I am really looking forward to coming together with brothers and sisters from across Mennnonite Church BC in worship, learning, fellowship and food. I hope you are all planning to come.  

We will be led in our worship by Dan Loewen and the worship team from Level Ground Mennonite Church. We will hear interviews of a variety of people talking about missional activities that are happening through congregations across our church in BC. We will see photos and video of what God is doing in our midst. 

You will meet people who care about the church and God's mission. Come and see what the Lord is doing!

Come and be part of it!

Mothers' Day doesn't get better than this!

My Mom was able to fly out from Saskatchewan to be at Jill and Andrew's wedding. Remember that 15 months earlier, she had a massive brain aneurism.  Due to immediate surgery, much prayer, and time, Mom started getting significantly more alert and self-sufficient last fall.  It was in December that she first showed interest in coming to the wedding.  My brother Howard and his wife Lori accompanied Mom on the trip out to BC, but he said that she really didn't need any assistance.  What a miracle!  

All along, my Dad was the healthy one.  Yet, as the wedding day approached, he had this nagging cold that kept him down.  In the end, he was unable to come.   We always thought it would likely be the other way around.

What a great Mothers' Day gift - to have Mom back!

A Son-in-Law

Our daughter Jill was married to Andrew Goertzen on April 4th, 2009.  It was the most wonderful day.  I was able to just be the dad for the day.  Jill and Andrew's former youth pastor at Sherbrooke Mennonite Church, Rod Wiebe, did a marvellous job of working with Jill and Andrew in putting together the wedding ceremony.  Rod also presented a very good word to them in the wedding message.  

Diane and I couldn't be happier. Please pray for Jill and Andrew as they start their new life together.

The wedding took place at Sherbrooke Mennonite Church in Vancouver and the reception was at the Delta Town and Country Inn (near to our home). Jill and Andrew are living in an apartment in southeast Vancouver.

MCBC Annual Meeting - February 21, 2009

OLD COAT-NEW CLOTH: FASHIONING THE FUTURE FOR MCBC

(I have to give credit to Amy Dueckman, our MCBC writer for the Canadian Mennonite, for much of this article.  She gave me permission to use excerpts from her article in the MCBC News 'n Notes.  In fact, you could just go to the Jan./Feb./March 2009 News 'n Notes on the MCBC website for the full version of her article - and photos.)

I would say that we had one of our best Mennonite Church BC annual meetings in a while.  I would also say that a key reason for this is the new level of commitment and trust that our re-covenanting has given us.  While we are a diverse body of congregations, and we wouldn't all want to live completely in each other's skin, we are in a place where we prepared to be the church together and get on with the mission to which God is calling us.  

A feeling of unity and moving forward pervaded the MCBC annual meeting at Cedar Valley Mennonite Church on Feb. 21st.  Delegates witnessed Level Ground Mennonite Church signing the MCBC covenant.  This is the new congregation formed as a result of the coming together of the West Abbotsford Mennonite Church and Wellspring Christian Fellowship.  

Delegates also witnesed the appointment of Rob Tiessen as Executive Director of Camp Squeah, after having served as Interim Executive Director for the past two years.  Camp Squeah reported on the building project of two new buildings scheduled for completion later this spring. It was reported that $1.3 million has been raised with $600,000 left to be raised.  Delegates were challenged to engage their congregations with energy to raise what is left.

The delegates came through with an amazing affirmation of what it means to be in a covenant relationship with each other.  First Mennonite Church Burns Lake has gone through two rounds of difficulties that has caused the congregation significant loss of membership over the past years. They are now a small congregation, yet with a unity in purpose unseen for some time.  The delegates committed to assist the congregation with up to $27,000 annually for 3 years (as needed) in order for them to have a fulltime pastor who will lead them back to good health.

Young Adults in Focus

The MCBC LEAD Conference focused on learning about our young adults and their hopes for the future of the church.  In the photo, Rob Brown and Chris Dirkson are leading the worship singing (pastors at Eden Mennonite Church in Chilliwack).  The words of the song on the screen, "Jesus, all for Jesus" are rather fitting.  Sometimes our young adults have been frustrated by the church, but they do love Jesus. We had a movie made with interviews of a number of young adults who are, or have been, a part of our churches. The primary things I heard from these young people about what they would like to see in the future of the church are: openness to new ideas and to people who are different than ourselves, love, respect and relationships.  The LEAD Conference theme was "Old Coat, New Cloth," based on the Scripture, Matthew 9:16.  These are days when the usable cloth of the old coats that have made up the church is becoming the new cloth that is being used to shape the church.  The Word of God remains steady and unchanging.  It has been said that this generation of young adults are the most culturally engaged ever.  I think they also have amazing opportunities to shine the light of the gospel into the lives of their many pre-Christian friends.  Many in my generation don't have a lot of close non-Christian friends, so I commend our young adults for the connections they have.   Angelika Dawson told us about Columbia Bible College students working at the MCC warehouse in Abbotsford, redesigning old garments into new products that reflect their interests.  Gareth Brandt taught using jazz as the image to represent this generation of Christians.  The jazz image being one of improvization and one of a band working together to form new music as they go along.  The form of the faith of these young adult Christians has this kind of improvization, yet is also deeply authentic and real.  

More on the State of the Union

Here's a picture of the First Mennonite Church Burns Lake Covenant signing.

More Than Gold is is a unique opportunity for churches of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley to work together in service and ministry.  MCBC has signed up as a supporting denomination, but we have been unable to find a volunteer to coordinate our response.  We are now asking the BC Mennonite Brethren Conference if we can partner with them under their leadership.  Once we are organised, we will give opportunity for local congregations to register your support of Serving, Praying and Giving by saying YES to being involved.  There are so many opportunities and you can customize the ministries you want to be involved in to suit your gifts and capacity.  Stay tuned for more information as we receive it.

One more exciting thing.  We are proceding with a potential church plant in the Cloverdale area.  We are planning in partnership with Living Hope Christian Fellowship in Surrey.

State of the Union Address

We are looking forward to a wonderful time of celebrating the work of God's kingdom among us as we gather on the afternoon of May 24th to worship, fellowship and eat together.  I encourage your congregation to consider closing your regular worship service and making this the one to focus on.  We are also asking each congregation to either share a few words, send a video, or photos, showing some missional activity that you are involved with.  Let's  make it a blessed time.

This is a sneak preview of the state of the union address that I will give at the Mennonite Church BC annual meeting on Saturday, February 21st.  It's kind of like when someone's speech gets leaked to the media and snippits from it end up in the newspaper before it is given.  I thought I would pre-empt all the reporters that are lurking at my office door and pre-disclose it myself.

Our theme for our leadership conference (LEAD) and for the annual sessions is "Old Coat New Cloth: Fashioning the Future for MCBC" from Matthew 9:16.  May we be the new cloth that God wants to work with, especially new cloth that is fashioned from an old coat.

First Mennonite  Church Burns Lake has signed the Covenant.  Now they are seeking to know what covenant-living is really like.  Because of some tough years in the last decade, this congregation has lost many members, but they are now a unified, smaller congregation seeking the partnership that a covenanted people should provide.  May we come alongside  of them in faithfulness.

Abbotsford Mennonite Fellowship has also signed the covenant.  Let us find meaningful partnership with them too.

We are now 31 covenanted congregations.  May it be a healthy union of congregations that are definitely not all alike, but hold together in a covenant relationship.

Karen Martens is the new Denominational Minister and Director of Leadership Development for Mennonite Church Canada.  You will get to meet her this weekend at both the LEAD Conference and the annual meetings.  She and her husband Terry co-pastored the Grace Mennonite Church in Regina, Saskatchewan for around 15 years.  She began in this position in the fall of 2008.

 

We are going to be our Identity, Purpose and Vision statements as the statement of who we are. But out of who we are comes our commitments as to what we are going to do.  Just go back to the MCBC Home Page and and click on Our Vision Statement to see all this (or come to the annual meeting on Saturday, February 21st!)

 

We are going to celebrate the beginning of Level Ground Mennonite Church, yet at the same time to give recognition to the good ministry of its predecesors - West Abbotsford Mennonite Church and Wellspring Christian Fellowship.  I think we should commission someone to write a new history of Mennonite Church BC, especially since we are newly covenanted together.  The update would be from 1990 until now.

 

Columbia Bible College is seeking the wisdom of the Mennonite Church BC and BC Mennonite Brethren churches (the two bodies that own the school) by drawing me and my MB counterpart into a Leadership Development Task Force with the president and academic dean.  This is to help the school develop students whose competencies that align what the churches are looking for.  I think we are in a great place of strengthening the role of CBC as our school for our students, whether we are training up lay people in our church ministries or people for staff positions.  

An interesting conversation that we are having with CBC is regarding bursaries.  There is a sense among the MB leaders that the subsidy given by the conference should be developed into bursaries for students rather than general giving to the school's budget.  As MCBC leaders, we are okay with continuing to give to the general budget, but think it might be a good idea for the congregations to develop their own bursaries to give to their students.  Now, one radical step further would be for MCBC congregations with a bursary who don't have students in a certain year, to make their bursary available for students from other congregations that may not have sufficient bursary funds.  I think this would be a great expression of covenanting together.

Please pray for Mennonite Japanese Christian Fellowship in Surrey and their pastor, Gerald Neufeld.  Any time I have worshiped there, I have truly experienced blessed worship, but they struggle to keep up their support for their pastor.   Pray for God's wisdom and creativity.