Previous | Next 

Thursday seminars


Challenge to live out anabaptist theology

Futurists Tom and Christine Sine opened the 2002 convention weekend with a seminar entitled “Enabling the church to put 1st things 1st. Held in Central Heights Church in Abbotsford,

Tom Sine

the seminar was sponsored by the US Conference’s MB Foundation and the Canadian Conference’s Stewardship Ministries, and delegates from both the United States and the Canadian conferences attended.

Tom and Christine had done their homework. They had researched the Mennonite Brethren Church and knew what was happening. Throughout their presentation, most of their examples were taken from a Mennonite Brethren church. Although not traditional anabaptists, the Sines have come to embrace an anabaptist theology and view of whole life discipleship. Tom chided Mennonite Brethren for drifting from the anabaptist tradition at a time when other Christian groups are looking for leadership in this area.

The Sines challenged the delegates to look at their own church and see where the needs are now and what the needs of the community around the church will be in the next ten years.

Christine Sine

People are working harder and longer than ten years ago, government aid is being cut back and the church will need to step in to help. The Sines also stated that a funding crisis will come in the church beginning in 2010 because that is when the Boomer generation will begin retiring, and the younger generation has not picked up giving to church needs as have previous generations. Giving will not be sustained unless a whole life discipleship is practised.

Sine stated that consumerism defines the current culture and the church has adopted this for itself also. There is pressure on the young to increasingly derive their identity and self-worth from what they consume. Children are “branded” at a younger age.

The Sines encouraged attenders to anticipate the new global and North American challenges of the next decade and prepare for them. This should be done by seeing where the opportunities for ministry will be in families, in the church and in the denomination, and then re-awakening their biblical imagination to discover God’s purposes for every aspect of life and for every part of God’s world. This can be done by joining anabaptists everywhere – taking Scripture seriously not only for spiritual and moral issues but also for their entire lives. They gave illustrations of developing personal and family mission statements which included, for example, discernment in small groups for major purchases, offering interest-free loans to young families in order to free up more money for mission and partying the Kingdom to draw others in.

 – sbb

“The harvest is still ripe, and it will not reap itself”

If the Tom and Christine Sine seminar Thursday morning reinforced the anabaptist aspect of MB theology, the Wayne Cordeiro seminar Thursday afternoon reinforced the evangelical aspect.

Wayne Cordeiro

In fact, some of Cordeiro’s illustrations (comparing the church to a US battleship and comparing interdenominational cooperation to the international war on terrorism) seemed almost antagonistic to anabaptism.

Cordeiro is pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship, a Foursquare Gospel church in Hawaii with attendance of 8000 and was invited to give this seminar by the Canadian MB Conference Board of Evangelism. He is also humorous and personable and an excellent communicator who clearly enthused his listeners. In the first of two presentations, Cordeiro said that God had placed each attender in a particular place and time for a particular purpose and that each one should figure out why and then use his or her brief time on the earth to achieve the most possible for God’s Kingdom. Asking “How many of you are in full-time ministry?”, he explained that all Christians are in full-time ministry, placed where they are to win others to Christ. The best way to win a teacher or construction worker is through a full-time minister disguised by God as another teacher or construction worker, he said.

In his second presentation, Cordeiro said that the richest place in the world is a cemetery because of all the unused potential buried there. He urged his listeners to use their gifts while they had an opportunity. He said that pastors had been given great authority to be “dream releasers”, to free people to use their gifts and be all they were intended to be for Christ. Switching gears somewhat, he outlined character qualities to look for in people who can be nurtured into becoming future Christian leaders:

They need to be constantly learning and constantly trying to achieve because no one has told them that they can’t achieve. They need to love people. The best way to teach people to love is for the leaders to model it “because the church will become what the leaders are”. They need to have a vibrant imagination, be creative. They need to be risk takers, willing to try new things. They need to have the ability to suffer because successful pastors will face criticism from those who are less successful; they must be willing to lay down their lives and not fight back. They must be authentic, using their own unique gifts and ministering in their own unique contexts rather than imitating “experts” such as Cordeiro.

Like the Sines, Cordeiro finished with a personal call to commitment, in this case for those present to commit themselves to being dream releasers.

 – jc

Previous | Next 

Last modified December 17, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.