Not just ‘frosting on the cake’
What does it mean for a faith-based organization to make faith and spirituality an integral part of its board meetings and planning? That’s the subject of Setting the Agenda: Meditations for the Organization’s Soul, a new book from Herald Press by Edgar Stoesz and Rick Stiffney, who reflect on some of their key convictions that…
Fly like an eagle
On a gorgeous summer afternoon, I willingly tumbled out of an airplane from more than 3,000 metres above the ground, entrusting my life to a piece of nylon, a ripcord and a stranger strapped to my back. It was the boldest, craziest thing I had ever done. Why would a relatively conservative middle-aged woman like…
Helping through interior design
If you are out running errands in Saskatoon and your travels take you to the bank, a convenience store or your doctor’s office, there’s a chance you will encounter the work and influence of Nicole Tiessen in the various buildings you pass through. Tiessen is an interior designer. And she loves her job at Aodbt…
Financial crisis looms
What makes a Mennonite personal care home Mennonite? This question is central to the critical financial situation that the Bethania Group faces in its two personal care homes. Bethania Personal Care Home in north Winnipeg provides services to 147 residents. Pembina Place, housed on the second and third floors of a six-storey Manitoba Housing complex…
A place to belong
A place to belong: These few little words became especially important to me as I reflect not only on the upcoming 60th anniversary of Mennonite Women Canada in 2012, but also on a recent experience that helped me to see that such a “belonging place” had been missing in my own life since we moved…
Don’t judge a church by its sanctuary
Someone I know goes to church on Sunday mornings in a movie theatre. The group worships in a “cheap seats” cinema on the outskirts of our city, nestled in a suburban cluster of big-box stores and strip malls. “Look, there’s church!” exclaims his four-year-old daughter on mid-week trips in the area. She fails to recognize…
Don’t fear the fight
I once endured the excruciatingly dreary annual meeting of a non-profit organization. The endless evening reaffirmed my conviction that there is a hell. When the floor opened for questions, the gentlemen next to me stood and raised the insignificant matter of the meeting’s location. “That’s the least of this meeting’s concerns,” I thought. This pressing…
What shapes us?
A popular Mennonite plaque that has hung in many homes states: “True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant; it clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry; it comforts the sorrowful; it shelters the destitute; it serves those who harm it; it binds up that which is wounded; it becomes all things to all men.” But the…
For discussion
1. Ralph Lebold says that “the congregation is the central reality for gathered Christians.” Do you agree? What are some ways that people from your congregation engage meaningfully with each other? Why do we often resist being open about our questions, finances, mental and emotional struggles? 2. Should all Christians have a sense of “call,”…
