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Letters to the editor
Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to:
Letters, MB Herald
3-169 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5
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or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.) |
Two sides to the question
With great interest I read the Aug. 2 Herald on the payment of salaries to pastors.
For the past 16 years, I have pastored Country Bible Church in rural northern California. When I came in 1986, there were 20dash;25 people on a Sunday morning; we now average about 100. At that time, I was working at Smucker’s and began donating my time to preach. Soon they called me to pastor, and I was licensed by the Pacific District MB Conference. I continued to work full-time as an accountant. In the intervening years, I have had several employers, but have maintained full-time work outside the congregation except for two brief periods. During those periods of unemployment, the congregation graciously assisted my family to make ends meet.
In the early years of my ministry at Country Bible, salary was not within the realm of possibility – the congregation was small, and the offerings were equally small. I preached because God has called me to preach. He has given me the spiritual gifts and graces to fulfill that calling these past 16 years. By His grace, this congregation will celebrate its 80th anniversary this year – something that seemed impossible 16 years ago.
Amazingly, the congregation began to grow. A new family here, another family there. Then, about six years ago, the congregation began to attract young couples. I have no explanation as to why it attracted young couples, but it did. We believe that God did not add to our congregation accidentally. Soon these young couples began having babies – we have averaged five births per year for the past six years. We now have 39 children enrolled in Sunday school, plus another dozen in our youth group. I continue to pastor on a volunteer (i.e. unpaid) basis.
Have I done the congregation a favour by not being paid? I am not certain. We use our parsonage for Sunday school classrooms because my wife and I own our home. Offerings are too small for a congregation our size – evidence points to a perception of “they don’t need it” so the monies are not given. We need to build a new facility, but the money is not in the bank – and the offering rate is inadequate to support a mortgage.
A friend of mine has suggested that I have done a great injustice to the congregation in two ways: (1) they have not had the joy or blessings of financially supporting one who labours in the Word and is therefore worthy of double honour; and (2) they have not learned responsibility in financing God’s work. The next pastor may not choose to be bi-vocational, and the congregation has no concept of what pastoral support costs – and is using the parsonage for classrooms! How will they deal with that?
Has bi-vocational ministry been worth it? For me personally, I would answer definitely “Yes”. I find living in the work-a-day world along with the congregation enriches my preaching. I understand the pressures of working because I do it too. I understand working with irritating co-workers, a grumpy boss and all the rest of it. I understand that knowing the right response and actually giving it are different. I understand the humbling experience of asking a co-worker for forgiveness because my actions have not reflected Christ in the workplace. I understand the difficulty of maintaining a vibrant, passionate spirituality with 45 to 50 hours a week consumed by work.
Would the congregation agree it is worth it? I am uncertain how the congregation would answer. I have had many positive affirmations that my sermon illustrations have an impact because they are “real”. Men have reported being challenged to deepen their commitment to Christ and His kingdom because of my example. Yet, others would say pastoral visitation suffers – and it has. It is rumoured that to see the pastor you have to be in the hospital or invite him to dinner. I just reviewed the congregation roll and see that I have not been in nine homes ever, and not been in about a dozen others in the past year. My accounting employment has meant the deacons have had to step up their pastoral care responsibilities – a situation I do not believe to be bad for the church.
There are some who do not consider me to be a “real” pastor, even though I am now ordained. I am a fully credentialed minister, but there is a lingering suspicion among some that I am somehow less a minister than someone who is paid. Is the value of my ministry based upon what I am paid? If so, I am in serious trouble.
The root of our issue, from what I can tell, is in our decision/desire to be like the Protestants between World War I and World War II. It appears from historical records that up to that time many congregations had several of the brothers preach. As we left the old ways, we began hiring preachers as those around us were. Bible institutes, colleges and seminaries began to have greater importance in our choice of pastors. Since they were professionally trained, they “deserved” professional treatment – including salaries. Slowly, the brotherhood divided into priests and people.
Expectations changed. What need have we of lay watch care people when we have a trained professional already on our payroll? Let him do it. We used his training as an excuse to stay untrained ourselves. Similarly, congregational discernment began to give way to “What does the pastor have to say on the matter?”
Do I recommend bi-vocational ministry? Absolutely. However, I recognize it is not for everyone, nor is it for every place. I believe in many communities it is the only way congregational life can be maintained. It affirms in a very real sense the brotherhoodness we profess. It affirms the gifting and empowering of the Holy Spirit. I believe it is biblical.
David E. Houchin,
Chico, Calif.
Some quotations from:
“[Ministers] look wholly to God (who by His grace created, delivered, regenerated and sent them to His service) for their daily needs, diligently supporting themselves as much as is possible by the grace of the Lord, from their own or their rented farm or from working at their trade; lest they be found selling the free Word of God which was given them without price.”
“If [you are called of the Lord’s church] then pastor diligently, preach and teach valiantly . . . rent a farm, milk cows, learn a trade if possible, do manual labour as did Paul, and all that which you then fall short of will doubtlessly be given and provided you by pious brethren, by the grace of God, not in superfluity but as necessity requires.”
MB Conference resolution (1893):
Resolved . . . that a minister should choose as simple a vocation (or business) as possible in order not to have his own spiritual life nor that of others harmed on that account.
From The Case for Voluntary Clergy by Roland Allen, a Canadian Anglican who ministered in the early 20th century. I was introduced to his writings while at Biola University in the 1970s, and he was a driving force in my decision to be bi-vocational.
“My contention in this book is that the tradition which we hold, forbidding the ordination of men engaged in earning their own livelihood by what we call secular occupations, makes void the word of Christ and is opposed to His mind when He instituted the sacraments for His people. It is also opposed to the conception of the Church which the apostles received from Him, and to the practice which St. Paul, of whose work God has given us the fullest account, established the churches. The stipendiary system grew up in settled churches and is only suitable for some settled churches at some periods: for expansion, for the establishment of new churches, it is the greatest possible hindrance. It binds the church in chains and has compelled us to adopt practices which contradict the very idea of the Church.
“The church unquestionably needs some men who give themselves wholly to prayer and the ministration of the Word and Sacraments, and such men must be supported by the faithful. She needs also some men whose time is wholly occupied with the care of parishes, and these she must maintain. She needs also scholars who give their whole time to study, and these she must maintain. But there are countless small groups of Christians needing pastors, which cannot afford to maintain clergy nor to provide them with sufficient occupation to save them from the temptations of idleness.
“Among our own people also the church sorely needs clergy in close touch with the ordinary life of the laity, living the life of ordinary men, sharing their difficulties and understanding their trials by close personal experience. Stipendiary clergy cut off by training and life from that common experience are constantly struggling to get close to the laity by wearing lay clothing, sharing in lay amusements, and organizing lay clubs; but they never quite succeed. To get close to men, it is necessary really to share their experience . . . .
“That is why I shudder when I hear men talk of voluntary clergy as half-timers. Voluntary clergy are not half-timers. A cleric can no more be a half-time cleric than a father can be a half-time father, or a baptized Christian a half-time Christian.”
“And it is marvellous in our eyes”
In the spring of 2000, we as the Scott St. MB Church had come into great distress. The lack of unity, and in many cases the lack of brotherly love and understanding, threatened the very survival of our church. At the height of the storm, all three pastors resigned, and a sizable group of our church members left. Those remaining felt devastated. We felt like sheep without a shepherd at a time when we needed the shepherd most.
The Lord wasn’t finished with us though. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). Many in the church prayed fervently to the Lord of the church, and the Lord moved through His Spirit in the hearts of many members. Some were willing to take on interim leadership positions. Other were moved to step into ministries left vacant by departing members. The realization that we all needed each other became very apparent.
Many of those remaining at Scott St. had a deep sense of conviction. We knew that the Lord would have to deal with us individually before a future could be envisioned. But who would lead us in the process? After months of struggle and wrangling, and the resulting division, the name “Scott St. MB Church” had taken on a rather negative meaning in the MB Conference. We were even accused of driving out every pastor. Would there be anyone willing to come and help us in our distress?
The Lord’s plans included the positive moving in the hearts of Paul and Betty Fast to answer our SOS. They were comfortably settled in B.C. and “theoretically retired” when our call went out to them. After visiting us in the summer of 2000, they agreed to come and fill the gap for a year. In the meantime, we could “rebuild the wall” and have a new pastor couple in place.
The visible work of Paul and Betty started in September 2000 and terminated at the end of April 2002. This was a truly marvellous time in the history of our church. To the credit of Paul and Betty and the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, we want to share some highlights:
- Paul and Betty had lived a part of their life in this area. Paul had even been a member at Scott St. before Fairview MB Church was established in 1964. They knew the complicated composition of the membership. Whether members came from Russia, Brazil or Paraguay or were born in Canada, to the Fasts they were all equally valuable and important. They tirelessly made contact with every member whose name was on the church list. In fact, they had requested a list of all the members before they came to the church in order to bring every one individually before the Lord in prayer. This attitude did not change during their time of ministry. At their age, we marvelled at the strength the Lord gave both of them to follow up on the needs of individual members.
- One of the first goals of Paul and Betty was to bring healing to the church. Sermons on forgiveness and acceptance, on love and unity were the “menu” early on in their ministry. Several Sunday evenings were set aside for the gathered church to repent. And repent members did. At one of the self-examining Sunday evening services, more than 30 members came to the front and acknowledged their contribution to the problems in the past. There was a spirit of forgiveness evident, and joy and hope began to return. Members who had never taken on any responsibilities in the church program became willing to step into the arena of service.
- The giving of tithes and offerings went up noticeably despite the fact that a large number of members had left. The words of Nehemiah came to mind: “I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, `Let us start rebuilding.’ So they began this good work” (Nehemiah 2:18). The zeal for the church of Jesus Christ that Paul and Betty demonstrated became contagious. With an overwhelming majority, the church voted to renovate the sanctuary to meet the needs of our time. To make the sanctuary more attractive to seekers and our own, air conditioning was installed to make our blended worship services a pleasure to attend. The members shared very generously in time and finances to make the renovations possible without any significant debt.
- Paul and Betty showed a tremendous gift for outreach. They talk about the Lord. They invite people into their home, and before long the conversation centres around the Lord. All that conversation is interspersed with witty humour. Their zeal for the Lord is contagious. Many of us have learned to be more outgoing to reach our city for Jesus. The attendance at the services bears testimony. Also, the Lord blessed their efforts with five baptisms.
- Brother Paul is not afraid to speak the truth in love. We have marvelled at his courage to preach on topics which are not popular today. He also has the courage to name sins. His attitude was: “Not that I already have achieved, but I’m striving, and I want you to strive with me.” But our pastor didn’t concentrate on the sins of the congregation. He rather found almost endless reasons to praise and encourage the members of the church. Whether quilting, teaching Sunday school, preparing food for church meals, ushering or serving as a parking attendant, we all felt we were essential workers in the church. This certainly resulted in an outpouring of good will on the part of the members.
- Brother Paul was very thorough in whatever he did. His baptism classes were geared to people with a non-church background. His previous experience as a teacher was used to its fullest. To disciple the new converts, as well as strengthen the older members, the Fasts stressed care groups. The sermons were preached on the level of the congregation. Paul also made it a point that all gossip stories that he heard he would check out with the people involved. Much healing has come through his effort in having grievances dealt with and buried.
- Balance was of importance to our pastor couple. Our worship times were a blend of the new and the old, and both young and old felt accepted and loved. Moreover, Paul would repeatedly bless those who had left us to worship in another style of their choosing.
- “Occupy until I come!” (Luke 19:13). Paul and Betty have no idea what it means to be a “lame duck pastor couple”. Until the very last day, they act as though they will be around for a long time. Whether it is the church kitchen, long-term planning for the church or visiting the sick, they “don’t want to be reminded that they are leaving”. As the new pastor couple is installed, they graciously act out John the Baptist’s testimony: “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). Their repeated exhortation still rings in our ears: “If you show the new pastor couple as much love as you have shown to us, all will be well!”
- Brother Paul was very concerned about the future of the church. For this reason, he also encouraged several young men to try their gifts in preaching. Personal mentoring helped to have these brothers get a taste for preaching on Sunday morning.
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Paul and Betty, we want to continue to love you while at the same time love our present pastor couple, Patrick and Valerie Bartley, as you have encouraged us to do. Thank you for taking on the tremendous challenge! You have blessed us! Words cannot describe what the Lord has done in our midst, using you as His instruments! May the Lord bless you and your family as you occupy until He comes or He calls you to Himself.
In the name of the Pastoral Relations Committee,
Jake Boldt,
St. Catharines, Ont.
The prayer labyrinth
Re the July 12 letter questioning the use of labyrinths: First, a labyrinth is not good or evil by itself – it’s simply a maze that people walk along. What those in the past may have used it for is irrelevant, since in the case of these churches it is being used for guided prayer.
Second, I imagine the resource used to facilitate the prayer path was a kit produced by Group Publishing, based on a prayer labyrinth that Youth for Christ in London, England created. The kit comes with directions for creating the maze, and a compact disc to guide the individual through prayer “stations” along the path. The experience takes about 40 minutes and includes stations focused on world missions and repentance; there is even an opportunity for communion. The entire experience is anything but an emptying of the mind, but rather a filling of it with God’s presence and Scripture.
The Web site www.labyrinth.org.uk has a number of helpful articles. You can experience the prayer path from your own home computer, with the help of an audio track.
Dan King,
Mission, B.C.
Gospel is mystical
I write in response to the letter on the labyrinth. I have never used a labyrinth but I do take issue with the writer’s reasoning for discrediting it – that the labyrinth was mystical. Many aspects of our faith are mystical. How can the Creator of this earth speak to us when we call out to Him? How could a man’s death 2000 years ago be enough to make me righteous, and His resurrection give me power over sin and death? How can a person’s heart, being quickened by the Spirit of God, begin to hear truth when they have been listening to lies for many years?
We shouldn’t be so quick to judge something just because it was used for evil in the past. Our God is a redeeming God. Time and again in the Bible God takes bad situations and turns them around for His purposes. Church history has also seen this happen. Martin Luther took songs used in the pubs and changed the lyrics to powerful statements of faith. We would never have a song like “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” if he had not seen what Satan was using and turned it around to be used for God’s purpose.
David Horsman,
Moncton, N.B.
Labyrinth invites us to journey
Lynda Magner (Letters, July 12) questions the use of the labyrinth in Christian churches calling it, “mystical”, “pagan”, “New Age” and “satanic”.
I remember singing the German Christmas carol “O Tannenbaum” and meditating on the symbolism in that evergreen tree. For centuries the evergreen tree has been used symbolically by Christians even though in the past it was part of pagan rituals.
At her recent ordination as pastor, our daughter cited Psalm 16:11 as her scriptural foundation: “You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.” She then explained the labyrinth as symbolic of her walk with God.
The labyrinth is a sacred circle with a single path that leads to its centre. Walking the path lends itself to prayer and meditation. As a circle, it is a universal symbol of unity and wholeness. The labyrinth invites us to journey with the God who encircles us and knows us through and through. One can walk the labyrinth alone or in the company of others. All that is required is faithfulness to the path that lies before us. No inanimate object is inherently evil or good but attains significance by the meaning we attach to it. Rather than being alarmist over minor trivialities, we should be upset over the judgmental attitudes and the lack of love we so often display as Christians.
Elfrieda Neufeld Schroeder,
Kitchener, Ont.
God does not require capital punishment
I respond to Lorne Welwood (Letters, July 12). I agree that the story of the apostle Paul is not one of “restorative justice” and that Paul was not some ex-con. He was doing his duty as a good Pharisee and member of society.
I disagree with the leap from that to the idea that “God’s law requires restitution to victims and punishment for crime” and that “punishment includes the death penalty”. The death penalty is not the will of God. Rather, much like Jesus’ assessment of divorce (Matthew 19:8), it is an allowance that He has made because of the hardness of the human heart. My views here are basically a summary of the pamphlet The Christian and Capital Punishment by John Howard Yoder (Faith and Life Press, Newton, Kan.).
- The belief that God requires capital punishment is not biblical. Cain killed his brother Abel and, according to Welwood’s understanding of God’s nature, should have been put to death for his offence. God, however, not only allows Cain to live, but marks him so that no one else will take his life.
- Genesis 9:16, “Whoever sheds mans blood, by man his blood shall be shed,” seems to clearly speak of the death penalty; however, this verse is set against a story of corruption (Genesis 4-6). There, Lamech, kills a man for wounding him; his vengeance is out of proportion for the offence done him. Therefore, God’s words in Genesis 9:16 are not so much a requirement; as a limitation. In Yoder’s words, “Vengeance does not need to be commanded; it happens. Vengeance is the normal response of fallen man to any situation.” God doesn’t command vengeance in humans; He limits it!
- The use of Romans 13:1-4 to support capital punishment is unfounded. The sword that Paul refers to, macharia, is the symbol of judicial authority; it is not the instrument used by the Romans for executing criminals. This passage supports the role of government as having authority over its citizens. Though we are not of this world, we are still subject to the rulers of this world. Paul is declaring that any government (even tyranny, which is the context he is writing in) is better than chaos.
- The use of Romans 1:32, that the wicked are worthy of death, is a frightening hermeneutic, because Paul goes on in chapter 3 to show that we are all wicked: “There is none who is righteous not even one.” Paul is laying the foundation for the gospel, not supporting capital punishment.
- I agree that our legal system is wanting. That, however, does not mean that capital punishment would make things better. To the contrary, instituting capital punishment within such a fallible institution would only make things worse. Trial lengths and the number of appeals would increase because of the fear of dealing with a “capital offence” inappropriately, thus increasing, not decreasing the amount of public funding spent on a felon. On top of that, there is no assurance that trials would always be tried correctly. There have been numerous accounts of innocent people found guilty.
- I agree that “you should forgive your offender seventy times seven.” If his offence against you is also against God and society, God in Christ has shown that forgiveness and restoration is the desirable ethic, not execution. Jesus, when faced with a “capital offence”, declared: “Who among you is without sin, he may cast the first stone.” The Sinless One, left alone with the woman, declared, “Woman where are they? Did no one condemn you? I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more” (John 8:1-11). Here we see justice served in an ideal way. The woman was not let off as she was; she had been changed. This is the kind of justice that we the Church should call our governments to administer – restorative justice.
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I agree that the key to this issue is that we have a high understanding of our image of God. It is that image that humanity has been created in. It is for that reason that murder is atrocious in God’s eyes, even the murder of the unrighteous, which Paul was in God’s eyes. God did show us the ethic of restorative justice in Paul’s conversion. Paul did not need to be restored to society, but he did need to be restored to God and His people! All murderers do; whether they are state sanctioned (as in Paul’s case) or not is irrelevant. May we leave an opening for God to restore “even the worst of sinners” in our midst, even if they are the likes of Paul Bernardo? (I was a classmate of Kristen French’s so I don’t make such a statement flippantly.) The church is to show him grace as God has shown us in Christ. When did this stop being the position of the majority of Mennonites?
Tom Friesen,
St. Catharines, Ont.
Short-term mission focus
The recent restructuring of Mennonite Brethren Missions caught my attention, having recently been on a short-term trip to Mexico. God moved in my life in such a mighty way that I am planning to go to Ecuador this coming November to share Jesus in that country.
In February, 64 people from across Canada joined Campus Crusade for Christ to show the Jesus film in Acapulco, Mexico. Watching God’s Spirit move and seeing thousands come to Christ broadened our vision to go to South America for the next trip. By joining “Plan 1000 Dias”, a long-term evangelistic movement spearheaded by a group including Delbert Enns from Family Life Network, we will work alongside local churches in Ecuador to help reach that country with the good news of Jesus. Two groups totalling 70 people will go to Ecuador beginning Nov. 1 for two 10-day mission trips.
What can we do in such a short time in a strange country? Here are four observations that have been made by the South American church leaders and our group.
The local pastors thanked us for coming because they could tell their churches that on this week the Canadians would be here. This gave them the incentive to engage in evangelism in their own city.
English-speaking white people from a place like Canada became an attraction for the locals to come and hear the message of the gospel.
The Holy Spirit began a work in many of our lives as we watched God work and people respond to the gospel. A fire was ignited in the souls of these short-term missionaries that has continued to burn long after the return to our busy lives here at home.
After seeing what God is doing in Latin America, we came back with new ideas on how to reach our city, our province and our country with the good news. The sharing of their ideas with our ideas was mutually advantageous.
Churches have opportunities to be part of Kingdom building not only around the world but at home too. Don’t wait if God is calling you; people will die and spend eternity without Christ if the church doesn’t mobilize itself in the Great Commission.
For more information on this short-term mission trip visit www.crusade.org and look for the Ecuador project.
Clarence Leschied,
Winkler, Man.
Tithe more than money
I read “Should pastors be paid” by Jim Coggins in a friend’s Aug. 2 edition of the Herald.
The other 11 tribes didn’t simply give 10% of their income to the Levites. They gave 10% of their crops, sheep, chickens, etc. to feed the Levites, who were not able to herd sheep, raise crops and so on because the Levites were the teachers, doctors, legal advisors, religious advisors, accountants, etc. These were unpaid necessary jobs, and the others gave 10% to feed the Levites in return for being educated, doctored, etc. It was a barter system.
In many situations today, the 10% is a guilt trip rendered on people for little more than big church headlines. Too often we are led away from Christ in our hearts to an idol in the almighty dollar.
Lorraine Cox,
Campbell River, B.C.
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