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April 2019

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Songs that shape us – Spring 2019

by Staff
written by Staff

We asked worship pastors what music inspires them on their discipleship path.

“Redeemed”
Big Daddy Weave
Love Come to Life
Songwriters: Mike Weaver, Benji Cowart

This song is my story. It slays me nearly every time.

“Weep with Me”
Rend Collective
Good News
Songwriters: Chris Llewellyn, Gareth Gilkeson

The church needs more songs of honest lament. This one’s a beauty.

“Fix You”
Coldplay
X&Y
Songwriters: Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion

One of the best pop songs ever. Captures the beauty, pain, and hope of human relationships.

Gregg Baker
worship arts pastor, Gracepoint Community Church, Surrey, B.C.

 

Tell us, what songs shape you?
mbherald@mbchurches.ca

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NewsPeople and Events

A garden of giving

by Staff
written by Staff

Community garden at Central Heights Church, Abbotsford. PHOTO: Nancy Klop

How can a church respond to hunger – not only spiritual, but physical – in its community? In May 2013, a vision to transform an unused grassy lot at Central Heights Church, Abbotsford, B.C., into a community garden went from seed to sprout in a few short weeks.

It was planted when the monthly meeting of women’s ministry volunteer leaders and women’s pastor Rushia Klassen turned to a discussion of food security in the community.

Two weeks later, a quickly formed committee held its first meeting, crowned with prayer: that the garden would not only provide food, but also connection with the community; that it would be a place of learning and enrichment where people could see the heavenly Father at work.

Garden for growth

Upon receiving approval from the church leadership, Klassen invited contributions from local businesses. With generous donations from a landscaping company, seeds from a local nursery, and aged chicken manure from church elder/farmer Alan Suderman, volunteers produced 12 raised beds on the first workday.

The committee looked to other successful community gardens for guidelines on plot rental and policies.

Using the “lasagna” method of gardening, the beds feature layers of manure, cardboard, lime, topsoil, and wood chips for mulch directly on top of the grass.

Some months later, church members/carpenters Howard Dirks and Steve Dyck and a team of helpers enclosed the beds with wooden planks. Now the area looks more like a garden and less like a grave site.

Four beds were designated for the food bank operated by the church. Volunteers delight in adding a bag of fresh-picked lettuce, kale, beets or carrots to the canned and dried food. Because of the garden, families are introduced to new taste experiences with added nutrients to their diet.


Stone of serenity

The garden is easily visible from the road; there is much foot traffic through the area. It is not uncommon to see a person standing in front of the sign, meditating, praying, and reflecting on the verse written on a rock (1 Samuel 7:12).

In one such case, garden coordinator Nancy Klop spotted Wendy Richards enjoying the peace and tranquility of the garden. Klop invited her to join a women’s Bible study. Today, Richards volunteers at another women’s ministry.

Seniors living in the Central Heights Manor adjacent to the church have also taken an interest in the garden. These lifelong gardeners share their expertise with young enthusiasts, including neighbourhood children who subsequently came to Sunday school.

Fruits of their labour

One Central Heights women’s ministry has learned to make jam. The strawberry plants donated the first year now fill a bed, and raspberries grow vigorously along the fence. The women add jam to Christmas hampers or sell it to raise funds for church projects.

Today, the garden rents 36 beds for $30-$40 per year depending on size. This includes organic soil, compost, and the water supply.

Thanks to a generous donation, a chain-link fence surrounds the garden, decreasing the episodes of theft and vandalism. As with other community gardens, there is a waiting list.

The garden has fulfilled the original vision of connection to the community not only by providing food, but by fostering relationships as people learn together in the fresh air of God’s creation.

Debbie Dick
is a member of Central Heights Church, Abbotsford, B.C.
Updated April 9, 2019
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News

Linked

by Karla Braun
written by Karla Braun

Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba

Mar. 1–2, 2019

Steinbach (Man.) MB Church

Steinbach MB pastors Ray Klassen, Kelby Friesen, Walter Fast.

Young and old are connected at Steinbach (Man.) MB Church which hosted the annual Assembly of Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba on the theme Linked Mar. 1–2, 2019. The 92-year-old church cherishes one member who has seen all 92 while the worship band includes a 10-year-old drummer. The congregation called veteran church planter and pastor Ray Klassen out of retirement to mentor under-30 outreach pastor Kelby Friesen as he finds opportunity to walk alongside people who are searching for God.

One in spirit

“We are linked for the greatest possible reason: Jesus Christ,” said MBCM interim director Gerald Dyck.

Four pastors gave six-minute sermons on consecutive verses of Philippians 2:1–4.

We are linked…

“…by being the body of Christ together in adversity and good times,” said Johnny Dodsworth, discipleship and life groups pastor, Eastview Community Church, Winnipeg (verse 1).

“…by the joy that comes from the hard work of unity building in the church,” said Mary Anne Isaak, pastor, River East Church, Winnipeg (verse 2).

“…by helping other before ourselves and finding our own successes bound up in putting others first,” said Meron Tsegay, youth pastor, Philadelphia Eritrean Church (verse 3).

“…by following Jesus’ example of giving up our own comforts so the community can thrive,” said John Neufeld, lead pastor, The Meeting Place, Winnipeg (verse 4).

The bond of the link was tested and proved when a delegate spoke up asking for the ticking clock counting off the seconds of each speaker’s presentation. “It’s distracting; we just want to hear the Word,” he said.

Dyck later spoke about how this honest engagement with each other as members of the church together builds our bond to each other and to God in humility and friendship.

Ready to risk

The sessions were linked with church stories: Terry Dueck told how Winkler MB Church became self critical about sending mission trips to Mexico when there were needs in their own community. A team did surveys and spoke to community stakeholders about needs, which led to creating a community centre.

“You fear regret more than you fear failure,” Dueck said, so the church went ahead. Up to 220 people flow through on a weekday night for a community meal. Some 76 volunteers serve each month. “The idea was to gift it back to the community, not to hold tightly as a church.”

Change and growth

In the business session, moderator Ruth Schellenberg noted the transitions that characterized the year. Executive director Elton DaSilva, constituency relations person Carson Samson, and administrative assistant left for other opportunities while leadership development coordinator Janelle Braun went on maternity leave and Dyck announced he would return to the pulpit in Morden, Man.

Schellenberg introduced Cam Priebe, who joins the team in June as executive director, and pastor John Neufeld prayed a blessing over him. “[As Outtatown director], I’ve learned alongside people living out being the church in their context in Guatemala, South Africa and across Canada,” Priebe said. “I’m reminded of belonging, of being loved by God.”

Treasurer Harold Froese contextualized the budget in terms of ministry: “10 years ago there were around 39 churches; now there are 54…. That represents a lot of effort and some spending.”

MBCM has two church plants operating under its charitable number and other pass through expenses making the budget numbers look large. The budget passed for 2019 is $565,800. Lower personnel costs due to staff turnover allow for a smaller number.

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Giving youth a hope base

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Bible studyFrom the communityLife & FaithViews

Power to transcend

by Pierre Gilbert
written by Pierre Gilbert

From Good Friday to Easter

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

I once attended a men’s prayer breakfast during which speaker Neil Klippenstein told one of the most painful and encouraging stories I ever heard.

Before an accident, Neil worked in the construction industry. He was an avid outdoorsman and an enthusiastic motorcyclist. Neil also told us about how he found forgiveness in Jesus as a child and always did his best to live as a disciple of Christ. As his speech unfolded, it became blazingly clear that he meant it.

A cold, impersonal universe

On a sunny August day in 2011, Neil’s world changed forever. While waiting at a red light, his motorcycle was struck from behind by a car driven by a distracted driver. Neil miraculously survived. The impact paralyzed him from the neck down.

As I listened to his amazing testimony of faith, questions were swirling in my mind. How would I respond to such a senseless accident? Would I maintain hope and transcend the desire to hate or scream at God in anger? Would I be able to make sense of something like that?

Stories of dashed hopes, unfulfilled aspirations, bitter disappointments, and injustice litter the human landscape. Is what we see all there is?

If, as atheists like Peter Singer, Richard Dawkins, and others claim, there is no personal and loving God, then we might as well admit that our existence is a farce inadvertently designed by a cold and impersonal universe. Our desire for justice, for meaning and purpose, is just a cruel illusion to be tossed aside like yesterday’s newspaper.

But what if these atheists are wrong? What if there is indeed a fulcrum, a centre, an infinitely powerful entity from whom all reality originates, and who loves each one of us? Is there any way to know?

A promise of something new

I believe there is, and it all hinges on two inseparable events: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Good Friday and Easter morning are the most pivotal and earth-shaking occurrences in human history. They transcend space and time. Together, they constitute the pillars that structure reality.

Good Friday signals the death of the Son of God for all sins: past, present, and future. It represents an infinitely valuable sacrifice offered to meet the requirements of divine justice. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

But without the empty tomb, Good Friday is pointless. The resurrection is the ultimate demonstration that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s the proof that the gospel message is not just some pleasant fable we tell each other to mask the meaningless chaos of human existence. But that’s not all.

The resurrection is also God’s final word on the meaning of the story that has been unfolding since humanity’s creation. And the final word is…LIFE. Our Lord’s victory over death is the promise that this painful reality will one day come to an end and be replaced by something new.

The resurrection is the promise of restoration. 

An explosion of life and glory

If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, this universe and all the wonderful things that are in it will end in a whisper. Without the resurrection, there is no hope for any of us (1 Corinthians 15:19–20).

But the tomb was empty. Christ did rise from the dead. This universe will not end in a whisper but will be dismantled down to its most elemental components and brought back in an explosion of life and glory (2 Peter 3:12–13).

The resurrection of our Lord is the promise that all those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ will be transformed. This dying body will be discarded, and all of us will be given a new body that will never grow old and die. All tears will be wiped away. And we shall live in a new world free of pain and evil, forever in the joyful presence of our Lord. 

For Neil, whose life was irrevocably changed by a distracted driver, Good Friday enabled him to forgive. Neil had sought and received forgiveness for his sins as a little boy; now it was his turn to extend the same to someone else.

Remember, though, that the forgiveness Neil extended wasn’t just the kind gesture of an exceptionally good man. We forgive others on the same basis God forgives us: the sacrifice of Christ.

The resurrection of Christ gave Neil the ability to transcend the feelings sparked by his circumstances, and to look forward to the fulfillment of all things.

Pierre Gilbert is associate professor of Bible and theology at Canadian Mennonite University, MB Seminary, Winnipeg.
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