From the desk of Shel

January 21st
From The Desk of Our Executive Minister

We Count People, Because People Count!

AGM season is upon us!

Ages ago when I was a green seminary student, I had a ministry mentor who was pastoring a growing large church of nearly two thousand people. He was very numbers focused. He would say often, “we count people, because people count” (a clever use of the ambiguity in “count”). It grated on me.

I was also at the time planting a church “from scratch” to connect with deconstructing and post-deconstructing people. We didn't use that word at the time, but that was what it was—people who would not darken the door of this ministry mentor's church.

But he was right about counting. Not all the grandiose narratives around it, but that counting has a way of focusing us.

Member counts tell us who has decided to covenant, lead, and submit to one another in a local church.
Adherent counts tell us that non-members (and children/youth) who are engaged count and indicate our outwardness. “The Church is the only organization that exists solely for the benefit of non-members," -Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1881-1944)
Small groups and classes meeting regularly show where our on-ground love and development of community is going deeper.
Budget numbers/spending plans, giving families/individuals show us if our investing in people is aligned with building our community, assisting others, and the state of discipleship and heart towards releasing the control of money for bigger purposes than just ourselves.
Counting missional conversations, outreach and service events indicate how we are doing at living and telling the work of being Christou Apostoloi (Χριστοῦ Ἀπόστολοι), ambassadors of Christ's reconciling work (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Counting worship gatherings attendance— Like, Average Sunday Attendance(ASA)—tells us if our worship is engaging.

There are MANY counts we should be keeping. Where I grew up, the Seven Council Fires (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ) people kept historically what were called Winter Counts.

Wiki relays: "Winter counts are pictographic calendars, traditionally painted on bison hides, which display a sequence of years by depicting their most remarkable events. The term winter count itself comes from the Lakota name waniyetu wowapi, 'waniyetu' translating to 'winter' while 'wowapi' refers to 'anything that is marked and can be read or counted.'

Most winter counts have a single pictograph symbolizing each year, based on the most memorable event of that year. For Lakota people, years ran from first snowfall to first snowfall. Kiowa winter counts usually feature two marks per year—one for winter and one marking the summer Sun Dance. The glyphs representing significant events would be used as a reference that could be consulted regarding the order of the years."

For the church we count, because each number, each statistic represents a person, a beloved Child of God, whom Jesus died for, and therefore each is of inestimable worth. A count is an attempt to guide, gauge, report, and challenge us to remember it's about Jesus and people.

We count (enumerate, take stock) people, because people count (matter). We count now, so one day we can celebrate The Lamb’s count beyond measure. After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. Rev. 7.9

Happy AGM reporting season!

-Shelby Boese,

a person in a community that counts :-)

PS - the only time counting is condemned in Scripture was when it was for propping up self-reliance and pride against Divine-dependency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_count

Image: https://lammuseum.wfu.edu/2022/01/plains-indian-tribes-create-a-winter-count/

January 14th
From The Desk of Our Executive Minister

When the World is On Fire

Imperialism, Islamism, Communist Colonization, Crony Capitalism…

It's quite easy these days to get pulled into ideological antagonisms and demonizing the other. Certainly there are anti-life and anti-Christ behaviours of various actors local and global that should be called out. However, where the world is changed is often not in the great moves, but the little.

I am reminded in this time following Christmastide, "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world". Mary, the God-birther (Theotokos/Θεοτόκος) has an instructive role for us. She influences Jesus and is divinely chosen as his mother. In the Gospel of Luke Chapter 1, her Magnificat (Ode of the God-birther/Ἡ ᾨδὴ τῆς Θεοτόκου), is a Holy Spirit-inspired, Charismatic psalm that speaks of how The Father and Spirit, will act in Jesus to change the world.

Here is something that our left and right folks who put all their eggs in the worldly-politics basket need to be reminded of. There is another way to approach the ills and evils around us. The way is to be a change community, an alternative, empowered by God's Spirit on-the-ground here. Too many so-called Christian adjacent action networks (and I am very disappointed in the rhetoric of most that claim to be Anabaptist) of various kinds have forgotten the Gospel is global but expressed locally. Scandalously local. The local church.

Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. -JRR Tolkien's Gandalf, Lord of the Rings.

We are called to create and be worshipping communities centred FIRST on Jesus Christ. His life, teachings, death, resurrection, Spirit, and promise to make all things new—starting now in you and in the local community, we call the church. The church is ecclesia, an alternative politics, that by worshipping Jesus, forming first a NEW identity, we impact the world around us. We are an escape and at the same time salt and light.

People need us to be the church first. The wound-up antagonisms and anger that wants to drive us, cannot deliver what it promises. Jesus is the revolution. Full stop. Our power is upside down. But, oh how sexy the levers of government and protest and riot are. But they are liars. They do not create, after chaos, a world where all can flourish. In fact, they are powerless to turn enemies into family. An old and yet timely book is Miroslav Volf’s Exclusion and Embrace.

Friends, the world powers seek to co-opt or crush the church. The church is called to be salt and light, another humanity, a place of refuge and liberation. And most importantly Centred on Jesus Christ. For in Jesus there is another world and kingdom always coming. 1 John 4.19 reminds us, "We know that we are God's children and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one."

This is a time to give your allegiance to Jesus. And commit to building the church, a durable, Spirit-driven political thing that is a sign pointing to what is to come. Now is the time to learn again to pray, meditate, read scripture, worship boldly, loudly, reverently. Now is the time to pray first and engage outwardly but guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit to act in ways that transgress the progressive and conservative norms.

Do not throw out the birthright for a quick fix that the potentates, parties, and paid political protest machinery promise will "work". They are preying on our fears. Jesus has come to set us free. Let us live into His ways.

Westcoast Anabaptist Network bishop, sinner and saint in process, your servant, and servant of the Lord.

-Shelby Boese

17The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift…20 The one who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" -Revelation 22

January 7th
From The Desk of Our Executive Minister

Breaking Cycles: A Call to Centre on Jesus Through Prayer

Breaking Cycles: A Call to Centre on Jesus Through Prayer

At North American Baptist Seminary, where I studied for my MDiv, one of the ethics courses used Glen Stassen's Kingdom Ethics. This was a marvelous text in which he, and co-author, David Gushee, used the Sermon on the Mount [SOTM] as a key source of a Jesus-Centered way of practicing the faith in real life (Orthopraxy). They identified 14 "triads" (groups of three, not the Chinese mafia) in the SOTM. Jesus cites the problem, traditional 'righteousness' approach and its vicious cycle, and then a new way forward. A way that has a transforming initiative which breaks the vicious cycle we get trapped in through our false holiness or other ways of control.

When we repay violence and power struggles with more violence and power struggle, we are shaped by our approach into the flip side of the same coin of that which we say we oppose. When we accomplish justice through violence and scorched earth rhetoric approaches, we create new and oftentimes worsening injustice that cannot heal, repair, recompense, and restore a world we would flourish in. And we see prayer as an optional add-on instead of a revolutionary relationship re-centering.

I want to suggest the first task of breaking our normal reactive response cycles is being more Christ-like in our lives, churches, leadership, and service by rooting more intentionally and deeply into prayer. Back in December, I asked if you would make January a special Spiritual Life Emphasis personally, and in our churches. This was a powerful practice that the congregations I was formed in did every year. Often kicking it off with a New Years Eve prayer and worship time.

Calling our people to centre on Jesus through conversation with Him is a vital part of what makes us a church and keeps us from simply amplifying the destructive patterns around us. Inviting, modeling, and doing together practices that engage their body (voice, posture, various forms of prayer) is the good and often necessarily awkward task of pastoring well. Always rejoice, constantly pray, in everything give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus, 1 Thes 5.16 (NET).

More than ever, being rooted and grounded in God's love, Jesus, matters if we are to serve and lead from a different place than the anxieties and power-over ways of the world that creep into the church.

Jesus is Lord; and the anti-christs of our day want to suck us into their vicious cycles. When demons fight... the Powers don't care who "wins" they care about destruction and chaos. Let's set our eyes on Jesus, where our hope and empowerment for faithful liberation and truth is found. See also The Lord's Prayer from the Bible Project: https://bibleproject.com/guides/the-lords-prayer/

Some pastoral thoughts, fellow sinner and saint-in-process, Shelby Boese

…keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. -Heb. 12.2 (NET).

December 24th
From the Desk of Our Executive Minister

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish you, your family, and our shared extended spiritual family of Jesus’ followers in the Anabaptist stream in BC Merry Christmas and

Christmastide!

Over the years in ministry I have been glad to be a advocate in my places of service in bringing back more of the church calendar to low-church protestants who over corrected in the Reformation. These days and seasons, when not used as markers of obedience or holiness, do help shape us by the Life of Jesus.

If we don’t use them, Big Tech, Big Government, Big Business are the only forces shaping how we count time and experience seasons. The church pushes against this with our calendars. For example Advent and then Christmastide.

What is Christmastide? Here’s a summary: The Season (Christmastide) starts Christmas Day (Dec 25) and ends January 5th (Twelfth Night), with the Epiphany (visit of the Magi) on January 6th. Marks the period between Jesus' birth and the arrival of the Magi. (The next season is Epiphany).

As we enter the Christmas Season for real on the 24th evening, I encourage you to try to slow down and engage with the idea that the world is not the same since Jesus entered into creation. I am amazed by the story of the Zoroastrian Magi, who within their pursuit of truth, the Holy Spirit spoke and drew them to Jesus. They were not the same.

There is so much richness and life that we can participate in when we say yes to giving our first allegiance to King Jesus!

Happy Christmas everyone!

-Shelby

November 18th
From the Desk of Our Executive Minister

Christ the King/Reign of Christ

This Sunday marks the end of the church year in the Western Christian calendar. In 1925, the Roman church officially named this Sunday "Christ the King" in response to rising nationalism. Many churches that follow the liturgical calendar followed suit.

More than ever—and certainly in line with Anabaptist impulses on the centrality of Jesus—this seems like something worth teaching and celebrating. In Jesus, the rule and reign of God entered creation fully, as foreshadowed by the Jewish prophets. And if we believe the Holy Spirit is present and working everywhere, we can see glimpses of truth even in the pursuits of our neighboring faiths.

If your church does not celebrate the last Sunday of the church year, this might be a good time to talk about the rise of division driven by algorithms and various political interests. It's worth naming that in our reaction to U.S. Christian nationalism, our response as followers of Jesus can't simply be "more Canada" (or allegiance to any other totalizing party or statist system). The local church is called to be an alternative politics through its weekly and daily rhythms of worship, prayer, learning, and service.

We are the City of God in the midst of this world—building a people who give allegiance and service to and in the name of Jesus Christ. This is our first task; otherwise, we simply serve the impulses and powers around us. Out of this one Gospel—Christ is King—flows power and peace for the repair of the world, and we are changed personally in it.

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow..." (Philippians 2:10-11)

Collect* from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

*a prayer meant to gather the intentions of the people and the focus of worship into a succinct prayer.

Servant of Jesus Christ and His people,

Rev. Shelby Boese, D.Min.

Executive and Church Leadership Minister for BC

Read on the Connect: MCBC Connect - Nov 19th

November 5th
From the Desk of Our Executive Minister

Culture of Life People

Culture of Life People

I have been astounded at the inconsistencies sometimes in my own life. It's good when a close friend or colleague can gently encourage me towards better integrity, narrowing the gap between my inner and outer selves. This is very countercultural in the world and often, unfortunately, the church. When we do not work at this, we end up in soul-deadening cycles of performing (our outward self) and hiding (our inner self).

In our larger Mennonite-land, we have similar gaps.

Some heated examples that come to mind: People who were loud about making abortion rare (illegal or safe and rare) may do little to help encourage and support the single mother post-birth. People who were loud about Gaza are silent on the ancient scourge of antisemitism (or worse, parrot the talking points of those committed to Jewish erasure) and are silent about serious conflicts with equal or worse death-dealing. Conflicts that include the Islamist violence against Christians in Nigeria, Sudan, Muslim Uyghurs being enslaved and experiencing slow genocide (literal and cultural) in East Turkestan (Mainland China colonizer name "Xinjiang Autonomous Region"—which is anything but autonomous), the Kurds, and so on.

We also have the situation where MAiD is undercutting the dignity of some, such that the UN (not a bastion of even-handed moralising by any measure) is calling on Canada to rein it in. It's pushing a dangerous line of devaluing life in the name of a narrowly defined understanding of dignity for differently abled folks and for those with painful mental illness. (https://www.inclusioncanada.ca/post/do-better-inclusion-canada-welcomes-un-committee-s-concluding-observations-on-canada-s-disabilit )

I would like to encourage those of us in this West Coast Anabaptist-Mennonite Network AKA MCBC to cast ourselves on the grace of Christ. Let us consider our outward peacemaking and our culture-of-life—because Jesus names and displays on the Cross that everyone has inestimable worth—in a more honest and robust way.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. -Galatians 2:20

When we detach the Peace with God and Self from peace with Others and Creation, we are easily drawn into political-power-over ways of being that enslave us to the controlling, death-dealing stories of those powers. We lose something distinct, being shaped and empowered by Jesus and the Holy Spirit in doing the works of the Kingdom/Kindom of God.

If we lose Jesus in our actions, we lose what it means to be a church and cut ourselves off from the power of God making all things new.

Your servant, and servant of God,

Shelby

December 17th
From The Desk of Our Executive Minister

Ride On King Jesus!

Ride On King Jesus!

When I think about some of the core aspects of why I identify with the Anabaptist stream of Christianity (I am shaped by Anabaptism, Evangelicalism*, and Spirit-filled streams), there is one focus above all: King Jesus Gospel. Many folks my age (give-or-take) who have straddled Evangelical and other streams of Christianity have done at least two hours on a cold Tuesday afternoon as a neo-Calvinist/neo-reformed "theobro" (and yes, it's usually "bro"). *the Bebbington definition.

'Why was it only about two hours?' you ask. Because that gospel tends to over-emphasize personal salvation and exalts one sub-theory of Jesus' work on the cross ("Penal-Substitutionary Atonement"—not to be confused with the more ancient "Substitutionary Atonement"). A big contrast with the neo-reformed fundamentalism is that Anabaptists tend to be more relational and health-oriented in viewing the Gospel, instead of fixating only on the legal-model of viewing our situation as it relates to goodness and evil.

The full-orbed Gospel—or as my Pentecostal-Alliance roots taught me, "Full"—is another way to name the "King Jesus Gospel". Any church that fixates on narrowing the scope and importance of Jesus to a law/penalty salvation for me and a narrowed view of election on individuals vs. a people does so much mis-reading of scripture. Jesus is bigger and greater and more wonderful than we can even imagine (yet are called to try!). The healing image of God entering creation to restore by becoming what He was not, so we might be restored—nay, so we might start to grow-up again from the pause and stunting of sin—is beautiful and good and true.

A.B. Simpson (and many movements then influenced by him) spoke of Jesus' work as the four-fold Gospel: Jesus Christ: Saviour, Sanctifier (Spirit-baptizer), Healer, and Coming King. This is a full-orbed Gospel.

John Wesley challenged his preachers to preach Christ in ALL of His offices: Prophet, Priest, and King. This is a full-orbed Gospel. Anabaptist Christianity says "no" to a limited Gospel that denies the scope of the work of God's power-from-beneath. Any Gospel that is less than the totality of Jesus is not good news—it's something we control, and if we control it, it cannot redeem us from our contorted controlling attempts at life.

This Sunday is Advent 4. Read this news from the Matthew 1 reading:

22 'All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."'

A servant of King Jesus - Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King,

Shelby Boese

December 3rd
From the Desk of Our Executive Minister

Spiritual Life Emphasis

Spiritual Life Emphasis

Every new church year (Advent) and then the calendar/work year in January, there is a threshold space (liminal time/space is the $20 word) in many people's hearts and minds. One of the most powerful spiritual formation tools is using the calendars of life in your discipleship practices as a church community and personally.

I would encourage you and your church to consider a prayer focus for days, weeks, or the month of January—a special spiritual life emphasis with guided prayer times and themes. A suggestion would be to pray into the four draft priorities of Mennonite Church Canada:

Four Key Initiatives that we feel God is calling us to:

Centring on Jesus Through Theological Renewal
Becoming a Vibrant Intercultural Church
Discovering, Calling, and Equipping Leaders
Embodying Peace as a Witness and a Bridge

Here is my hot take on some of these (a lot more can and will be said, I'm sure):

One: This to me is clearly a call to renewal as a CHURCH, not simply being a spiritual blessing of the culture writ large as is. Jesus is the scandal we lean into first and foremost—upsetting our apple carts left, right, and centre. For some, this may mean entering a second naivety, to be caught up in the Wonder of Jesus and the King Jesus Gospel (see Scot McKnight (anglican-anabaptist), Matthew Bates, etc.).

Two: Can we de-colonize our theology? Before you choke or start shouting, hear me out. We are so very influenced by late modern Western HYPER-individualism. Our supposed progressive-conservative divides are usually fights using the same coin, different sides of this hyper-individualism. We miss much of the power of the written Word of God, the Bible, because we read it through this lens (There are lots of great high-view of the Bible resources on fixing this problem). The good news is Jesus is sending the global church to Canada to help re-evangelize us :-). Embrace it. Let go of privilege in how we frame the Bible, Jesus, and justice.

Three: The Holy Spirit is still calling leaders. Are we making space for them and equipping them? We need to revisit how we form leaders for the church. Ephesians 4 tells us that God raises up folks and wants us to learn to lead local churches in collaborative ways. The priesthood of all believers is often used as an excuse to ignore gifts and offices the New Testament tells us are vital for the health and growth of all. It means no mediators, not "no one is called and no one is responsible" (which is the reality when we confuse the priesthood of all with meaning everyone has the same function. Priesthood of all is PERHAPS the most abused phrase in our tradition. See 1 Cor. 12 on not using it to dis-member, and deform the body).

Four: Peacemaking IS a form of evangelization. In fact in the word of the Apostle Paul, we have this ministry of reconciliation (with God, others, creation, self) We share Jesus by entering into the mess. Let's start with our own. Maybe even doing basic, on-the-ground training as part of our local church discipleship processes. Peace with God, Self, Others, Creation. Do you offer regular courses on this? Not simply abstract seminars, but actual "here's what this looks like, let's lean forward together" training? We are a PEACE church. Yet, we are often at war in our churches, in our hearts, and with others. Don’t talk to me about conflict over there somewhere when one is ripping and tearing down your neighbour right here and constantly shooting at your local church. Our peace-breaking or faking, needs to be replaced by active peace-making on-the-ground here. Justice and mercy start at home. I had more local church peace training in the Christian and Missionary Alliance than I ever observed in my Mennonite Church USA experiences. We talk a big game, but Jesus help us—let's start it in our own backyard.

Don't miss the Spiritual Life Emphasis opportunity of January 2025! And every January.

Cycles of outward focus and inward development are vital to growing in health and even welcoming new believers into the church.

Servant of the Lord, and yours,

Shelby Boese, Rev. Dr., Ältester

January 21stFrom The Desk of Our Executive Minister

We Count People, Because People Count!

January 14thFrom The Desk of Our Executive Minister