Crokinole boards sold for China mission
Wooden game boards made in Yarrow, B.C., and a crokinole tournament at this summer’s Mennonite Church Canada Gathering 2019 have made a connection with modern-day Chinese Christians and a 16th-century Dutch Anabaptist martyr. Darnell Barkman, pastor of Yarrow United Mennonite Church, had received a crokinole board for his birthday last December, and after playing on…
The Spirit is moving our body
I knew everything would be okay as soon as the singing started. As I sat at a table positioned behind a small tower of crates half covered in cloth—a makeshift platform for the room’s main projector—I looked up from my detailed program schedule and smiled. Right, this is why we’re here. “Gathering 2019: Igniting the…
Holy Spirit fire and imagination
“Sing a new church into being,” sang the 300-plus people gathered for the first nationwide meeting of Mennonite Church Canada since its restructuring in 2017. Behind the blended voices was the vision, “Igniting the imagination of the church,” the theme of Gathering 2019, held in Abbotsford, B.C., from June 28 to July 1. Representatives came…
Things I noticed at Gathering 2019
I didn’t used to get nervous leading singing. There were times before leading at Mennonite Church Canada’s Gathering 2019 when I was nervous. I was less nervous leading 6,500 youth and sponsors at the St. Louis ’99 Youth Convention than some points before leading a few hundred in Abbotsford, B.C., last month. It’s made me wonder…
Nationwide church experiences modest surplus
A much simplified Mennonite Church Canada organization turned an expected $239,000 deficit into a surplus of $42,000 for the fiscal year ended (FYE) Jan. 31, 2019. The modest surplus was the result of higher-than-forecast revenue from the regional churches, and lower- than-expected expenses in nearly every budget category. In the new church structure, adopted in October…
Good news of Jesus in a traumatized world
The way of the missional God is that the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood, Elaine Heath told church leaders on June 28 at Gathering 2019’s Leadership Day. Heath is a former dean of Duke University Divinity School in Durham, N.C., and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Much…
‘Firestarter stories’ spark the imagination of the church
“My job is to love the people in my neighbourhood, accept them for who they are and create a safe place where they are welcome,” said Lyne Renaud, pastor of Hochma in Montreal, as she shared her “firestarter story” to spark the imagination of the church at Mennonite Church Canada’s Gathering 2019. Lyne, along with…
Mennonite Women dissolve national ministry
With tears, hugs and 67 years of memories, participants at the Mennonite Women Canada annual luncheon meeting, held on June 30, said goodbye to each other and to their national organization. With the theme for the afternoon, “To everything a season,” members recognized the season had come for ending the nationwide women’s body. Declining attendance…
Holding growth and the past in tension
For the first time since Mennonite Church Canada restructured, delegates from the five regional churches met in Abbotsford, B.C., to discuss the future of the nationwide church body. Among these delegates were a number of younger adults who hope to contribute ideas from their imagination to the future of MC Canada as it shifts and…
Kids make friends at Gathering 2019
“Our God is a God who makes friends,” sang children from three provinces while playing a clapping game with a partner, laughing as the refrain and the clapping got faster. The words of this song by Bryan Moyer Suderman were ignited into action at Gathering 2019 as they participated in a weekend packed with relationship-building…
