Peter Coutts

Peter has been an ordained minister of The Presbyterian Church in Canada for 26 years. He has served three congregations: in Sidney BC (as a church planter), London ON and Calgary AB. In Calgary Peter was for 13 years the Lead Pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian--a congregation of 900 people. Over the years Peter has also held leadership roles regionally and nationally in his denomination, as well as acting as a consultant in about 30 critical incident or congregational change initiatives. Currently Peter serves as General Presbyter in the Presbytery of Calgary-Macleod, which is a half-time position supporting and coaching 13 congregations and their leadership in southern Alberta.

Peter's passion for organization development was ignited through his D.Min. studies at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, where he went on to be an adjunct professor teaching courses in understanding congregations and leading change in the doctoral program. Since graduation motivation psychology and its application to organizational change has been his ongoing academic pursuit. Peter was privileged to receive a research grant from the Louisville Institute provided to “academic practitioners” to “support the intellectual work of pastoral leaders who have the capacities for research, teaching, and writing that can reach broad audiences.” The grant allowed him to take a sabbatical in 2009 to begin working on Choosing Change.

Peter has been engaged across Canada as a speaker and workshop leader. In addition Peter is a trained executive coach of the International Coach Federation.