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Several years ago we heated our house with a wood burning stove. In the rhythm of life as a pastor, I enjoyed the change of pace of the outdoor experience and much needed exercise of cutting firewood with my trusty Homelite chainsaw. Hard work was recreation for me! It was a different kind of work, more like play.

One early December as I was cutting firewood from deadfall trees, my mind was on Sunday’s sermon which I had written the day before. It was based on Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”

Weary from my work, I brushed off the snow and sat to rest on an old stump, evidence of someone else’s labour years ago. Something brushed against my shoulder. Looking around, I realized that just such an evergreen shoot as Isaiah described had grown from the side of that rotting stump!

I turned around, started my chainsaw, and cut the stump off at the ground. I took it to church later that day. Set in a basin, it became a visual aid for the sermon on Sunday, and remained at the front of the church beside the pulpit for the rest of Advent. That Advent for me “worship and work (and play) became one.”—Maurice Martin

Winnipeg, Man.

Many young adults are transient, moving around to pursue academic and professional careers. What does it mean to be part of a community in this context?

Young adults participate in a footwashing service at their October gathering.

The North American Young Adult retreat (NAYA), held here October 1-3, addressed this challenging question under the theme, “Community: Living the tension.”

The first step in understanding community is to get to know one’s own community, and there’s no better way to do that than eating together. Everyone worked together to prepare evening snacks, but then were told they would have to wait to eat.

As they waited, Pierre Gilbert from Canadian Mennonite University provided a framework for the topic by speaking of community as “Christ’s most basic project.”

“Community is the greatest thing ever invented,” Gilbert stated, highlighting various types of community, from Christian community to a nudist colony. Who is part of these communities? What are Christians called to do in this community?

Using Matthew 5 and Luke 14:34, Gilbert stressed the importance of the individual in community. He spoke of being the salt of the earth and bringing healing and life to a world marred with trouble and pain. “We are the fertilizer,” Gilbert said.

The evening concluded with a coffeehouse featuring Thirstborne, a rock band that tours for the Mennonite Mission Network, and a local group called Knackzoats. And, yes, we did get to eat our snack.

The next morning, Aiden Schlichting Enns and Miriam Minders presented counter arguments on media and what they say about community. Enns discussed how movies present a “fake community,” where we are “never given citizenship or allowed to voice our opinion.” This is not helpful in building community, he said.

Minders argued that movies can bring us together as they encourage us to re-examine our lives and motivate us to change.

Both Enns and Minders presented video clips showing how Hollywood presents community and how the same movie can affect each person differently.

Both advocated being “active subjects, not passive objects” when movie-watching.

The afternoon included discussion on what the Bible says about community, following a tour of a Hutterite colony. Jacob Hofer did an impressive job of showing the group around.

“I learned so much,” David Becker said. “He almost talked me into joining the colony!”

The day concluded with a panel discussion featuring Menno Wiebe, Leo Driedger, Travis Unger and James Friesen who presented different perspectives on community.

On Sunday, the group gathered for final worship. Instead of closing with communion, the group participated in foot-washing.

Over the course of the weekend a new community was formed. With 39 participants, the retreat was an intimate affair.

“We were hoping for 50,” said Peter Epp, a member of the Young Adult Fellowship planning committee. “We were surprised by the lack of Manitoba participants, but encouraged by the number of Americans.”—Tamara Rempel Petkau

Winnipeg, Man.

Tim Froese is a Mennonite Church Canada Witness worker in Seoul, Korea, where he directs the Korea Anabaptist Center. The following is from an article he wrote in the November 5 Mennonite Brethren Herald.

A close reading of the Great Commission reveals only one command: to “make disciples.” The method appears simple: “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey…” (Matthew 28:19, 20).

Tim Froese tells stories of his work in Korea at Charleswood Mennonite Church on Remembrance Day. The Korean congregation at Charleswood catered a traditional Korean meal, complemented by musical entertainment. The event was one in a series of “Taste of Mennonite Church Canada” events held across the country this year.

Baptizing seems obvious, but what are we to make of “teaching them to obey” or what some call “obedience oriented education?” In our individualistic world, how do we get someone to voluntarily obey Jesus’ commands? And exactly what commands are we talking about?

Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment and responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). The first thing that we can do, then, as we consider making disciples is to ensure that our commitment to God is genuine and all-inclusive.

It has always surprised me that after Peter’s amazing confession of Christ, the disciples are ordered to silence and Peter is rebuked as the voice of Satan. His first confession of Christ lacked understanding of the things of God and was therefore insufficient to accept Christ’s death or anticipate His resurrection.

The Korea Anabaptist Center had its beginning in the invitation of the Korean people to learn from the Anabaptist tradition in order to bring renewal to the Korean church and its mission to Asia. I regularly meet people who hear about Anabaptism/Mennonites for the first time. Many tell me they are impressed by our “spirituality.” This response puzzled me for some time, since our “spirituality” is tame in comparison to the fervent prayer and fasting and praise singing of the Korean church.

As time passed, I perceived that what was meant by spirituality was what we would call discipleship—living out the Christian faith at home, school and office. True spirituality enables us to transform the worship service into the “service of worship” (Romans 12:1-2) wherein we present “our bodies as living sacrifices.” To fulfill the commandment to love God with our entire being is what it means to be a disciple.

Great as the first commandment is, it is interesting to note the opinion of the New Testament writers regarding the commandment that is “like it” (“Love your neighbour as yourself”). Paul calls it the summation and fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:9,10; Galatians 5:14), and James calls it the “royal law” (James 2:8).

Missiologist Jon Bonk has pointed out that for all of the grandiose mission plans that exist to evangelize the world, God never commanded Christians to love the entire world. We are, however, commanded to love four groups of people: neighbour (Leviticus 19:18), enemy (Matthew 5:44), wife (Ephesians 5:25) and stranger (in Romans 12:13, “hospitality” literally means “to love strangers”).

Mennonites first responded to Korea in 1952, during the Korean War. For the next 20 years, Mennonite Central Committee ministered there. Today, men search me out to express their profound thanks for the love and assistance given to them “while we were yet strangers.”

As I consider these people whom I am commanded to love—neighbour, enemy, wife and stranger—I am able to put faces to my prayers and feet to my actions. I am also aware that where love exists, the result is peace.

Although many of our Korean Christian friends have difficulty with the Anabaptist commitment to nonviolent peacemaking, many non-Christians have come to us to get help in resolving conflicts. We have had more opportunity to explain our faith because of our commitment to peace than any other “typical” form of evangelism. To be a Christian and missionary in today’s interconnected but hostile world is to be an advocate for nonviolent peacemaking.

Before leaving his disciples, Jesus gave them a new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” The most common perception that Koreans have of Anabaptists is the emphasis on community. Said another way, the ability to form deep, caring relations between people on the basis of a shared faith is extremely attractive.

One of the things most needed by those we are called to love is a community of welcome and caring. Jesus added that, “by this all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

The common element in these commandments is that we are continually called to love. Love is the most contextualized, most relevant form of mission there is.—MC Canada release by Tim Froese

Students at Menno Simons Christian School work cooperatively to untangle knotted skipping ropes during their peace festival.

Calgary, Alta.

Seek peace and pursue it, says 1 Peter 3:11. How do we instill in our children a desire to be proactive agents in creating peace?

Around Remembrance Day, Menno Simons Christian School here takes a full day from the regular schedule to focus on peacemaking.

If you had peeked into our school on November 5 you would have seen a hub of activity centring on our year-long theme, “Building community—being community.” Throughout the day, a variety of games, videos and crafts helped students think about how we create peace in our community.

Students worked cooperatively to untangle knots, to put their names on a giant scrabble board, and to get their group from one end of the gym to the other using cardboard pieces in a simulation game. They also made friendship bracelets that they delivered to a student in another grade, and reflected on The Wounded Spirit, a video by Frank Peretti.

Menno Simons school has as its motto, “Working together to become PEACEMAKERS.” The PEACEMAKERS acronym stands for: Participants, Enthusiastic, Accepting, Christ-like, Encouraging, Mentors, Aspiring, Kind, Excellent, Responsible, Servants.

This acronym, displayed on a large sign in the school atrium and also in each classroom, is a constant reminder of the goals of our school community. The peace festival helps students to see that peacemaking is an active verb. We are called to take action if we see injustice or disputes in our own community or around the world.

Menno Simons school includes pre-school to grade nine. It is our hope that our students will become life-long peacemakers.—From school release

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Those who “buy nothing” for Christmas are often accused of being Scrooges and crushing other people’s holiday fun. This month, I had the chance to see A Christmas Karl, an enjoyable and funny musical that put the “Scrooge” on the other foot. Giving, it turns out, has very little to do with stuff and more to do with time and care—not surprising, but surprisingly hard to do.

Janis Folkerts plays Chase, an anti-consumer activist, and Kim Brown plays her shopaholic mother, Abby, in the new musical A Christmas Karl.

The script was written by Scott Douglas and the score is the work of his brother, Andrew. Aiden Enns, co-founder of the Buy Nothing Christmas project [ed. Aiden Enns is a member of Canadian Mennonite’s board of directors], asked the brothers to “take a deadly serious message and package it with humour, romance, and music.”

At a time of year when people are caught between the blizzard of messages about buying that perfect gift for everyone who is even remotely connected with your life and the guilt we feel for over-spending, over-eating and over-doing-just-about-everything, it’s nice to have the chance to laugh about it for an evening.

Janis Folkerts plays Chase, a young activist who is frustrated by the fact that she can’t even convince her own mother to kick the “shop ‘til you drop” Christmas habit. While Janis protests against commercialism outside the local Ubermart, her mother, Abby (played by Kim Brown), is overwhelmed by trying to fill a Christmas list that would make Santa Claus envious.

Outside the Ubermart, Chase bumps into a homeless man, Karl (played by Aiden Enns). The day-to-day circumstances of Karl’s life (Chase meets him while he is going through trashcans for food) put the shopping frenzy happening around them into perspective. Inspired by her conversation with Karl, who believes he is an angel messenger, Chase decides to deal with her mother’s over-consumption using the time-honoured three ghosts of Christmas that first visited Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. Chase drafts her reluctant boyfriend Simon (played by Brent Hirose) into helping her.

The humour and the music balance out the seriousness of the play’s message; the cast was obviously having a lot of fun up there and the audience responded enthusiastically to it (there was a full house). Strangely, the funniest scenes seem to revolve around the character of Simon, Chase’s Jewish boyfriend. He seems caught between Chase’s uncomfortable activism and his own questions about consumerism. Of all the characters, he also seemed to be the one most concerned about what the outcome was for real people: for Chase and Karl, for people whose jobs depend on consumption, for the stressed-out Abby. I found that I resonated most with Simon’s confusion over the weird mixed messages of faith and commercialism around the celebration of Christmas.

The musical was released well before Christmas in order to give people time to see it and then time to think and react. I think it succeeds at this.

A Christmas Karl: A tender tale of commercialism, compassion, and fruitcake has one date left to play: December 15 at Steinbach Regional Secondary School Theatre. Admission is free, which dovetails nicely with the musical’s message, although they are accepting donations. All performances begin at 8:00 pm. More information is at www.buynothingchristmas.org. —Erin Morash