Previous | Next 

Bellingham, Wash.
B.C. pastors ponder transformation


Following the B.C. MB Conference convention, 185 pastors, Conference leaders and their spouses (accompanied by eight children) gathered at The Firs retreat centre in Bellingham, Wash. May 6-8 for their annual retreat. That number, down slightly from the previous year, represents somewhat less than half of the MB pastors in the province. Attenders enjoyed fellowship, relaxation, laughter, worship (led by Tim Huebert of Westwood MB Church in Prince George), sharing, prayer and the handing out of numerous prizes by Conference Minister Ike Bergen to those who could answer such skill-testing questions as “What colour was Coca-Cola originally?”

Guest speaker at the retreat was George Otis Jr. who several years ago put together Transformations, an hour-long video chronicling four communities around the world which had been transformed by the gospel. That video had such a powerful impact (with sales of over 130,000 copies) that Otis has just completed a second video chronicling three more transformations: among the Inuit of northern Canada, in the African country of Uganda and in the Scottish Hebrides 1949-52. A rough cut of that video was shown at the retreat.

In three messages, Otis told what he had learned from studying the transformed communities in the videos, as well as others around the world, about 50 of them so far. Otis described three stages of transformation. The first is establishing a “beachhead”, where believers enter into united prayer and invite the presence of God into their community. The second stage is “breakthrough”, when God comes into the community and brings revival, rapid and substantial church growth. The third stage is “transformation”, dramatic socio-political renewal because of the revival, rapid declines in crime and alcoholism, economic recovery, etc. Noting that none of the transformations are occurring in mainstream Western communities, Otis suggested that Christians in the West are too proud and complacent to persevere in establishing a beachhead. The transformations have often taken place in communities wracked by severe problems, where the Christians finally become so desperate that they humbled themselves, reconciled with other Christians and dedicated themselves to fervent, often all-night prayer. Noting that 90% of attempts to establish a beachhead fail, Otis said, “We all have prayed fervently – for 15 minutes.” Otis suggested that one way to develop the motivation for sustained prayer would be for Christians to get out of their churches and into their communities and discover the evil and need that are there.

 – JC

Previous | Next 

Last modified July 9, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.