community

I’ve never worked on a farm or in agriculture, but I know the key principle of the industry: everything needs water to grow. Very little thrives without it – plants, trees, even humans.

Visiting Jubilee Mennonite Church on a Thursday evening, one discovers a flurry of activity – youths waiting to be shepherded into vehicles for an evening at Birds Hill Park, young adults putting up a new basketball hoop, adults working in garden plots, young children playing in the yard and basement – but Anna Marie Geddert, director of community ministry at Jubilee Mennonite Church (a member of both Mennonite Church Canada and the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches), has it all under control.

In Mennonite Brethren circles, we often talk about community hermeneutics, and affirm it as the primary way of reading and understanding the Bible. Yet most Sunday mornings, one person stands up and tells everyone else what a certain text means. Is there another way?

As Mennonite Brethren, we say we are people of the Book. If this is true, some natural questions ought to come to our minds. Questions like “Who gets to interpret the text and with what tools?” and “How do we discern if our interpretation is correct?” or “What happens when there is a divergence of opinion?”

“We promise to uphold you, walk alongside you, to pray for you, and to accept you into the family of God.”

Are we no longer communities of the Spirit?

How do we collectively discern the Spirit’s direction when faced with new issues, difficult decisions, or conflicting opinions?

In our materialistic culture where ethics has become an individual’s private affair, it’s high time decisions regarding our material possessions  become more prominent in our Christian communities. One issue ignored…

Last fall, I had the privilege of taking a graduate class in theology at our local seminary. The class was comprised of believers from various evangelical traditions. We were asked…