Highlights from CM’s online event with young pastors

On November 29, Canadian Mennonite hosted “Answering the Call,” an online event featuring three young pastors: Curtis Wiens of Aberdeen Mennonite Church in Aberdeen, Saskatchewan; Kennedy Froese of Sterling Mennonite Fellowship in Winnipeg; and YElshaday Baraki of Meheret Evangelical Church in Kitchener, Ontario. The following highlights of the event have been edited for length and clarity.

“I’ve heard lots of different stories of call to ministry, and pretty much all of them include an element of reluctance. I think that’s not universal, but nearly universal.” –Wiens

“I have a burden and a passion for young adults. I feel frustrated when I see young adults leaving the church. It keeps me awake at night. And my prayer is always, ‘God, why are they leaving?’ My experience has been, they leave because they have a lot of questions, unanswered questions.” –Baraki

“I came back from this [Southern Baptist] Bible school saying women should be silent in the church. I showed up to a church in [Winnipeg] and became very good friends with a female pastor there. And she graciously walked me through the understanding of women in leadership. She gave me a new way of unpacking my own faith and building back up. And it was through this work that I began to feel like a tug on my heart. Just like a small wish inside.” –Froese

“Your position might be part-time, but your heart is not part-time, your dreams are not part-time.” –Baraki

“I think that some of the best [and] most life-giving ministry conversations happen [when I’m] not wearing the pastor’s hat. [There are] a lot of benefits to being only paid half-time and forcing you to go out and do some tent making.” –Wiens

“I do think there’s something to this idea that we worship alongside anyone, and everyone is welcome to be a faithful follower of Jesus. And the Holy Spirit moves and breathes in everything. And we just get to be witnesses and work alongside it.” –Froese

“Are we now gonna feel ourselves restricted denominationally in our church? We have [the] opportunity to welcome different people in our doors who have different denominational backgrounds. And that’s partially just because we’re the only church in town at this point. So that’s sort of been an opportunity, and it makes me wonder if it’s a wider trend for church.” –Wiens

“In my community, we have a challenge when it comes to inter-generational [interaction], and this is similar to a lot of immigrant churches. There’s a language barrier, culture barrier. For the parents, they would have their own language, their own culture, their own way of worshiping.

[The young people are] born and raised in Canada. They identify more with the Canadian culture. So then, even though the desire is to come together as an intergenerational [church], it becomes difficult. And that is where I try to fit in. A lot of my work is as a bridge for the young adults and the youth.

Most of the people that I work with identify as Canadian, but they are African, Mexican, Asian, whatever background that they are. And in each space that they go to, they don’t fully feel like they belong. But then we don’t have anybody above us because we are a first generation. How do you find fathers and mothers, grandparents, that they can pray over you, that they can share experience? How do you find some support, examples in the marriage [that] can be there for you. But it will get better as the second generation comes.” –Baraki

“I always felt weird icky feelings when I would finally admit to someone [that] I am a pastor. [This last year,] I just decided that I’m going to own it. And I’m going to really confidently tell people that I’m a pastor and then go from there. And I’ve actually found it to be quite a gift. There’s something very important for me that I have fully committed my life to this work. And I anticipate being in church work for as long as I am on this planet.” –Froese

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