|  | |
Previous | Next
 |
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
|
or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.) |
Do you know God?
Christ said to the church at Laodicea, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich . . . ” (Revelation 3:17,18). Christians today have such a lofty view of themselves that they fail to see that they are “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked”. I am frustrated at the response I get when I bring up the depravity of man or the sovereignty of God. Churches today want to be inclusive. They do not want to take a stand on issues because it would be viewed as divisive. The church no longer seems interested in confronting sin and is satisfied with its spirituality. My question is, Do we really know God? J.I. Packer said “Evangelicalism of today is a mile wide but only a half-inch deep.” We are so wrapped up with doing things that we have forgotten that the only reason we are here is because of God. We cannot expect to live with a shallow understanding of who God is and think that because we prefer to be so involved with the business of ministry He will excuse our ignorance of Him. We fail to understand that what delights God most of all is when we delight ourselves in studying who He is – His grace, His patience, His abounding mercy.
Dennis Hughes,
Ladner, B.C.
Church needed
Thank you for the Herald. We have subscribed for 50 years. It keeps us in touch with our Christian heritage. We read it from cover to cover. We appreciate the liberty expressed in the exchange of letters – like a true family!
We moved to Red Deer Alta. five years ago, expecting to find a Mennonite church and return to our roots. We were disappointed there is none here. Since we moved here, over 10,000 new people (including some Mennonites) have moved into Red Deer. We believe a strong evangelical church “that would exalt Christ” – Elmer Thiessen (May 3) and Harold Jantz (Aug. 2) advocated – would soon grow into a lively and healthy church. So many people feel frustrated and unhappy because of the “monkey see, monkey do” mentality in our churches today.
M. Willems,
Red Deer, Alta.
All about Jesus
During August I presented three messages to our congregation on the “Heart Of Worship”. While working on these messages, I read the many letters to the editor in the Herald on worship and was saddened to see so much related to music, the words “we Mennonites” and many other directions but so few going to the real reason for worship – purely to be in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Harold Jantz (Letters, Aug. 2) stated “It’s got to be the church singing which represents true worship.” If this is our perspective then we are in trouble. Matt Redman said very clearly in his song “Heart of Worship”, “It’s all about You, Jesus.” Not about our music. Not about how we as Mennonites worship. Not about worship teams. Not about the pastors or the congregation. It should be a time of joy, of blessings, of giving glory to God, but instead we focus on our styles of music and then create worship wars. We should ask for forgiveness.
Jim Hunt,
Leamington, Ont.
Worship good for us
Paul Unger (Letters, Sept. 13) says, “If worship is even remotely about us, we will never get it right” and “Worship is about God, period.” I agree that in worship God is the principal focus, but in practice I am the principal player (without me there is no worship). True worship is about “us”, God and me. Consider how godly people described their worship in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 1: “I saw . . . I cried . . . He touched my mouth . . . I heard . . . I said . . . I was . . . I heard . . . I turned . . . I saw . . . I fell . . . He placed His hand on me.” God was the focus – but the story had human characters too.
Unger also says “How we feel is of no consequence.” I agree, in terms of what we receive. But emotions play an important role in what we give to God. Worship is loving God “heart, mind, soul and strength”.
Lastly, we can’t worship God independently of Him doing something for us. “We love because He first loved us.” We are counting on Him to do something for us so that we can give our love to Him in return. He initiates, we respond. His ultimate sacrifice enables us to respond in a general sense, and we do need to worship whether we “feel like it” or not, but assuming that I can keep on doing this without a drop of grace from heaven is not biblical. My goal is not the blessing, but in a mysterious sense I am depending on it. God knows that everything we give Him came from Him first. And while we worship because He is worth it, He commands us to do it because it’s good for us, just like a loving God would do.
Brad Huebert,
Winkler, Man.
Worship benefits us
Paul Unger (Letters, Sept. 13) says that worship is not even remotely about us. This concept of worship cannot be substantiated by Scripture. Revelation 4:11 tells us that we were created for God’s “pleasure”. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, this word means “purpose, desire, decree, will”. We were created to fulfill God’s purpose and will on this earth. Together with Him, we were to rule and reign in righteousness. This was to be a partnership, a perfect, harmonious interrelationship of self-sacrificing love. Man, however, went his own way, in complete discord with God. To truly worship means to come back into harmony with God. This embodies the whole of life, not only our vocal praise in the congregation of believers.
We are the beneficiaries of true worship. We are promised God’s blessing if we remain faithful. Jesus said if we remain in Him and He in us, we will produce much fruit (John 15:5).
Does worship benefit us? It is an affront to God to deny it!
Vocal praise with song and music is but the audible expression of our worship of God, but it is a very important part of our worship, for God tells us that He lives in these praises (Psalm 22:3). Since He is never static, when we worship in praise He moves and acts within us, uplifting, encouraging, healing, guiding, instructing, convicting and strengthening us for our daily walk with Him. God is not in the business of receiving, but of giving (John 3:16). He receives honour and glory and praise and responds with pouring Himself forth in love and blessings to those who worship Him. True worship means not only vocally praising God, but also receiving His love and faithfully walking in it.
Lena Isaac,
Chilliwack, B.C.
The controversy of worship
From all the controversy about worship, I’ve been thinking that we have made something that the Lord intended to be simple, very complicated.
My perception of worship was formed to a great extent from the Genesis 4 story of Cain and Abel Dad read to us from a Bible storybook. I remember a picture of the brothers kneeling beside their altars with the smoke from Abel’s offering rising heavenward but the smoke from Cain’s twirling around and descending to the ground. I remember feeling sorry for Cain. Why wouldn’t God accept the fruit the way He accepted Abel’s offering? Much later, I learned that the Lord wanted a “blood sacrifice” and that God, who is always fair, will have made this known to Cain and Abel.
This story fit with the song we used to sing: “Oh, that my heart would be an altar.” If my heart was like those altars in the storybook and my worship was pictured with smoke, how would the picture look? Would it be acceptable to the Lord?
Since then, my favourite example of worship is portrayed by David. When he had sinned in numbering the people, the Lord punished him. When he had confessed, the Lord told him to “build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah”. When David came to Araunah to buy the floor, he wanted to give it to David. However David replied, “No, I will not have it as a gift, for I don’t want to offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing.” Likewise, my worship and offerings must come from a humble, pure heart that is willing to pay the price.
Paul writes about worship too: “Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Most of all, let love guide your life, for then the whole church will stay together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of heart which comes from Christ be always present in your hearts and lives, for this is your responsibility and privilege as members of His body . . . Remember what Christ has taught and let His words enrich your lives and make you wise; teach them to each other and sing them out in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to the Lord with thankful hearts” (Colossians 3:13-17, Living Bible).
If our music, preaching, teaching, giving and other areas of serving are “blood offerings”, offerings that cost us something like Jesus giving His life, then surely they will be acceptable to God (Romans 12:1).
Lena Bergen Friesen,
Waterloo, Ont.
Poor planning
I attended the Canadian MB convention in Abbotsford this summer. I am relatively new to the MB Conference. I grew up in the General Conference Mennonite Church and pastored in the FEBC (formerly known as the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren) before I became youth pastor in Elm Creek MB Church. As a young leader, I was very happy to see the direction the Conference is going in regards to the Seminary and fiscal sensibilities. The convention, to the credit of the Canadian Conference offices, was professionally done.
However, it was also the worst planned convention I have ever attended. It was mentioned in the Herald (Sept. 13) that there was a poorly attended young pastors’ supper on the Friday. There was no young pastors’ meal. Approximately 25 of us young leaders wandered around Central Heights Church looking for the alleged supper that we bought tickets for. We ended up going out to local restaurants. To report that the meal was poorly attended makes it sound like the young leaders didn’t care.
Also, why was nobody in charge of getting ushers, counting how many people there were going to be at meals so we didn’t run out of food, and countless other small but annoying blunders? And why did it cost my church $60 a day for childcare for my two-year-old twins? If the Conference wants young pastors to come to these things, then please don’t gouge young families.
I have a new respect for the Manitoba MB Conference. I always looked at the B.C. Conference as the professionals and us out in the prairies as playing catch-up. At least, we know how to count!
Greg and Heather Wiens,
Elm Creek, Man.
Denial of Holy Spirit
One side effect of publishing the series on the MB Confession of Faith with comment by Reuben Pauls has been to make us sensitive to correct biblical doctrine. MBs claim to be biblicists, so the Bible is our final point of reference.
In Pauls’s comments on Article 10 (March 8), he surmises: “Is it possible that the Holy Spirit, years ago, realized that we needed to be reminded that following Jesus is also a community responsibility?” This statement is a denial of the eternal, immutable nature of the third Person of the Trinity. It brings Him down to the human level, limited in time and dependent on mental processes. From the writer’s standpoint, this might be seen as a slip in judgement; from the divine standpoint, it is sacrilege.
Jake Balzer,
Calgary, Alta.
Need to take a stand
Within the province of B.C. the Anglican Bishop of New Westminster has instructed Anglican churches to accept and bless same sex marriages. Several Anglican churches, including St. Matthew’s in Abbotsford, have refused to go along with this. This stand could cost St. Matthew’s their parish. Recently, the Abbotsford Christian Leaders Network called for support of St. Matthew’s and the other Anglican churches that are upholding God’s Word and refusing to bless same sex unions. The attached letter is basically what I sent on behalf of the B.C. MB Conference Executive. In a unanimous motion, the Executive felt it was important to take a stand along with the ACLN in supporting St. Matthew’s.
Recently, there has been much discussion regarding a motion made by the Bishop of New Westminster of the Anglican Church regarding blessing same sex unions. In the past year, Trevor Walters and the parish of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Abbotsford, have taken a courageous stand on the authority of Scripture and the divinity of Jesus Christ. This stand has manifested itself in their refusal to bless and/or perform same sex marriages as endorsed by the Anglican hierarchy.
It is necessary for us as Mennonite Brethren to come alongside St. Matthew’s in their stand against the motion made by the Bishop of New Westminster. It is not easy, but it is time for us to be counted with those who hold to the authority of Scripture and refuse to kowtow to the dictates of society. The precedent of Scripture must always takes priority in our lives. Historically the church has proclaimed that God’s Word, the Bible, reveals His design for legitimate intimate relationships as heterosexual, and these within the bonds of marriage. While we can never condone discrimination based on race, sex or creed and while we would never advocate hate or violence against a person or any group of people, it is inconceivable that the choice to defy the full counsel of Scripture with regard to same sex relationships and marriage can be endorsed.
As our Board of Faith and Life has outlined, we believe that, while it may be possible to have a homosexual orientation, it is also possible to live a chaste and celibate life. To argue that a disposition towards homosexuality gives a person the right to homosexual relationships or practices is as wrong as arguing that it is OK for the heterosexual to practise a promiscuous lifestyle.
We also recognize that speaking with conviction against homosexuality is only part of what we must be about. We must also speak the offer of redemption, grace and the care of Christ to those caught within the grip of this lifestyle. We encourage all homosexuals to give up their lifestyle and to find healing in Jesus Christ.
Chris Douglas, Senior Pastor,
Central Heights Church, Abbotsford, B.C.
No need for pastors
Years ago, my wife and I attended a church/college organization in which we paid 1st tithe, 2nd tithe and every third year, a 3rd tithe. In addition, we were constantly asked to contribute to the building fund, and borrow money to donate to the church. The top leader had several luxurious homes. I was payroll supervisor. After 11 years we left. The top ministers lived as kings and queens compared to normal church members. After we left, the organization went on to take in about $180 million per year, until the founder deceased and the empire splintered into factions.
After not going to church for 20 years, my wife and I were drawn back into a real fellowship with Jesus Christ, and both received the Holy Spirit. After 10 years, we are again disillusioned with churches and “institutional Christianity”. If we make a donation to any source, we are thereafter bombarded with a never-ending flow of requests for more money. Many Christians are leaving institutional churches for home meetings, where there is no pastor and no need to hound people for money. There has to be more to life than sitting in a pew for 50 years, listening to one man who has “all wisdom” and who stands between Jesus Christ and His people. What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit, if it is necessary to be bottle-fed by preachers all of one’s life? Do Christians ever graduate from spiritual diapers? I am not impressed by multi-million dollar mega-churches and “ordained ministers”, but I am impressed by simple, humble people in whom is the Holy Spirit. We are not two classes of people, pastors and lay persons; we are simply all brothers and sisters in Christ.
Van Robison,
Kentucky
Previous | Next Last modified November 30, 2002.
© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.
|
