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Saskatchewan MB Conference Convention
Saskatchewan changes focus


After a decade of focusing on Planting to Produce, the Saskatchewan MB Conference is changing its theme to “Focus on Faithfulness”. The annual convention, held March 17-18 at Bridgeway Community Church in Swift Current, was a time of spiritual enrichment and business which enlarged on the theme.


Worship and teaching

Worship times predominated. Three pastors were invited to answer three questions: What is God doing in your personal life? What is happening in your congregation? What is God doing in the community through your congregation?

Mike Housek, pastor at Hillside Christian Fellowship, Beechy, started by saying, “God is good; God is awesome.” He told how he used to think he had too many irons in the fire; now he has more fires with irons in them. Besides pastoring the church, Housek is farming. Housek said he is an ordinary guy whom God is using in spite of himself. Everyone in the Beechy congregation is involved in ministry; everyone has grown this past year.

Carrot River, in northern Saskatchewan is a small congregation and has been struggling. Pastor Andrew Fehr stated, however, that God has been blessing especially in the last 12 months with people being baptized. Because of some of the struggles, the church leadership spent considerable time praying and setting new goals. Obvious cycles of sin were identified and dealt with. This has allowed the church to focus on their freedom in Christ and come up with an action plan for a healthy church. A banner with this plan was produced, and all the people in the church signed it. Since then there has been steady growth in the church.

Hope Fellowship in Saskatoon is a relatively young church, having been birthed out of the death of Central MB Church six years ago. The church is based on a cell model in contrast to a program model, with cell groups becoming the family where needs are met. Because the church is in a poorer part of the city, there are always people with needs. This is a labour-intensive model, according to pastor Terry Froese, because there are always new cells being formed and new leaders needing to be trained for these cells. The church’s theme is IHOP (intercession, holiness, offerings for the poor, prophetic ministry).

The enthusiasm of all three pastors was contagious.

Tim Geddert

Guest speaker Tim Geddert, a professor at MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Calif., spoke both on Friday and Saturday. Moderator Rod Dick introduced him by saying Geddert would be the guide on an adventure through the Scriptures. Geddert’s first message was based on Mark 1:16-20 and John 6, and entitled “Faithfulness to the discipleship call.” He answered three questions: 1) What is the call to discipleship? 2) What does it cost? and 3) What does it mean to be faithful to the call? Jesus called His disciples to four things: to be followers and learners; to change into being fishers of people; to ministry; and to community.

It cost the disciples plenty. At first it cost them leaving everything that had been the focus of their lives. Geddert stated, “The only thing God wants us to give up is the one thing we don’t want to give up. He has all the rest. It costs only one thing – that’s all.”

To be faithful to the call, Geddert said, is to be obedient in following. This becomes an investment in eternity.

Saturday morning Geddert began by saying, “There is good news and bad news. The good news is that we have Jesus as our Saviour, and the blessings that accompany it; the bad news is that we have to give up everything. Is the good news good enough to compensate for the bad news?” He then went on to say that there is no bad news, but it is not always easy to be faithful. Basing his message on Mark 8:34-38, Geddert stated Jesus offers a matchless treasure; all that is necessary is that this treasure be accepted, and this costs everyone as much as they have.

To answer the question of the cost of following Jesus, Geddert used Mark 10:17-21, 28-31. God has promised to meet our needs (not wants). Disciples need to give up home (where they belong), siblings, parents (identity); children (security in old age, and a sign of God’s blessing); and fields (livelihood), but God has promised to return 100-fold, or 10,000 percent. Trusting God for this means “that we know to whom we belong. We know we are inheriting God’s blessings, not in earthly things, but by investment in the Kingdom of God.”

Business

After Geddert’s challenge to faithfulness, the business seemed almost routine and mundane. Rod Dick is serving his first term as moderator. Abe Klassen, Lanigan; Clarence Peters, Waldheim; and Cal Penner, Herbert, formed the leadership team that worked with the executive during the sabbatical leave of director of church ministries Ralph Gliege. A poignant moment came when assistant moderator Henry Braun requested forgiveness for some of the actions the executive took in dealing with conflict in the church in Warman. He reported that the situation was being dealt with redemptively and that there were clear signs of a resolution coming. A number of pastors led the delegation in responding to Braun’s request, and a prayer was said for the executive and for the church.

Board reports

There was excitement when Dennis Wiens reported on the work of the Board of Reference and Counsel. Wiens mentioned the closing of Regal Heights MB Church in Moose Jaw, but noted that it was not closing with sadness. A lady attending the closing meeting said the Lord had shown her that this church had closed so that the people attending there could go to other churches to teach them how to pray, since Regal Heights had been a praying church.

Wiens also noted that new people had come to work in Saskatchewan churches: Chad and Sandy Nuestater, Jeff and Connie Peters, Jacki and Jeremy Kliever, Henry and Annabelle Wiebe. Cal Penner announced that there were a number of pastoral vacancies that would need to be filled.

Excitement is building for the upcoming Canadian MB Conference convention, according to Ralph Gliege. The convention, to be hosted by Bethany Bible Institute, Hepburn, is slated to be an equipping conference. A full residence camp for youth will run concurrently. Gliege also shared about his sabbatical. He and his wife Grace, have been interim pastor couple at Emmanuel Community Church, Pierceland. After some more time of study, Gliege will be returning to his work as director of church ministries.

Ernie Bergen, chair of the Board of Church Extension, invited testimonies from three people involved in ministry. Randy Chase, pastor at Woodrow, where his family of four is one-quarter of the town’s population, told of ministering in the nearby town of Lafleche together with Rick Schellenberg and the group Exodus from Bethany Bible Institute. It was a time of building new relationships across denominational barriers through singing, laughter and food.

Walter Toews, Forest Grove Community Church, Saskatoon, reported that for the last three winters he and his wife had ministered overseas, the first two winters in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and the third at Oaxaca, Mexico. The latter was a project headed by Campus Crusade. They quickly learned that “apart from Me you can do nothing”. They saw God at work in their own lives as well as in the lives of the people they worked with.

Cliff Janzen, liaison between the Board of Church Extension and West Portal Church in Saskatoon, introduced West Portal pastor Dwayne Barkman and newly-appointed church planter Dwayne Harms.

Dwayne Harms, Dwayne Barkman

Harms testified that he felt called into church planting during the time he was pastoring a church in Midale, Sask. West Portal Church, together with Harms, wants to develop a purpose-drive daughter church, one which is based on five strategies: evangelism, building community, worship, maturity and finding one’s place in ministry. It should then become a home base to begin other churches. It is hoped that about 45-50 people from West Portal will form the core of the new church. Janzen encouraged other churches to follow West Portal’s model and to help with supplies for the new beginning.

Tony Martens, speaking for the Board of Christian Education, stated that the relationship of Christianity to the culture has to change, has changed and will change. Current culture no longer wants Christianity to be a force in society, and Christians need to be ready to be marginalized. “There may come a day,” Martens said, “when Jesus is all we have left. That’s all that will last for eternity.” This truth, he continued, needs to be taught in churches and in homes; it cannot be done at the board level. He went on to say that the younger generation is passionate about following Christ, but they will be affected most by the change in the cultural response to Christianity. He then challenged the delegation by asking, “Are our people being readied for the future? Is our Conference being readied for the future?” When questioned further about the concerns of young people about the church, he replied that services will need to change to become more dialogical; there must be interaction in church gatherings.

Jake Froese, chair of the Board of Management quipped that since that board reported last, it must be the dessert. He reported that the North Battleford church building had been sold to the Lions Club, and the Regal Heights building in Moose Jaw was being leased to a local Foursquare Church. Wayne Harms, treasurer, stated that Parkland Community Church had gone off subsidy. He also stated that the West Portal church plant would receive $25,000 from the Conference for the first year, with the subsidy decreasing over the next four years. A budget of $169,940 for the year was passed.

Challenge

Moderator Rod Dick, assistant moderator Ron Dyck and secretary Phil Gunther

Terry Froese, pastor of Hope Fellowship in Saskatoon, stated at the conclusion that this was the fourth convention he had attended. He was impressed by the good nature and the faithful people; he was touched by the leader who was able to say he was wrong. But he also wondered where the young people were. “Conference does not seem to be important to lots of people. Are there questions we should be asking ourselves?” The challenge was put out to have some form of discussion on the validity of how Conference is done. Are the boards relevant to where the Conference should be going? This challenge will need to be addressed by the Conference executive: incumbent moderator Rod Dick, assistant moderator Ron Dyck and secretary Phil Gunther.

 – sbb

Pastors challenged Tim Geddert, professor at MB Biblical Seminary, addressed about 50 pastors and leaders on Friday afternoon on the topics of “Faithfulness to the Calling” and “Faithfulness to the Word”. He challenged the listeners to evaluate what constituted being “biblical” in church life. As an example, he stated that Sunday school as such is not biblical, but the strategy of teaching people certainly is. He noted the difference between Old Testament teaching and New Testament teaching. In the Old Testament, the true prophet was to be a mediator; infallibility was a prerequisite. When the people wished to speak to God, they went through the priest; when God spoke to the people, it was through the prophets and judges. In the New Testament, however, all believers have the Holy Spirit, and the role of the pastor is to equip believers to minister. Geddert stated, “All believers are called to the same standard of faithful discipleship.” He continued by saying that, “able to teach” and “teachable” were desirable qualities of Christian maturity. He further stated that “Payment [of pastors] does not carry with it decision-making or leadership authority.” When pastors are paid, it indicates that “your gifts are valuable to us, and we need them, so we free you to use them in our church.” In his second address, Geddert stated that preaching is “words about the Word about the WORD” (John 1). To be biblical in preaching means to accept Scripture as the inspired Word of God; to conform to a life that is centred in Christ; and to keep on being learners in the Word. Old treasures are good, but there are always new treasures to be found. Geddert also stated that there is a difference between preaching and teaching. Preaching should be to the unsaved, a proclamation whose goal is to win converts to Christ. Teaching should be for believers, to help people discover what the life of Jesus means to their lives. He continued by saying that “to preach biblically is to preach with passion,” and to have a goal that goes beyond the text. “If we only understand the text, that is not good enough. We have to see what God is saying to us.” “Was sagt das Wort?”(What does the Word say?) was a key phrase of the early Anabaptists. But the Book must not be an end in itself it is only a means to an end, to encounter Christ. Geddert concluded by saying that we become a biblical people when we are a learning community, discovering something new and recognizing old treasures as well; when we honour those who expound the Word but also evaluate what they say; and when we respond to what we are hearing by making a change in our lives.  – sbb

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Last modified May 12, 2000.

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