Ten years later
Come with us as we look into the future ten years from now (2026), if the recommendations of the Future Directions Task Force are followed in their present form. Regional clusters of congregations have been asked to pick up the functions of Mennonite Church Canada which was disbanded in 2018. The clusters were handed the…
What is ‘good’ and ‘acceptable’?
In a time when western society is rapidly altering its image of marriage and government institutions have legally recognized same-sex marriage, the church is pressed to decide: Shall we follow suit? The church is to discern between the fading form of this passing age and what is “good” and “acceptable” according to God’s will (Romans…
Readers write: February 15, 2016 issue
Giving and receiving are complicated transactions Re: “God loves a cheerful receiver,” Jan. 4, page 9. When I receive a gift accompanied by a script dictating my response, I feel like returning that gift. I do not feel grateful; I feel controlled. That’s how I felt when I read Arnie Friesen’s “God, Money and Me”…
We are not in control
Summers in central Saskatchewan are short. Okay, they’re too short. And so when the snow finally melts, the ice disappears and the risk of frost is nearly non-existent, we clear out of the cities (and the pews) and head into the wilderness. Unfortunately, last year, summer was even shorter. From about mid-June to mid-July, a…
What keeps you up at night?
What keeps you up at night? Your kids? Your bank account? Church problems? Your fears? Your enemies? Your self-justifications? Your habits? Your faults? Other people’s faults? Your hopes and goals? “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:2). So, does…
Blessed in the journey
In 1980, Grantham Mennonite Brethren Church in St. Catharines, Ont., sponsored me to come to Canada. I had been living in a refugee camp in Nongkhai, Thailand, for a year after fleeing Laos due to communism and civil war. When I arrived in Canada, the Mennonite Church warmly welcomed me, although I did not speak…
Where the ‘good news’ is
Are you wondering where the good news is? It is in surprising and unexpected places. Before we get to that, I need to give some information up front. I have been pastoring for more than 15 years and have been an active participant in the Being a Faithful Church (BFC) process since it began in…
Mennonite refugees arrive in Waterloo
A camera captures the moment on July 19, 1924, when Mennonite immigrants from Russia met their “Swiss” Mennonite cousins in Ontario. The so-called Swiss Mennonites were the first Mennonites to immigrate to Canada, beginning in the late 1700s. They were followed by the Amish, who arrived directly from Europe, beginning in the 1820s. The Russian…
Future Directions: Myths and message
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. . . Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. —poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke As a Future Directions Task Force working on behalf of…
