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B.C. MB Conference Convention
Richmond, B.C.  •  May 4-5, 2001
Building a healthy church


An unfinished wall stood at the side of the stage of Fraserview MB Church in Richmond for the annual convention of the B.C. MB Conference May 4-5. It illustrated the mission statement that the Executive Council chose for the Conference at a retreat last October: “Building a Healthy Church”.

Unfinished wall symbolizing “Building a Healthy Church”

Passionate Spirituality

According to Natural Church Development surveys, B.C. MB churches rank lowest on “passionate spirituality” of eight characteristics analyzed. Therefore, the Executive Council decided to make passionate spirituality the theme of the teaching at this convention.

Rick Kingham

The guest speaker was Rick Kingham, formerly a vice-president with Promise Keepers and now senior pastor of Overlake Christian Church in Seattle, Wash.

In his first message, Friday night, Kingham talked about spiritual transformation. Addressing most of his talk to pastors, Kingham stressed the importance of getting alone with God in order to be transformed into the image of Christ. Only then can pastors be true “fathers” to their people (1 Corinthians 4:15-16) and lead them to also become Christlike.

In his second message, Saturday morning, Kingham repeated that it is necessary to have spiritually healthy leaders in order for there to be healthy churches. He began by examining Solomon’s leadership prayer in 2 Chronicles 1:10: “Give me wisdom . . . that I may go out and come in before this people” (KJV). He explained this prayer through Exodus 33:7-11, where Moses went in to commune with God and then came out to lead and teach the people.

Praise

Worship at the convention was led in a very contemporary style by worship pastor Kevin Barkowsky and a team from the host church.

On Friday evening, two testimonies formed part of the Executive Council and Conference Minister’s report. Sandra Plett, a graduate of Columbia Bible College and Youth Mission International’s one-year Trek program, described how God had led her into the ministry of being a residence director at the College. She concluded, “I am learning to listen to God and be obedient.”

Scott Falk, youth pastor at Neighbourhood Church in Nanaimo, pondered the question, “Why did God choose me for what I am doing?” He felt inadequate when compared to others who had very successful ministries, but he gained greater perspective through the support he was able to give a youth who came to Christ at Columbia Bible College’s Encounter weekend and who found that “God filled holes I didn’t even know were holes.” Through this experience Falk said he learned to let God do the ministry and not worry about the results.

The Saturday afternoon session began with a moving testimony by Glenn and Lori Ashton of Pemberton Christian Fellowship. Glenn had refused to put God first, but became increasingly desperate for God when he began suffering debilitating back pain due to an accident. When their son committed suicide in November 1998 for fear he would be in trouble for smoking pot, Glenn cried out to God to “help us or take us”. Two days later, he stopped smoking cigarettes, and two days after that, his back pain was healed. Their marriage was suffering strains, but another traumatic experience brought Glenn and Lori closer together. When they were informed that their unborn son was defective, they refused to have an abortion; it turned out that the son had no defects, but he died at birth due to a torn umbilical cord. In the midst of their pain, Lori was comforted by a nurse with a pink ribbon in her hair whom no one else saw and who they later concluded must have been an angel. Lori affirmed that “God comforts us so that we can comfort others” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) and that Glenn has become “a shining light of transformation for Jesus”.

Glenn and Lori Ashton

Business

The Conference Boards reported briefly Saturday morning, then reported more extensively in two workshop slots, one just before lunch and one just after lunch. Then the Boards reported again in the afternoon on what came out in the workshops and presented recommendations. There were few controversial or major issues, and the reports of good news were frequently greeted with applause.

The Executive Council received affirmation and ready approval for a recommendation to hire an Assistant Conference Minister, to assist Conference Minister Ike Bergen and to “serve as a strategist and consultant, challenging and resourcing churches to reach their redemptive potential”. The new position has been on the books since 1996; this decision authorizes the Conference to hire someone to fill the position. The Executive Council announced that it is contemplating changing the Conference leadership structure from a “council” model (the Council includes the chairs of the program boards) to an “eldership” model (composed of leaders whose responsibility is oversight of the ministry of the Conference as a whole). Columbia Bible College received applause for the building of its new gym, the elimination of its debt and the success represented by its record enrollment. Board chair Michael Dick prayed for outgoing president Walter Unger, and Chris Douglas (Executive Council representative to the Columbia Board) prayed for the interim leadership team of Merv Boschman and Ron Penner. The College is still seeking a new president. Camp directors Gene Krahn (The Pines Bible Camp), Will Born (Gardom Lake Bible Camp) and Harry Edwards (Stillwood Camp and Conference Centre) reported on indivdual transformed lives among both campers and staff. The Board of Camping Ministries is considering the possibility of adding other camps, possibly on Vancouver Island or in the Kootenays (southeast British Columbia). The Board of Church Extension reported that one-third of attenders at its church plants are transfers from existing churches, one-third are people who have dropped out of church and are returning, and one-third are new to church. Twenty percent of attenders at church plants make first-time commitments to Christ. Besides this year’s church plants, 10 churches are currently on BOCE subsidy, and seven more have just come off subsidy and will remain under BOCE supervision for one more year. In the past year, the Board of Pastoral Ministries examined 22 candidates for licensing, and approved one ordination. In consultation with churches, the Board has developed a joint Ministry Application Form. Candidates can use the first half of the form to apply for pastoral positions in specific local churches. The whole form can then be used to apply for licensing from the Board of Pastoral Ministries. This will save pastoral applicants from having to fill out separate forms for the church and the Conference. Also, since both halves of the form can be filled out at once, it will tie the licensing procedure to pastoral candidating at a church; currently, many pastors don’t apply for licensing until after they have already started ministry in a church. The Nominations Committee had worked hard during the year, and offered five more candidates than positions, thus necessitating elections for three of the boards. However, the Committee reported it was having trouble finding suitable women candidates willing to serve. Two vacancies remain, one on the Nominations Committee and the other on the Columbia Bible College Board. Arnie Peters of Willow Park Church in Kelowna remains as moderator. Reuben Pauls of River of Life Church in Sorrento becomes assistant moderator, replacing Herb Neufeld. Reg Toews of Greendale MB Church in Chilliwack becomes secretary, replacing Peter Enns. Enns, of Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, becomes member-at-large on the Executive Committee, replacing Scott Carpenter. The Board of Management reported that it had put on hold its proposed changes to the way the Conference collects money from the churches. (Instead of asking churches to contribute a per-member “norm”, churches would have been asked to contribute a percentage of their own revenues.) It was concluded that the main problem is not the system but that churches are not being convinced enough of the value of Conference programs to contribute adequately. In fiscal year 2000 (ending Dec. 31), the Conference had revenues of $1,122,697 and expenses of $1,085,962, resulting in a positive balance of $36,735. However, both figures were below the budget of $1,256,000, and the surplus was achieved only because the Conference did not put $100,000 into its capital budget as planned. The 2001 budget, approved at last year’s convention, was held steady at $1,256,000. Discussion of the 2002 budget raised considerable discussion from delegates, who up to this point had said relatively little from the floor. The budget, approved in an apparently unanimous vote, increases to $1,306,000. The main increases will go to the Executive Committee for the hiring of an Assistant Conference Mminister and to the Board of Camping Ministries, whose subsidy rises from $45,000 to $95,000. The Board can use the extra money to add more camps or to support capital projects at the existing camps. (Camp building projects received little direct Conference support last year because the Conference cancelled its planned contribution to the capital fund.) It was announced that Conference administrator John Wiebe has resigned to take up the position of Canadian MB Conference treasurer. Wiebe was thanked for his work and presented with a painting of a harbour to remind him of the West Coast.

Banquet

At the end of Saturday afternoon, there was one block of equipping workshops, on the topics of “Winds of Renewal”, “Keeping the Fire in the Fireplace”, “Baptism and Membership”, Taking your Spiritual Temperature”, “Developing a Healthy Relationship with your Pastor”, “Spirituality through the Lens of Love” and “Bread, Water and Mentoring”.

The convention closed with a Board of Church Extension banquet. The program consisted mainly of hearing testimonies from five young churches, all of which were then enthusiastically welcomed into the Conference.

Orchard Valley Church in Winfield was planted with assistance from Garden Valley Community Church, Willow Park Church and SunRidge Community Church. After a rocky start, Joe and Linda Harrison became the pastor couple and the church has seen steady growth to attendance of just below 100. It chartered in April with 29 members, 10 of them newly baptized believers.

Emmanuel Indonesian Church in Coquitlam was planted in August with the part-time assistance of Sonny Mandagie, an associate pastor for Indonesian ministries in Willingdon Church in Burnaby. The new church now has 17 members and an attendance of 25. Mandagie could not be present at the convention due to illness, and the church was represented by associate pastor Agus Budiwan.

Heritage Mountain Community Church in Port Moody was started with BOCE assistance as a daughter church of Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship in Coquitlam. Eagle Ridge contributed 35 people to the church plant, which now has attendance of over 100. Pastor Mark Tucker reported enthusiastically on some of the people who have come to Christ through the ministry of the church, and Eagle Ridge senior pastor Len Doerksen emotionally reported his church’s joy at the success of the church plant and at the blessing of God that Eagle Ridge had received new attenders to replace the members who went to the church plant.

John Koo served in Korean ministry at Willingdon Church in Burnaby for 10 years, then served for a time with Youth With A Mission. He and his wife Becky returned to Canada and began planting a church in May 2000 among the 35,000 Koreans in Vancouver; in January 2001, this congregation, called Vancouver Onnuri Korean Church, was adopted by the Board of Church Extension as an MB church plant. Attendance is now around 50-60. The Koos also shared their long-term vision of being able to evangelize in North Korea, perhaps through Church Partnership Evangelism. They said that the Mennonite Brethren doctrine of peace is a solution to the extreme competitiveness in Asia.

Church planting couple Brian and Becky Wiebe started work last December, and Promontory Community Church in Chilliwack had its first service in March, with 370 people attending. The church chartered May 3, the day before the convention, with 31 charter members, including five newly baptized believers. Brian talked about the church’s goal of leading people to Jesus. Promontory is the only church in a neighbourhood of 1500-1600 people.

Each of these congregations was accepted by vote into the Conference, and a prayer was said for each one.

Bob Granholm then talked of his work reaching out to two groups of recent immigrants: nominally Muslim Kosovars in Surrey, and nominally Christian Sudanese in New Westminster. The ministry includes giving food, clothes and other items, as both groups are desperately poor.

 – JC

The five churches that joined the Conference

Orchard Valley

Emmanuel Indonesian

Heritage Mountain Community

Vancouver Onnuri Korean

Promontory Community

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Last modified July 9, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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