisation Conservatory Program at Second City, Toronto. She has served justice and reconciliation ministries since her youth and started out community organizing at a young age. Lea and her family reside in Oakville, Ontario.
Our Working Groups
Thirty or so people from across the country meet in Working Groups to listen, discern and co-create this movement.
Community Care
This group helps define best practices, postures, and continued learning so that we can offer care, training and resources that help to heal and create resilient communities. In addition, we support the other working groups in articulating outcomes and making decisions with a trauma-informed approach.
Theology
This group helps find language to describe our theological postures and beliefs, and supports the other working groups in ensuring their approaches are Jesus-centric.
Governance
This group helps determine the models and policies most likely to result in sustainability, mutuality and inclusive vision as we move forward as a movement.
Our Board of Directors
Our Board exists to hold the legal and fiduciary responsibilities necessary to operate a charitable organization in Canada. The Board issues our Working Groups with topics for discernment and research, who return their findings to the Board for implementation. As a Board, we are glad to represent diversity of gender, sexuality, ability and neurodiversity while we grieve our lack of diversity in race, ethnicity and geographic location. The Board is actively looking to welcome Indigenous folks and those of additional ethnicities who desire to walk and work together.
Melissa Burke
Melissa has spent most of her life throughout Ontario, while also finding places that felt a lot like home while living abroad as a young adult. Her pathway through formal education included degrees in both theology and social work, but it has been the people she has journeyed with in her life and work that have most profoundly influenced her theology and commitment to the work of justice. Melissa shares daily life with her partner, Jeremy, and their four kids in Kitchener-Waterloo, where she is the co-lead pastor of Elevation Church.
Heather Morgan
Heather Morgan is a born and raised settler-Canadian, currently living on the lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe peoples in Barrie, Ontario. Currently she shares her time between co-pastoring at Vox Community Church and working on her PhD at Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto, where she draws from her lifelong experience of disabilities and neurodivergence to think about the intersections between bodies and systematic theology.
Aaron Gerrard
B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have all been stops along the way to calling Ancaster, Ontario home (Treaty 3, 1792). With a group of people committed to their community, Aaron and his family planted Ancaster Village Church in 2012 where he continues to pastor. An active community volunteer, author, and amateur vintage motorcycle rebuilder, Aaron and his wife Shalene have three great kids and love to work, play, and party in their community.
Jonathan Puddle
Born in New Zealand and having lived in five nations, Jonathan has spent many years in church & charity leadership in Toronto. An author, podcaster and spiritual coach with a focus on trauma-informed spirituality, Jonathan is also a trained foster & adoptive parent, and works in the IT sector. He and his family live in Guelph.
Elle Pyke (Executive Director)
