A spacious year
A year ago, I said goodbye to my job and stepped into an unknown future. In truth, the future is always unknown, or beyond certainty, as my father would qualify when he spoke of plans, concluding, “Lord willing.” The same acknowledgement comes from our Muslim friends who say inshallah with a similar meaning. In my…
Continuous pruning
With the arrival of summer, my wife and I have been enjoying more time outside. Our yard contains many different fruit trees, shrubs and grapevines that provide shade, beauty, and a harvest of berries and fruits. The trees and shrubs are easily managed. However, the grapevines are another story. A grapevine can be an extremely…
Edward Beatty
Edward Beatty, front row right, and John Dennis, behind him, speak with Mennonite girls. Dennis was a young man in 1874 who witnessed the Mennonite immigration to Manitoba. Over the next decades, he observed that the Mennonites were honest, hardworking and trustworthy farmers. By 1922, he was a commissioner of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He…
Wisdom, where art thou? (Pt. 10)
Someone once said to me, “The problem with Christians is they are all mental!” As I reflected on his disparaging comment, I realized he had a point. Not the point he was trying to make, implying all Christians suffer from “a psychiatric disorder,” which is the second definition of the word “mental.” My epiphany came…
Constants in the context of change
If I were to give a 14-minute TED Talk in our church context before the restructuring assembly for Mennonite Church Canada and its area churches in October, this is the gist of what I would want to communicate. I would like to ask and give an answer to an important question: What is it that…
Readers write: July 3, 2017 issue
Speaker sets the record straight on the Ziffernsystem Re: “Singing by the numbers,” May 22, page 32. It was good to see a report on my participation in the annual meeting of the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan. However, the report presents a somewhat confusing picture of my message. Perhaps the simplest way to approach…
Paddling rough waters
I’m told that white-water rafting requires four simple considerations. They are simple but they are very important: Rest during the calm spots because there are always more rapids ahead. When a rock looms ahead, lean into it, not away from it. Whatever else you do, keep paddling. If you fall in the water, let everything…
Tradition or traditionalism?
How do we know when tradition is helpful or harmful? How do we know when tradition breathes life and hope into the people of God? Or when it becomes a barrier to the leading of the Holy Spirit for our time? This is a critical matter the church must be constantly discerning. Is tradition serving…
Pies bring a message of encouragement
Tim Sauer is known as the “pie man” because every now and then he shows up at places like the thrift shop or House of Friendship in Kitchener, Ont., with a pie for volunteers or staff. His gifts of pie are meant to bring a message of encouragement, to say, “You’re doing important work.” Sauer…
Tim’s rhubarb pie
Tim Sauer, who is known as the “pie man,” bakes at least 200 pies a year that he gives away to encourage volunteers and those who work in church-related organizations. This is his recipe for rhubarb pie, a favourite of John Neufeld, executive-director of House of Friendship in Kitchener, Ont. (See more of Tim’s story…
