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PCO 2016

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PCO graduates receive certificates and blessing

PCO graduates receive certificates and blessing

The PCO challenge: inspire 70 new MB pastors from across Canada about MB identity and family – in just three days.

After interacting with provincial conference ministers, professors from MB Biblical Seminary and Columbia Bible College and leaders from CCMBC ministries like L2L and the C2C Network over June 14–16, 2016, Pastors Credentialing Orientation graduates received communion and prayers of blessing and commissioning.

Lori Nickel

Lori Nickel

Attending PCO was an act of “obedience to God” for participant Lori Nickel, who serves as member care team leader with MB Mission. Claiming the affirmation of 2 Timothy 2:15 and the blessing of her pastor and the general director of MB Mission, “It felt very right to be credentialled as a pastor,” says Nickel. “That is the work I am doing at MB Mission.”

Brent Lanigan

Brent Lanigan

Brent Lanigan, associate pastor of support care (Imagine) ministries at Northview Church, took encouragement from the reminder that “there is a vast network of rural and urban churches led by similarly minded pastors all with the same goal in mind: to be gospel-impacting churches.”

PCO participants learned at MB Mission’s headquarters in Northview Church, the Mennonite Central Committee Centre on Gladys Avenue and the new  Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, B.C. They also toured Chinese MB congregations and urban church plants in Vancouver.

Impacted by two church planters’ stories of encountering angry resistant in their communities, Lanigan “came away with a renewed passion to pray consistently for these brothers and their families as they labour under difficult circumstances to shine the light of Jesus in some very dark corners.”

The Board of Faith and Life is grateful for the investment of local provincial leaders in sending their candidates to PCO, says B.C. conference minister Rob Thiessen.

“These three days together help establish new pastors as welcomed members of our community and provide them with understanding and enthusiasm for the
family in which they now serve.”

Presented annually by the BFL in conjunction with MBBS faculty, PCO is a required component for ministry credentialing with the MB family in Canada.

—Karla Braun

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