John Peters, 89, is a retired sociology professor from Waterloo, Ontario where he lives with his wife, Violet, and attends Waterloo North Mennonite Church. He and his late wife, Lorraine, were missionaries in Brazil with Evangelized Field Missions (now Crossworld) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He has an extensive history with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) globally, and taught courses at colleges in Ethiopia and Lithuania.
What’s your earliest memory of church?
What we in the evangelical world called conversion, at age 12. We lived in Abbotsford, British Columbia on a strawberry farm. The local Nazarene church had a campaign and Chief Whitefeather, a First Nations person, urged us to follow Jesus. I hesitated for a while because I knew God wanted my life and I just wanted to get the benefits.
Then we moved to northern British Columbia where I got dunked under the water in the Skeena River at age 16, baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
What’s your best memory of church?
Waterloo North Mennonite Church. Now. I’ve learned that the church has a deep profound function. It’s an accepting community, and they listen. There’s community, there’s solidarity.
I also have about 15 different experiences throughout my life where God has definitely touched and moved me under God’s will. I track them.
God brings the hurting church to my mind, because it’s the world. It’s also close to my family. My dad came to Canada from Russia in 1925, but his brother was shot by the Stalin government. I’ve been fortunate enough to go back through Mennonite Central Committee and IVCF. In 1991, there were four IVCF staff in Kazakhstan and IVCF didn’t know how to get money to them, so I went there with three thousand American dollars hidden in my shoes.
What is your most difficult memory in church?
In graduate school in the ’60s, we went to a strong Bible-believing church where they preached good sermons. I asked: [[ITAL]]how come you’re out in the country when you used to be in the city? They said: [[ITAL]]the Blacks moved in, so we moved out.
That left us very uncomfortable. We joined a small Presbyterian church with Black and white members, and that was our home.
Who’s been most influential in your life?
I would say Hans and Ago Bürki, and Wilbur Sutherland of IVCF. Sutherland was concerned about people after graduation, and he brought Bürki to Canada for a summer program. Then Bürki invited people from around the world to come to Rasa, Switzerland for 19 days. Lorraine and I went twice. We had deep spiritual teaching and such an exposure to the world outside North America.
Also Tom Yoder Neufeld, with whom I get together at least once a year. He’s a humble person who listens well. Certainly, also, my first wife, Lorraine, and now, my wife, Violet.
What is your favourite book or Bible passage or poem or song?
My life verse is Colossians 3:15—“May the peace of God rule in your life.” It’s longstanding, been there throughout my life.
What’s the best thing about getting older?
There’s so much to look back on, but a rich experience right now is going on wagon rides with The Mennonite Story. For one hour as we’re traveling along, I get to tell the good news of the love and grace of God. I look forward to that with delight! I describe the way of living of the Old Order Mennonite farms we pass, and I describe our modern church.
What is hard about being older?
I am not in sync with values and goals of society and the political systems around me. Advertisements are fabricated for the sole purpose of my buying the product, but my material needs are so minor.
What do younger people not know about getting older?
The concerns at later life are about health. One of the difficulties of the aging process for me is that of hearing. I can’t fully communicate with everybody anymore; I can’t always hear the sermon, and sometimes I purposely withdraw.
A related concern for us in Western society is: do I have enough money that in the event of some catastrophe I will have sufficient finances?
What do you wish someone had told you about getting older?
That the family of God is made up of all kinds of people. There was a time when we evangelicals were looking for the truth, and we felt we had it, but we thought that [other denominations] didn’t quite have it. That’s crazy. I respect the whole variety now.
Where I live, there’s a beloved Christian Reformed couple just across the hall, and one step down is Sister Barbara of Notre Dame. We have good Christian fellowship. We all need to grow into that—a reforming, a conversion. There’s more for me to learn.
If you were going to preach one sermon, what would it be?
We have a triune God of amazing love we will never comprehend but at the same time we can be exposed to it and can appropriate that love. My continual prayer would be: this day, the people I meet with, may that love, that gentleness, that kindness speak to them.
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