New Pastors’ Orientation

Stephen Sheane Joan Godard Ralph Gliege Youngest participant

Devotional meditations by Conference ministers Ralph Gliege and Ike Bergen, and MBMSI board member Joan Godard were highlights when 40 new pastors and spouses, as well as Conference personnel gathered in Saskatoon recently.

Pastors new to the Mennonite Brethren Conference are invited, and encouraged, to attend this annual event in order to become acquainted with Mennonite Brethren history and the Confession of Faith, and to ask questions as to how to best minister in their new contexts.

Bruce Guenther, faculty member of MB Biblical Seminary at ACTS in Langley, B.C. gave a comprehensive history lesson about Mennonites and Mennonite Brethren. This provided a background for the discussions on the Confession of Faith. Each pastor received a copy of this document. Other material given to the pastors were copies of Family Matters and A Testament of Joy, a commentary in the Luminaire series published by Kindred Productions. The spouses received God’s Orchard.

Eating together provided opportunities for far-ranging discussions on past church experiences. Some of these included: Stephen Sheane, the new pastor at Cornerstone Community Church, Virgil, told about coming back to Canada after spending some years on the Operation Mobilization ship Doulos and then pastoring the International Evangelical Church in Kuwait for six years; Lance Christie from New Zealand is planting a church in Calgary under the umbrella of Dalhousie Community Church, while serving as their pastor of discipleship and evangelism.

The enthusiasm of the new pastors was contagious. They were excited to be in ministry. Not all were young. Some came into pastoral ministry from other careers; others came from missionary backgrounds; and some came from other church experiences. They left the Orientation ready to take up the challenge, fortified with new insights and new resources.

—sbb