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Taking care of business


“Let’s get serious about God’s kingdom!” enthused executive director David Wiebe to the Council of

David Wiebe

Boards session January 27 in Winnipeg.

The Canadian Mennonite Brethren Conference boards meet every year in January. They began this year with a meeting of the Executive Board on Thursday, January 25. The Executive Board is the top decision-making and vision-casting board for the Canadian Conference. It includes the moderator, assistant moderator and secretary of the Canadian MB Conference; the chairs of the Canadian Conference program boards; the Canadian Conference senior executive staff (as non-voting members); and the provincial MB conference moderators.

The program boards met separately on January 26, and then they all gathered together on the morning of January 27 for the Council of Boards session. Here the boards reported to each other on the plans they were making, sought feedback and collectively made a few decisions on behalf of the Conference.

What will it take?

To begin the Council of Boards session, David Wiebe outlined the three main foci of the Canadian Conference, as developed by the Executive Board: leadership development, healthy churches and reaching out. He noted the various boards and programs the Conference uses to work in these three areas, and then asked, “What would it take?” What would it take, for instance, to achieve the Board of Evangelism’s goal of increasing the number of MB churches in Canada by 5% a year? (This would increase the number of churches from 222 in the year 2000 to 285 churches in 2005.) For one thing, this would require at least 63 new pastors (hence the need for leadership development). It would also require creative financing, communications to spread the vision, prayer, planning, leadership and commitment.

Wiebe finished the session by passionately presenting a personal challenge – that every member of the Canadian MB Church pray for four unsaved people in the coming year.

Communicating the vision

The first of the program boards to report was the Board of Communications.

Doug Heidebrecht Chair Doug Heidebrecht first announced the reappointment of four editors after an extensive evaluation process. Marianne Dulder and Brigitte Penner were appointed to new four-year terms as co-editors of the German-language Mennonitische Rundschau. Jim Coggins was reappointed for another four-year term as editor of the MB Herald, and Susan Brandt was reappointed for another four-year term as managing editor of the Herald. In addition, the Board has extended its contract with Webmaster Marshall Janzen until June 2002. (Janzen runs a Web site design company, and the Board contracts with him to provide Web site services for the Canadian Conference.) Heidebrecht also announced that the Board “will engage in an extensive analysis and survey of the content and role of the MB Herald within the Canadian Conference in consultation with the needs of its members and churches”. This is part of the Board’s attempt to develop a comprehensive communications strategy for the Canadian MB Conference. Finally, Heidebrecht noted that the Centre for MB Studies (the Canadian Conference archives) has now moved into more spacious and visible quarters in space formerly occupied by the administrative offices and library of Concord College.

Filling vacancies

The Nominations Committee, a subcommittee of the Executive Board, consists of the Canadian Conference secretary and the provincial MB conference moderators. It presented candidates to fill four vacancies on Canadian Conference boards. All were approved by a vote of the Council of Boards.

Rob Neufeld, moderator of Forest Grove Community Church in Saskatoon, was appointed to the Board of Evangelism. He replaces Merv Boschman of British Columbia, who resigned because last summer he was elected to the board of MBMS International, which has now also become a Canadian Conference board as a result of restructuring. Ron Redekop, senior pastor of Northside Community Church in Mission, B.C., was appointed to the Board of Faith and Life. He fills a vacancy open since last summer’s Canadian Conference convention when there were not enough candidates nominated to fill all the vacant positions. Rudy Siemens, long-time administrator of Tabor Manor in St. Catharines, Ont., was appointed to the board of MBMS International. He fills a vacancy created when Loretta Snider, also of Ontario, resigned. Roger Thiessen, pastor of Christian Fellowship Chapel near Orillia, Ont., was appointed to the Board of Christian Education Ministries. He replaces Sharon Johnson, who resigned from the Board last summer to accept the staff position of director of Christian Education Ministries.

One vacancy remains to be filled on the Board of Faith and Life, due to the resignation of Karen Heidebrecht Thiessen, who has now become pastor of a Mennonite church in Abbotsford, B.C.

Studying difficult questions

The Board of Faith and Life announced initiatives in a number of areas.

Herb Neufeld A study conference on “Spiritual Warfare” will be held Nov. 15-17 in Calgary. Attendance will be limited to 250 invited participants, including some from the US MB Conference. This agenda item was passed down when the General (North American) MB Conference Board of Faith and Life was abolished last summer. It is hoped that a consensus can be reached on some “biblical and practical parameters” in this area. The Board is reviewing the current policy which says that those who have been divorced after conversion are not eligible to be pastors. Chair Herb Neufeld said that the intent is not to “open the gates” but to establish a “faint hope clause” to be used when there are “unusual circumstances”. A proposal will be presented to the provincial MB conferences for input before any formal action is taken. The Board is planning a conference for retirees to be held Oct. 11-14 near Banff, Alta. Called “There Is Life After Retirement”, the conference will focus on developing and maintaining spiritual vitality; managing finances; empowering the next generation; and volunteerism at home and abroad. The Board is studying the increasing practice in a few churches of separating baptism from membership, which is a major departure from MB tradition. Neufeld explained that the Board is convinced the core problem is that many MB churches no longer understand what it is to be a covenant community. With the disbanding of the North American Board of Faith and Life, responsibility for running orientation sessions for new pastors has been passed to the Canadian and US Boards of Faith and Life. The Canadian Board presented a recommendation that the US and Canadian Boards continue to offer these orientation sessions jointly, rather than offer separate US and Canadian orientations. The Council of Boards voted to accept this recommendation. An annual budget of $2500 was established for this purpose. For the past couple of years, provincial MB conference ministers have been asked to attend meetings of the Canadian Conference Board of Faith and Life. The Board is now asking that the conference ministers be made full members of the Board. (This will likely require a constitutional amendment, to be passed at a Canadian Conference convention.) Although the work of pastoral placement has been largely passed on to provincial conference ministers, the Board has asked that the Canadian Conference executive minister (David Wiebe) assist the provincial conference ministers by maintaining a central registry of pastors’ resumés. (Wiebe works under the authority of the Executive Board.)

Revamping education

Sharon Johnson outlines new plans

Sherryl Koop Leading off the Christian Education Ministries report, new youth ministry director Sherryl Koop outlined how the next national youth convention (NYCO2, in January 2002) will be different from previous youth conventions. It has been moved from Banff, Alta. to the Telus Centre in Calgary so that the number of participants can be increased (from the previous limit of 1000 to as high as 7000). It will be geared to peer evangelism (each youth group member is encouraged to pray for and invite two non-Christian friends). It will include a short-term mission service opportunity in Calgary under the guidance of Youth for Christ and an inner-city ministry called Mustard Seed. Chair John Neufeld reported that the Board is working to give guidance to churches regarding baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Children are now being baptized as young as eight, and churches are practising open communion, with some unbaptized children taking part in the Lord’s Supper. Director Sharon Johnson outlined her plans to offer regional workshops to promote the Life Steps Plan for children’s ministry; to develop a network of children’s pastors; and to develop a curriculum to help parents disciple their children. John Neufeld reported that the Board is working with the Board of Evangelism and Kindred Productions to develop a curriculum for Sunday schools which use the cell/celebration model. This is a new model of Sunday school in which the children gather in large groups for a quality teaching/celebration time and then divide into small groups for personal nurturing. Almost all current curriculums are written for the older model. Neufeld also reported that the Board is seeking adult ministry resources it can recommend to help churches develop the “eight essential elements of a healthy church” as defined by the Natural Church Development program.

Reaching out

Chair Peter Nikkel pointed out that the Board of Evangelism has two emphases: planting new churches and helping existing churches reach out. The church planting aspect is mainly carried out through the Key Cities Initiative, which targets certain cities for intensive church planting efforts.

Peter Nikkel Mission Calgary, the first Key City Initiative, aimed to plant 10 churches in Calgary in five years. It is now at the halfway point, and five churches have been planted (see sidebar). A sixth church, led by bi-vocational church planters Vic and Mary Peters in the Langdon area just east of Calgary, was approved January 12. Other plants are under consideration. Love Toronto, the second Key City Initiative is just getting under way. The first church planters, Dan and Carol Sileshi are in the process of being hired, and Koinonia Worship Centre, a congregation of about 100 people led by the Sileshis, is in process of being adopted. (See related article.) Associate director Bruce Elwood was hired two years ago to help existing churches reach out. Peter Nikkel reported that Elwood is now undergoing his mandatory two-year evaluation. Among other things, he has organized Shining Through, a major resourcing event, and Gift-Based Team Ministry, a pilot project working with a number of congregations. Nikkel also reported that the Board has approved spending $20,000 to help fund a resource worker/church planter for the Quebec MB Conference. (The money is being transferred from other parts of the Board’s budget and will not result in an increase in the overall budget.)

Making executive decisions

Ralph Gliege

Assistant moderator Ralph Gliege noted that, with him and moderator Jascha Boge, the Canadian Conference is now led by two men who are not ethnically Mennonite.

The Canadian and US MB Conferences are in the process of negotiating the transfer of the General (North American) MB Conference ministries to the two national conferences. The General Conference Board of Faith and Life has already been dissolved, and its responsibilities transferred to the Canadian Conference Board of Faith and Life and a newly created US Conference Board of Faith and Life. MBMS International, the MB international missions agency, remains a North American agency but now reports to the two national conferences.

Jasche Boge

It was announced to the Council of Boards that the Canadian chair of the MBMS International board has now been added to the Canadian Conference Executive Board.

At this Council of Boards session, the Executive Board presented its negotiating position for the transfer of the remaining two ministries, Kindred Productions and MB Biblical Seminary, to the national conferences. After considerable discussion, the Council of Boards affirmed in general the Executive Board’s approach.

Paying the bills

Vice-chair Herb Suderman reported for the Board of Management, which is currently operating without either a chair or a secretary, with none of the current board members willing and able to serve in those capacities.

Herb Suderman Canadian Conference finances are in “reasonable shape” halfway through the first year of the “biennium” (two-year) budget. Christian Press (where Conference periodicals and other materials are printed) is a “success story”, operating at a profit. The Board has hired Henry Neufeld of Ontario on a half-time basis as a Stewardship representative for Ontario (see separate news story). Ross Hardy has resigned as Stewardship representative for Saskatchewan, Alberta and northern B.C. and will need to be replaced. The Canadian Conference pension plan recorded 1.7% growth in 2000, which is considered fairly good in a year when the value of many stocks has been dropping. The Board of Management made a recommendation that the Conference switch from two-year budgets to one-year budgets. The current two-year budgets, approved at the biennial Canadian Conference conventions, make it difficult for boards to adjust to new realities and opportunities. If the recommendation was approved, Canadian Conference conventions would approve one-year budgets, and in the in-between years a budget would be approved by the Canadian Conference Council of Boards. Moderator Boge ruled that the 2000-2002 two-year budget is already in place, and that such a major change would need to be approved by a convention (rather than the Council of Boards) before being implemented. The Board of Management has turned down a request from other boards that a $500 entrance bursary be given to MB students at selected Bible schools. The Board did not think that such a small bursary would be much help. The Board did approve a grant of $25,000 from Stewardship funds to provide seed money for the cell/celebration Sunday school curriculum project being undertaken by the Board of Christian Education Ministries, the Board of Evangelism and Kindred Productions. The Board saved its most momentous news for last. Conference treasurer Jake Neufeld has announced his intention to retire later this spring. Neufeld received a spontaneous standing ovation from board members for his years of service to the Conference. Former Canadian Conference moderators Ike Bergen, Herb Neufeld and Abe Konrad then offered prayers of thanks and blessings for Neufeld. A search committee will be formed to seek a new treasurer.  – JC

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Last modified March 7, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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