A lot to celebrate

There was a lot to celebrate at the Ontario MB Conference convention, even aside from the fact that the convention was held in Niagara Falls on Valentine’s Day. With much of the Board reporting done at a “mini-convention” in November, this gathering was intended to be focused on celebration, inspiration and worship – but delegates found time to do business as well.

An encouraging evening

Bill McRae

Friday evening was entirely given over to celebration. Bill McRae, president emeritus of Tyndale College and Seminary in Toronto, spoke on “Upon This Rock I Will Build My Family”. From Hebrews 10:24–25, he talked of the need to “encourage one another”. The concept includes complimenting, confronting, challenging and confronting, but mostly McRae simply stressed the need to do it. He observed, “Anyone who has ever been a child (or spouse or minister) knows the value of a parent’s (or spouse’s or church member’s) encouragement, and the heartbreak of the lack of it.” He outlined ways to encourage others (spoken words, written words, touch, listening, offering hospitality, giving, serving and prayer) and left his listeners with a homework assignment: What is it about the coming of Jesus that makes it more important to encourage one another the closer you get to it?

The evening also included:

• the introduction of new pastors in the Conference and their spouses (about 30 people altogether).
• lively contemporary singing led by Andrew Plett and Lisa Hildebrand.
• information that the host church had been praying diligently for the convention for 40 days.
• short drama presentations by the host Mountain Park Church (related to the three convention messages) on the need for personal time with God, the need for families to spend time together and the need for churches to stop fighting over minor issues and unite on the major issues.
• a communion service led by host pastor couple Herman and Cheryl Plett.
• a drama presented by chaplain Mike Gilmore and several clients of Bethesda, the Conference’s ministry to developmentally handicapped adults. The drama depicted Jesus healing a woman with a broken heart; a man bound by chains of sin; a man plagued by fear, worry and shame; and a lost woman. The audience responded with enthusiastic, sustained applause.

Bethesda clients impressed delegates with a moving drama of how Jesus rescued a woman with a broken heart, a man bound by chains of sin, and a man overcome by fear, worry and shame, taking all this evil on Himself.

A good start

Ed Willms (right) led delegates in thanking retiring MB Biblical Seminary president Henry Schmidt on behalf of the Ontario Conference for his years of service to the denomination

Saturday began with a 7:30 breakfast and then another message by Bill McRae, on “Upon This Rock I Will Build His Church”. McRae used the men of Issachar from 1 Chronicles 12:32 as a model:

• They understood their times. Here McRae called three people forward to represent the different characteristics of the Builder (born before 1946), Boomer (born 1946–64) and Buster (born after 1964) generations, and explained the need and the difficulty of ministering to all three generations.
• They knew what to do because they were in step with the Spirit of God. Church leaders must balance meeting the various needs separately with getting the whole church together for unity. They must also distinguish between biblical principles (which need to be applied), biblical precepts (which need to be obeyed) and personal preferences (which include most of the generational characteristics). They should follow the apostolic model of being all things to all people, keeping the message the same but adapting the method to the needs of each generation.
• They were followed by their people because they were leaders of vision, courage and proven integrity.

Difficult issues

Next came a “workshop” as the delegates broke into small groups to discuss issues of baptism and church membership based on a case study handed out by Mark Johnson, Ontario Conference minister, and Richard Martens, the Ontario representative on the Canadian MB Conference Board of Faith and Life. The discussion was intended to get people thinking and help prepare for the BFL study conference on baptism and membership in Winnipeg in May. The reports from the various groups revealed considerable variety of opinion, although the majority generally favoured the current MB position on these issues.

Outgoing moderator Henry Wiebe (left) passed the torch to new moderator Vic Thiessen, symbolic of Conference leadership moving from the Builder to the Boomer generation.

Getting down to business

After the only coffee break of the convention, delegates turned to the business in a session that was scheduled to last from 11:00 to about 12:30 but which actually lasted an hour longer. Each Conference Board reported briefly, and then the convention dealt with a long list of mostly routine recommendations. The time was tight, but some delegates resisted the time pressure to offer comments and suggestions from the floor. The business included:

• Vic Thiessen of Glencairn MB Church in Kitchener was elected moderator, replacing Henry Wiebe, who has been moderator for the past three years. Nancy Boese of Fairview MB Church in St. Catharines was elected assistant moderator.
• After some discussion, the Conference accepted a Refocus and Rededication Strategic Plan, which spells out 11 commitments and an intent to place more emphasis on evangelism and church planting.
• The Board of Faith and Life presented a document called “Guidelines for Emerging Churches” which recognizes that too many Ontario MB “church plants” have begun as unhealthy church splits. The guidelines try to balance encouraging daughter churches, even some arising out of different visions within the same church, while avoiding bitter conflicts. The stress is on openness, free discussion and cooperation. While discussed, the guidelines were presented as guidelines from BFL and were not put to a vote.
• The Conference grew 4.4% last year, from 4428 to 4521 members.
• Three congregations were accepted into the Conference: New Harvest Fellowship in Cambridge (led by Zane and Marcia Grant), Church of International Villages in Brampton (led by Dale and Miriam Bauman and Femi and Sade Fatunmbi), and Hope Community Church in Stoney Creek (led by Don and Sandee Craw). The first two are church plants under Love Toronto, the Key City Initiative sponsored by the Ontario Conference and the Canadian MB Conference Board of Evangelism. The third is a restart of the Mountview Church.

Ana and Vladimir Bortsov

• Love Toronto seems close to achieving its primary numerical goal of planting five churches. Besides the two churches accepted at this year’s convention, there are the already established Koinonia Worship Centre led by Dan Sileshi and a Russian church plant beginning under Vladimir and Ana Bortsov. In addition, the Board of Church Extension is in negotiations with two other church planters. Taka and Nomsa Mukono, who have worked with Navigators for 10 years, have established a multinational congregation of 50–80 in Ottawa. Vishal and Rafiqua Masih have established an Asian congregation of 90–100 in Mississauga.

• The Board of Church Extension gained approval for a recommendation to hire a full-time church extension director. BOCE stressed the need to provide a coach for the church planters in order to avoid some of the failures of past Ontario church plants. Much appreciated current director Clinton Bell is part-time and past retirement age, and BOCE has a candidate for the full-time position. The BOCE budget will rise to $184,500 from last year’s budget of $134,000 and last year’s actual spending of $121,000. However, BOCE will receive only $150,000 from the Conference and will have to raise the remaining money.

  A full year’s salary will not be required for the director this year, as the person would start part way through the year. Next year, it is expected BOCE will be able to pay a full year’s salary because Hope Community Church is not expected to need as large a subsidy in its second year. (The Hope church is funded directly from the BOCE budget while most of the other church plants are funded from the Love Toronto budget.)

• Bethesda, which is largely funded by the Ontario government, is building a specialized group home and two other group homes, which will allow it to remodel the second floor of its main building to handle highly challenged clients.
• The Tabor Manor/Pleasant Manor Board reported that a 62-bed addition is being built at Pleasant Manor in Virgil, Ont. and that construction of the long-awaited seniors complex in the Kitchener–Waterloo area is expected to finally begin this summer. (In addition, the Board has its original Tabor Manor complex in St. Catharines.) Bryan Sweet replaced Helmut Koop as chaplain at Pleasant Manor last July. Albert Friesen has resigned as chaplain at Tabor Manor in St. Catharines and is being replaced by Don Middlemiss (80% time) and John Block (20% time to minister to German-speaking residents).
• Eden High School, which is run as an alternative school under the District School Board of Niagara, reported that its enrollment cap might be raised from 600 to 900 and that there is a possibility that Principal Ray Smith may move on to another position and need to be replaced.
• The Conference finished 2002 with income of $256,497 (including $224,212 in pledges from the churches) and expenses of $276,013. The deficit of $19,516 is less than the budgeted deficit of $71,414, but still reduces the Conference’s accumulated surplus to $258,342. The 2003 budget calls for income of $246,500 (of which the churches have pledged $229,500) and expenses of $305,802, resulting in an expected deficit of $59,302. The expected deficit would have been twice that if Conference leaders had not reduced the various Boards’ requests for funds. Conference leaders agree that the Conference’s accumulated surplus should be spent but decided not to spend more than $60,000 of it in any one year.

A spiritual feast

Delbert Enns

The convention concluded with a banquet that lasted from 1:30 till 4:20 and featured beautiful music by the Canadian Mennonite University singers, an interview with church planters Vladimir and Ana Bortsov and a message by Delbert Enns, director of Family Life Network, the Manitoba MB Conference broadcasting ministry.

The Bortsovs gave a lively, humorous account of their Christian journey. Ana is a third-generation English-language teacher who became a Christian while translating for an American evangelistic team in Kazakhstan in 1991. Vladimir, an airline pilot, finally agreed to go to church with his wife Ana and became a Christian also, but Ana wondered if he had really become a Christian or was only trying to please her – until he told her he was quitting his well-paid job to go into full-time ministry. He served as the first director of the Bible League in Kazakhstan and then planted a church. The Bortsovs then felt led to immigrate to Canada and have since led over 150 people to Christ. They settled first in Dundas, Ont., near Hamilton, and are currently leading one home group there and two groups in Toronto. They have just moved to Toronto where there are 250,000 Russian immigrants.

Enns spoke on “Upon This Rock I will Build My Personal Life”. Speaking from the heart, he explained how easy it was for Christians to lose their fundamental vision of Christ and get sidetracked into thinking that everything depends on their work. Instead, Christ is the “Doer”; Christians need to focus on knowing Him and position themselves to see Him work.

—jc