Home MB HeraldColumns God with us in the waiting

God with us in the waiting

0 comment

Waiting.

The season of Christmas newly behind us is a season of waiting. Children wait to receive their Christmas gifts. Parents wait in line to purchase them. The people of God wait for the coming of the Saviour.

But that revelation of God in Jesus doesn’t end the waiting.

We continue to wait on God. We wait for answers to questions and for guidance. We wait for the fulfillment of promises. We  wait for transformation from bad habits to better practices that form us in the imitation of Christ.

As the writers in the enclosed week of prayer guide demonstrate, this waiting is active but trusting, patient yet passionate.

One of the ways we wait actively is by praying. By acknowledging our humility before God and allowing him to teach us his desires.

Paul Duck, from the Mennonite Brethren conference in Brazil, writes in this issue about his church’s experience in learning to wait for God in prayer (see here). This is not bringing a list of desires to God and waiting for them to be fulfilled, but giving time for God to speak to us and teach us what to ask.

Waiting on God may in time reveal that we need to act to become the answers to our prayers.

In the churches of the MB family across Canada, there may be a sense of waiting. Waiting for budgets to be discussed, for votes to be taken, for surveys to report what we think. It is a season of change on the religious landscape in Canada
in general and for MBs in particular. Church growth seems to have plateaued and giving with it – at a moment when the
need for leaders and programs seems greater than ever.

In the midst of this, your MB Herald staff continue to produce the “old” magazine while exploring new ways to
communicate. As we face change in church structures, we want to talk to each other more, not less, and we encourage
you to see MB Herald – in print and online – as a place to do so.

We invite your participation through letters to the editor, comments on web articles and Facebook posts, replies
on Twitter. Remember as you do so that we are brothers and sisters despite differences, and that one can disagree
without disparaging.

This year sees a shift to quarterly publication in print – with a promise you will find more news and commentary electronically: on our website, in e-newsletters, on social media, and through the podcast Multiply, a collaboration
with the Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba and MB Mission Central Canada, recorded at Square One World
Media’s studio in Winnipeg.

Throughout this issue, you will find reminders about this change: all subscribers – even longstanding recipients – must
use the enclosed form or visit mbherald.com/subscribe by Feb. 15, 2018, to request the continuation of their print subscription. If you appreciate receiving the news in the old medium, we ask that you consider making a donation to help defray the costs of printing and mailing.

We’ll be on your coffee tables less frequently but communicating more on our website. For some columns – including Stories from the Harvest Fields and the BFL Confession of Faith exploration – we will continue to feature fresh articles on the website during “off months.”

Extended transition announcements and church anniversary stories can be found online. We’ll post testimonies about the
application of lessons and tools from the workshops and presentations at the EQUIP Study Conference.

To keep in touch with all this fresh content, you can subscribe directly to our website (mbherald.com) to receive an email of every article posted.

The Herald is still a place to share the life and story of the Mennonite Brethren church. We rely on you to share your
news with us: send us your announcements, testimonies, story leads, and opinion pieces to spread to the wider MB family.

We are waiting to discern what the future of our denomination structure may look like, to be explored more fully at Gathering in Saskatoon in July 2018.

In the meantime, may we fill our waiting with prayer and action, believing in the God who guides us and our family of churches who speak wisdom to each other.

You may also like

Leave a Comment