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 1310 Taylor Ave. Winnipeg, Man.  R3M 3Z6 or send via e-mail. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.)

Leaves me cold

I found much to agree with in recent letters re worship (Nov. 15). However, Jim Hunt states that the issue is not “about how we Mennonites worship”. Unfortunately, I believe that is, and long has been, the issue. Sunday morning services in MB churches have changed a lot in the past two decades. The atmosphere has become casual, at times verging on the disorderly. People can be heard talking loudly in the foyer or while entering the sanctuary. They come late, slowly sauntering down the aisles. When singing the choruses, some stand while others are seated. During baptisms or other special moments, some members applaud and cheer as if at a sports arena. Are these changes all for the good? Has “tradition” become a dirty word? How we conduct our worship services affects everyone. Perhaps our churches aren’t as stuffy as they used to be, but the draft from the outside world is leaving some of our more senior members feeling cold.

Roland Derksen,
Vancouver, B.C.

Inaccuracies in Witness article

I write to point out inaccuracies in Darren Duerksen’s article on the Kutuzovka Mennonite Church, Ukraine (Witness insert, MBH Oct. 4). This church is growing, but the baptism and other figures given are misleading. The official name of this church is Kutuzovka Evangelical Mennonite Church. It is not Mennonite Brethren, nor was it in the past. This church has a good relationship with MBs, and Logos Germany (with strong MB involvement) supports the pastor, Helmut Epp. The church also has ongoing relationships with Mennonite churches in Zaporozhye and in Kherson, both of which receive sponsorship from Mennonite Church Canada and are also called Mennonite Evangelical churches. Mennonite Christians are becoming known in Ukraine but further distinctions are not important there. My wife and I presently attend this church and appreciate its ministry very much.

Al and Peggy Hiebert,
Directors,
Mennonite Centre,
Molochansk, Ukraine

A correction by MBMS International is included in the Witness insert in this issue.—Ed.

Use discernment

Thank you for printing Paul H. Boge’s review. The movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, regardless of the seeming entertainment, is demonic, and we are fools to think otherwise. God has given us discernment. We should use it.

Dennis Hughes,
Ladner, B.C.

Encouragement would help more

I respond to the criticism levelled by Greg Wiens against organizers of the 2002 Canadian MB Conference convention (Nov. 15). I sympathize with his frustration over poor quality service, being charged rates that he felt were excessive and being identified along with other youth pastors in an unflattering way in the MB Herald coverage. However, I fail to see how his letter of criticism, sprinkled with sarcasm, will encourage any employee of our Canadian Conference or any volunteer from the B.C. Conference to do a better job. I encourage:

• That the volunteers and employees who worked so hard at our latest convention not be discouraged. We sincerely appreciate their efforts.
• That we, as a Conference, learn from the unfortunate experiences that Wiens identified and try to create stronger, better organized conventions in future.
• That Wiens understand that people, try as they may, make mistakes from time to time.

I offer Pastor Wiens, and all of our MB youth pastors our encouragement as they minister to and guide thousands of our Canadian teens on their spiritual journey.

Don Neufeld,
Saskatoon, Sask.

Living is sharing

Re “Lori’s Garden”, (Dec. 7, 2001). Lori is Doing What Jesus Would Do. She admits she doesn’t find it easy to share her faith with her neighbours.” I see Jesus as someone who helps people with their needs, and that witnessing begins with building relationships. Jesus’ example shows us how, for the most part. With surrender, trust, obedience and prayer, we get to know to whom, when and the rest of the how to. To Lori I say to keep doing what she is doing. Living your faith is sharing it.

Cecile Corbiere,
Kincaid, Sask.

Scripture speaks of rapture, tribulation

Reuben Pauls (Aug. 2) find it “refreshing” that the rapture, the tribulation and the millennium, are not included in Article 18 of the MB Confession of Faith, implying that these are not biblical categories, that Jesus’ teaching on the end times is at variance with Old Testament Scripture, that “dispensational teaching” is the novel invention of 19th-century Nelson Darby and that salvation history is without an ordered plan for the ages. But if this is the case, then events such as the call of Abram, the giving of the Law and the first coming of Christ itself are without particular significance in the ongoing process of world redemption.

Do the Scriptures have anything at all to say about the rapture, the tribulation and the millennial kingdom? If they do, would that not make them “biblical categories”?

Doesn’t Jesus, in passages such as John 10:45b, Matthew 5:17–18 and Luke 24:25–27, give His unqualified endorsement of all of Old Testament Scripture?

Without referring to them as “dispensations”, doesn’t the Bible allude to significant time periods in such passages as Acts 3:18–21, Acts 15:14–18 and Romans 11:25–28?

Sylvester Dirks,
Abbotsford, B.C.