Category: Viewpoints

We gathered as a church community a few days after death had visited with a stunning blow. For many of us, our first reaction, upon receiving the news, was a cry of disbelief, “No! ” Then we added words like “unreal” and, “This can’t be, ” as if we had the power to go back…

For 40 years, Mennonite Foundation of Canada has partnered with people to help them live generously in support of the church and related charities. Increasingly, we find donors are asking questions to better understand the effectiveness of charities. While we applaud the effort on the part of donors to understand a charity's impact, not all…

Climate change. It’s a divisive issue. Whether one believes climate change is happening or not, I believe it is ultimately a peace and justice issue, and how the church responds to it is an important expression of worship. God created the earth, and it was good. It is able to sustain its inhabitants. For this…

You’ve probably heard the joke: What is a Mennonite dilemma? Free dance lessons! I was born in Saskatchewan in 1949 and the only dancing I ever encountered was square-dancing on the TV show, Don Messer’s Jubilee. My parents played circle games in their youth, but after the American-based tent revivals travelled across the Prairies, they…

1. We eat together a lot No surprise here. We are Mennonites. One of the tragedies of summer ending around here is that our summer worship schedule, which involved an earlier service followed by an hour of goodies and conversation, has come to an end. We had fresh fruit and cheese, yummy pastries and cakes,…

Before I list my recipe for a great sermon, I offer some context. I’m self-conscious about my social standing. I just bought a second house, a rental property in a gentrifying neighbourhood close to the university. This puts me in the categories of “landlord” and “property owner.” Which is awkward, because I tend to speak…

On Thanksgiving Sunday our church celebrated the joy of baptism. It was a wonderful and diverse community event as we heard transforming stories of the young and middle-aged who had travelled unique pathways to surrendering their lives to the lordship of Jesus. As I listened to their heartfelt confessions, I was reminded that it really…

I’ve heard it said, “The trouble with Christians in the western world is not that they don’t care about the poor. The trouble is that they don’t know the poor.” A few years ago, when our girls were very little, we took two street teens to lunch at McDonald’s. The young man wanted to get…