Canadian Mennonite
Volume 9, No. 17
September 5, 2005
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Mennonite Church Canada
Mennonite Church British Columbia
Mennonite Church Alberta
Mennonite Church Saskatchewan
Mennonite Church Manitoba
Mennonite Church Eastern Canada
From our leaders
Mennonite Church Canada
Financial Update
Leaders say they are thankful to God and givers for Mennonite Church Canada’s financial performance to date. Donation revenue is tracking about 1% ahead of annual projections.
The expense side of the ledger indicates spending is 1.5% less than annual projections, due largely to later-than-planned timing of some expenses.
Donation income for the first half of the fiscal year represents about one-third of total anticipated donations. Typically, two-thirds of donations are received in the second half of the fiscal year.
Leaders are cautiously optimistic, but remain concerned about how the rest of the year will shape up. Some congregations are struggling or are already fully committed for the year, and many donors from the agricultural sector are facing a disastrous year. Church-wide prayers are encouraged for families and congregations struggling to make ends meet.
September Equipping a harvest of resources
The September issue of Equipping notes an abundant harvest of education resources and opportunities that are now available in your church offices. These include:
• A new KidsPak, “Peace Roots & Fruits,” offers many suggestions on how to help peace take root and grow in congregations, such as making white poppies for Remembrance Day, and signing on for “virtual peacemaking” at www.alternativeservice.ca/teachers.
• The 2005-2006 Faith & Life Resource catalogue which highlights exciting third quarter Sunday School curriculum on themes such as “Peace Heroes” (Junior High), “Generation Why Bible Studies” (Youth Ministry) and “Second Mile: a peace journey for congregations.”
• A Resource Centre update that highlights new resources encouraging intentional inter-generational worship.
• Information on a North American Young Adult retreat on “Morality: Learning at the Mountain” at Hidden Acres Camp, New Hamburg, Ontario from Sept. 30-Oct. 2 and for the Pastors Week conference on “Enacting Our Faith: Rites of Celebration and Commitment in Community,” at AMBS from January 23-26, 2006.
Also included are several inspiring letters from Mennonite Church Canada leaders reflecting on issues such as healing prayer for the “soul” of church structures (Sven Eriksson), coming of age celebrations in former “mission” churches (Dan Nighswander) and moving from “vision to practice” in the missional church (Jack Suderman).
Mennonite Church British Columbia
Fire-damaged church razed
Demolition crews took just three days to reduce the former Olivet Mennonite Church in Abbotsford to a pile of rubble the week of August 8. After a major fire last December and a smaller fire in April, the church building was deemed unusable. The decision was made to raze the church, which had been built in1961 with several further additions between 1963 and 1980.
Construction of a new building is planned to begin early in 2006, and an architectural firm has been selected to design it. Completion of the building is expected to take up to a year and a half.
Meanwhile, the Olivet congregation is back in its temporary home at the Columbia Bible College chapel after being displaced from that facility in July. When the chapel was unavailable for several weeks due to a previous college commitment, Olivet joined the East Abbotsford Community Church for Sunday morning worship services.
Peace opens facilities for fellowship group
The gym at Peace Mennonite Church in Richmond is anything but quiet most Friday evenings as the Vancouver Christian Events group holds weekly volleyball games there. Mostly singles in their thirties and forties, the VCE has been meeting regularly for volleyball at the Peace gym for two years. An e-mail list informs the group not only about volleyball but also concerts, seminars, retreats and other social events.
VCE provides a way for singles in the Vancouver area to get together and make friends. Members from smaller churches like Peace, which lack large numbers of single adults, especially appreciate this opportunity. It is also an outreach to non-churched friends and a place that provides them with a diverse faith community to relate to.
Mennonite Church Alberta
Trinity building taking shape
The new Trinity Mennonite Church building is taking shape! The foundation and main floor are complete and volunteers are working hard to set up the walls. Building has been slowed somewhat by the busy construction scene in Calgary which has kept contractors stretched to their limits. Heavy August rains also slowed the work down.
Tentatively, the congregation hopes to move into their new church in early spring. Pastor Erwin Wiens began his ministry with the congregation in August, and will be officially installed with Trinity on Sept. 18, 2005.
Until the new building is completed, the congregation will continue to meet in the Menno Simons School facilities on Sunday mornings.
Pastors back from leave
Two Alberta pastors experienced sabbatical leaves this summer. Roy Hewko, of the Rosemary Mennonite Church, has just returned from Africa. Doug Klassen, of Foothills Mennonite in Calgary, has just completed a sabbatical in clinical pastoral counseling.
Mennonite Church Manitoba
Young Adult Invitation
Bob Wiebe, director of Education Ministries for MC Manitoba, sees a “growing vision” in the area of young adult ministry. “I see the growing vision in places like Dan Nighswander’s article in the June 27, 2005 Canadian Mennonite (p. 34) and in the reports from Charlotte where young adults shared their passion for the church’s future.” said Wiebe. “Young adults have not given up on the church. Rather, they wish to be engaged in meaningful ways.”
“I think our work with young adults at the (Manitoba) conference level is also ripe for renewal. I am hoping that the Young Adult Retreat (January 13-15, 2006 at Camp Koinonia) will be a time for fruitful brainstorming and visioning.” On September 11, the Young Adult Council is facilitating a meeting in Winnipeg at 581 Cathcart Street to plan this retreat.
The Young Adult Retreat will focus on “the idea of how young adults engage or want to engage with and participate in the church. We envision the retreat as a time of discussion, sharing, debating, hearing one another’s perspective, worship, prayer and of course, broomball,” said Wiebe.
“An opportunity for ‘growing vision’ at the bi-national level has yet to be claimed,” said Wiebe. “MC Manitoba is offering to pay registration for the North American Young Adult Fellowship Retreat scheduled September 30-October 2 at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp in Ontario.”
For more information about these events contact Wiebe at 896-1616 ext. 254 or office@mennochurch.mb.ca.
Mennonite Church Eastern Canada
Punk rock band tours churches
Sisters Tonia and Maegan Wagler, with their cousin Devon Wagler, all from Steinmann Mennonite Church in Baden, Ont., and their high school friend, Graeme Harvey, formed a band called Blank Blue Sky. They relate in their web site (blankblueskyband.com) that they “found a way to put their messed-up thought processes and constant musical opinions into a positive force.” Their focus stems directly from the source of all their lives, God. They are trying to show “whoever will listen, the love, strength and truth that they have found in Jesus Christ.”
The group went on tour August 19-27, singing music from their CD Hallways of Complacency, performing at several area Mennonite churches.
According to Pat Wagler, mother of the two sisters and their resident “booking agent,” they are trying to spread the Word of God in a way that is not “in your face,” in ways that youth can relate. Pat (youth worker at Riverdale Mennonite Church) admits that their music is “loud,” therefore may not be appreciated in just any Mennonite church!
Tonia and Maegan say that they started playing acoustic guitar, only to find that nothing could quite compare to the rock show; feeling the bass beat in your chest and hearing a concert from a kilometre away was what their acoustic experience was missing. The opportunity to write about all the things that had been stuck in their hearts and heads all their lives, being able to belt those same sentiments out on stage, this passion was what was missing.
Blank Blue Sky members are constantly improving their music to provide a better live performance. With the motivation of spreading God’s word, the group writes all their own lyrics from life experiences and play from the heart, in the hope of touching lives.
From Our Leaders
Purpose leads to being and doing
At the recent Mennonite Church Canada assembly in Charlotte, our delegates discussed, edited, and approved a recommended Statement of Purpose and Identity for our church (see Aug. 1, page 13).
Our hope is that this brief statement can help focus not only the activities and strategies of the national church, but also those of each congregation and each part of the church. Purpose must lead to a way of being and doing things in the life of the church; it must be implemented.
I have been thinking about how purpose turns into action. Five integrated, complementary, crucial ingredients come to mind (in no particular order):
Delight in the giftedness that God showers on the church. I love to see people do well what they are gifted to do. It is energizing for everyone. God has gifted each of us. Let’s delight in that, encourage each other in our areas of giftedness, and make lots of space for all gifts to function at full capacity.
Equip the giftedness that God has offered to our church. Gifts are not automatically useful: they can be misused or under-used. It is the task of the church not only to delight in God’s gifts but to equip these gifts for effective and focused ministry.
Focus the giftedness and the equipping of gifts towards a clear and compelling vision for the vocation of the church in the world. Equipped gifts, without vision, can still be misused, under-used, and abused. A simple and compelling vision of the purpose of the church is needed so that the giftedness God bestows on us is indeed used for the purposes these gifts were designed for.
Envelop God’s giftedness to us in community. Indeed, God’s gifts are given to strengthen the vocation of the church. Gifts are not meant to be the private property of the individual. Gifts need to be discerned, affirmed, equipped, nourished, and utilized by the community of God for the sake of God’s purposes in the world.
Use the gifts and seek effective ways that God’s giftedness to us can engage God’s world for the sake of reconciliation and redemption. Gifts of God to persons, encouraged in community, equipped for God’s purposes, and aligned with God’s vision for the world need to “hit the road.” We talk about this as “sending” the church to “engage” the world with the reconciling intentions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When I think about this simple yet profound strategy that God is using to redeem the world, I am hopeful. These are practical steps that each person, each congregation, each organization, and the national church can work at. By doing so our stated purpose is converted into effective, joyful, and meaningful ministry and our vocation as a church.
Unless otherwise credited, the articles in TheChurches pages were written by Canadian Mennonite’s regional correspondents.