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Pastors are not the Leaders

Recently I was in a conversation that identified the role of pastor as differentiated from the role of leader in a congregation.  What do you think?  This is pointing at two different ways of looking at the church.  One is the congregation that calls a pastor because of his/her high profile and presentation to lead them into their next phase of growth.  The other is a congregation that calls a pastor to give pastoral care to the people, preach and teach.  This pastor is not tasked with leading the future of the congregation; this leadership continues to be in the hands of the church council as representatives of the body.  I believe this could be quite freeing for the pastor.  I mean, leadership still part of what the pastor does, but the ideas that are brought are shaped and implemented by the church council.  I know that there are also small congregations who may not have a lot of volunteer leaders in their midst and are looking for a pastor to help them with everything – this is a bit different.  Again, what do you think?

House Churches

What do you think? Is this where we should be going?  They could be a rather cost efficient way of growing congregations.  Maybe it’s who we should have always been?!

What about a Federal Department of Peace?

I was at a public consultation on Saturday by the folks trying to put together a Federal Department of Peace (Bill C-373.)  I didn’t actually know how these gatherings work.  Jon Nofziger, the MCC BC Peace guy, asked if I might go because he couldn’t.  I in turn, asked some other folks connected to our MCBC Service, Peace and Justice committee.  So, we had a handful of Mennos there – probably the largest single group of guests beyond those directly involved with putting on the gathering.  I was told in advance that I could speak if I wanted to, but I really didn’t know what to expect, so I said it was not necessary.  When I was at the event, I told the organiser that I was representing the Mennonite interest; he again asked me if I would speak, because they were actually looking for speakers, but I said that I had not prepared anything.  So, I was informed that I could speak from the floor, even if I didn’t sign up ahead of time – I was good with that being a possibility.

As things got underway, I began recognising that the acknowledgement of Mennonite support would be important.  Recognising that Mennonites don’t usually work from within the structures of government made it difficult to know how to come on board with encouraging a new government department, but it seemed important to say that we support this idea of our government having an official voice to stand up for nonviolent peacemaking.  Someone needed to say that Mennonites were there to be supportive – including: individuals, MCBC, Mennonite Church Canada, and MCC.  So, I put up my hand to speak for a few minutes.

The only common interest was nonviolent peacemaking – a good one, I might say!  Otherwise, the diversity of the group was remarkable.  After a Baha’i person spoke rather eloquently, and a Unitarian Church person spoke, there was apparent cause for the three commissioners of the Department of Peace initiative to share their faith commitments – Baha’i, Christian and atheist.  Each speaker received strong affirmation of their contribution to the discussion.  When I spoke of the Mennonite peace position, the Christian and Baha’i commissioners gave strong affirmation of the contribution the Mennonites have made in Ottawa and in general to nonviolent peacemaking and justice.  The atheist commissioner spoke appreciation of my words but could not bring himself to say more.

So, what do you think?  It seems like a big step forward from what we have.  How can we as Mennonites be supportive? Google the department, learn about it, sign the petition, and show your support.

Great Job Cheryl/Randy and Brander

Wow!  We had a wonderful time taking in good music and learning about the Indigenous story on Saturday night with Brander McDonald and Cheryl Bear (together with her husband Randy Barnetson).  Thank you!  The story telling through word and song included the tragedy of the residential schools, along with the possibilities that come with following Jesus – the Jesus who has shown us, and continues to show us, his way of love, justice and peace.

May we all walk it together with him as our leader!

Celebrating Easter in Vancouver

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever!  We had a wonderful Good Friday service in South Vancouver with more than 400 people coming together representing five MC and MB congregations.  I was asked to speak.  My main connection to this gathering is not through my MCBC work, nor the fact that I was pastor at Sherbrooke, but through the Place of Refuge.  I spoke on the theme of “The Cross: Death to Hostility” - on the walls of division coming down, from Ephesians 2:11-22.  It is a very applicable passage, given the multicultural nature of the neighbourhood and increasingly of these congregations.  It is also reflective of the good walls that have gone up to provide a safe environment for addictions recovery at Place of Refuge.  An offering was taken for Place of Refuge – a tradition of this service for many years now.

About 10 people from Sherbrooke celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord at 6:00 am on Sunday morning at Queen Elizabeth – one of the most beautiful sunrises ever!  Of course, songs and prayers could be heard all around from the other groups that had also come to the mountain to celebrate the Resurrection.

This was followed by a worship service of all the gathered congregations at Sherbrooke together – Vietnamese, Korean and English.  My heart is always lifted when the projection on the screen starts shaking.  No, I am not celebrating the next earthquake, nor is it the way that the Holy Spirit enters our worship.  This means that people are going up the stairs to the balcony, which means that there are lots of people, and the main floor is full.  James Wittenberg spoke on the theme: ”Love Wins” from Matthew 5:43-48.

Pilgrimage Project

We recently launched an oral history of Mennonite Church BC called the Pilgrimage Project.  This web-based telling of the MCBC story features interviews with people who have made a difference in MCBC, especially in the last 20 years (since the writing of our first history book, Frontier Challenge.)  The written stories of our congregations during these years are also posted on this website.  Enjoy!

Visit the Pilgrimage Project Website

A Staycation

After a hectic couple of months preparing for the momentous celebration of MCBC’s 75th Anniversary, I took a week of staycation.  This morning as I was in the grocery store I met a retired pastor friend who said that he and his wife just came back from a week of vacation in Cuba.  I told him that I also took the same week off, but on a staycation.  He totally got it, saying that when he was in the hectic activities of pastoral ministry, a staycation was most welcome.  Now that most of his time is spent at home a vacation getaway is more longed-for.

My staycation was all that I had hoped for, although I almost ran out of time.  The projects around the house took most of the week (with lots of space in between for good devotions, reading and watching sports).  My personal project of cleaning up the home office and filing stuff away got pushed to Saturday, but it got done too!

It was good to be back at work today – refreshed and ready to go.

Celebrating MCBC!

We had a wonderful time last weekend celebrating MCBC.

Stuart Murray let us see Anabaptism as others see it in many places around the world - a movement whose time has come.  In Anabaptism for the Post-Christendom world, witness is following – it’s a form of evangelism that is more of walking alongside each other on a journey.  The designation of “Christian” may be less helpful because of the negative baggage of history, rather, terms that might be better understood could be “followers of Jesus” or “people of the Way” (as used by the early disciples).   Mission is a place where we encounter God – it’s not all one way.

New Anabaptists love fellowship around food (something Mennonites can well connect with), and consider this as door for witness.  People are coming to a place to belong before they come to believe.  The challenge is - being open, while still deeply following Jesus.

The peace witness is what many neo-Anabaptists in Britain resonate with.  It has been affected significantly impacted by Britain’s invasion of Iraq.  A new term being used for those committed to active nonviolence is “Shalom Activists”.

Our MCBC Annual Meeting went well.  We aimed at doing it in 3 hours, and made it in just under 3 and a half.  We have committed to continuing the Indigenous Relations Coordinator position until the end of 2013 (staffed by Brander McDonald).  We have also committed to making missional coaching available to all our congregations – helping them to live into their commitment to being missional in their neighbourhoods.

Lastly, we had a great celebration of our 75th Anniversary, with a wonderful banquet, followed by a beautifully done worship service focused on giving praise to God for what he has done!

Zero Avenue

Zero Avenue is exactly what you might expect. It is about 5 feet from the Canada/USA border on the Canadian side - and goes all the way from White Rock, BC to Abbotsford.  On the US side the Border Patrol trucks are in abundance.  On the Canadian side, well, we have the occasional police catching speedsters, but that’s it.

The other day I saw this Border Patrol truck on the US side with lights flashing madly.  As I got closer, I saw a pick up truck on the Canadian side with 3 or 4 mattresses in the back.  The border partol guy had a mattress too!  He was setting it on the borderline for the Canadian guy to take back.  I imagine the mattress flew off the back of the Canadian guy’s truck and crossed the border to the US.  It’s a rough life patrolling that border!

I also recently say a flock of birds flying over the border just like it was normal.  Occasionally I see a Canadian dog just running across the border at any old place, and then coming back later.  They’re lucky, ‘cuz we can’t do that – we’d be in big trouble.  I often think, when I am riding motorcycle along Zero Avenue, that if I got up enough speed I could just fly straight over that ditch that separates the two countries and be on the road on the other side – easy – but big trouble.  Don’t worry, it’s just a thought – I know better.  Birds, dogs and mattresses – they get away with it without any trouble.  Oh well, such is life.

The Naked Anabaptist

We are on the doorstep of getting naked.  This is in the true sense of the book by Stuart Murray, “The Naked Anabaptist.”  On March 2nd and 3rd, we are heading down the pathway of seeing what the bare essentials of the Anabaptist faith and witness are all about.  It would also be beneficial for you to read the book ahead of time to get on board with what Stuart Murray is on about.  Go to www.mcbc.ca/events and check out the details.  See you there.