“This is not the end!”
Categories: Feature Articles“We are the church!” cheered Willard Metzger, general secretary of Mennonite Church Canada, inviting progressively younger age groups to join with him in an ever-louder cheer. “Being the church is…
Is the end near?
Categories: Feature ArticlesTim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, together with Tyndale House Publishers, have unleashed a behemoth industry on the world, Christian and otherwise. The original twelve volumes of the Left Behind…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. Does your church have ways to connect personally with the individuals it helps? How important is this personal contact? Have you ever experienced awkward moments while providing help to…
Just trying to help
Categories: Feature ArticlesMy parents packed me, my sister and a Christmas hamper into the car. We were headed to an address provided by the local Cheer Board. The plan was for us…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. Have you ever attended a worship service where you didn’t understand the language? What was your emotional response? For how many months or years would you be willing to…
‘New’ Mennonite congregations face same issues decades later
Categories: Feature ArticlesIn the late 1950s and early ’60s, the Conference of Mennonites in Canada saw the inauguration of English-only churches across the country. These were often difficult transitions, as those left…
Changing the language of worship a test of love
Categories: Feature ArticlesFaith Mennonite Church, Leamington, Ont., is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, but its memories are tinged with sorrow as the new congregation grew out of a painful church split.…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. What has been your congregation’s experience with divorce? Does the church respond differently to divorce than it did in the 1970s? Has divorce lost its stigma? Are those who…
Divorce ministry resources
Categories: Feature ArticlesBecoming a National Church by Adolf Ens. CMU Press, Winnipeg, Man., 2004. Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce by Elizabeth Marquardt. Three Rivers Press, New York,…
Who gets the church … when a couple divorces?
Categories: Feature ArticlesWhen a couple divorces, lawyers help decide how jointly held possessions are divided. There are many things, however, such as church attendance, that the couple are left to negotiate on…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. What percentage of the adults in your congregation attended a church school at some level? Do you agree that fewer young people are choosing Mennonite schools today? What is…
What’s to become of Mennonite schools?
Categories: Feature ArticlesThirty years ago, Anna (a pseudonym) took her first tentative steps through the doors of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener, Ont., and entered a very different world than she was…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. What emotional responses have you experienced in the presence of creative art? Is something creative always good? When should art be evaluated? Does censorship abuse creativity? 2. How does…
Creative connections
Categories: Feature ArticlesLike many pastors, Donita Wiebe-Neufeld, who co-pastors First Mennonite Church in Edmonton with her husband Tim, enjoys creating space for creative gifts to flourish. “It’s totally selfish. I love working…
Art that speaks volumes
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe success of In the Spirit of Humanity, a series of art workshops encouraging acceptance of others across cultures and faith groups, prompted Mennonite Church Canada’s Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery…
Art with a mission
Categories: Feature ArticlesWhile some creative arts like prose and hymnody have been accepted as natural forms of expression and worship in Mennonite churches, visual arts are often viewed with less certainty. For…
Aiming at evil: Bin Laden’s death an occasion for soul searching
Categories: Feature ArticlesOn the surface, the story is simple and satisfying: The good guys got bin Laden. Justice has been done. The fight against the forces of evil will continue. This is…
Ross T. Bender, educator, pastor and church administrator, dies
Categories: Feature ArticlesRoss T. Bender, dean emeritus of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, died late Thursday, April 21, in Goshen, Ind. In his 81 years of life, he devoted himself to service and…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. How are conflicts in the faith community different from those in other organizations? Do you think such conflicts show a lack of a caring community? What is the most…
‘The ministry of war’
Categories: Feature ArticlesPastor Epp (a pseudonym), finding himself in conflict with his church board, became increasingly depressed. Sharing his emotional ill health with the board, they arrived at a compromise about the…
Feature articles
