Gifts, heroes and encouragers

Like the Canadian MB Conference convention last summer, the 2003 B.C MB Conference convention was not so much a single event as a series of connected events, consisting of a resource day May 2, the convention itself May 2–3 and a pastors and spouses retreat May 4–6. The dominant element in all the events was teaching on some related themes.

Resource Day

During the morning and afternoon of May 2, the Conference hosted resource training on “The Right People in the Right Places: Gift-Based Ministry”. The theme was introduced by a skit featuring Laura Kalmar as a woman who had found her niche in church ministering to people by serving coffee on Sunday morning.

Canadian MB Conference executive director David Wiebe first explained what “gift-based ministry” is, based on Ephesians 4:11–12, books such as The Equipping Pastor by R. Paul Stevens and Phil Collins, and the experiences of some MB churches. Gift-based ministry is an approach to church in which the pastors and leaders, instead of doing the ministry themselves, focus on discerning and

Charlene Armitage

Charlene Armitage, volunteer coordinator for Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, Missouri, gave a detailed presentation on how this concept works out in practice, including explaining how to recruit, equip and empower volunteers. She talked about the slow process of changing the mindset from one in which the leaders do all the work to one in which the leaders train the members to do the work.

After lunch, Charlene’s husband Vernon, who has been lead pastor at the Pleasant Valley church for 33 years, spoke on “Setting the Tone for an Equipping Church”. He talked about clarifying the church’s mission; preparing church members through teaching; developing leaders who can equip volunteers; and putting volunteers into ministry positions which are best suited to their gifts and passions. He noted that people would rarely sell a kidney even for a large sum of money, but would gladly give a kidney to a loved one for free.

Paul Wartman

Columbia Bible College president Paul Wartman next spoke on “Maintaining the Balance”. Using the example of a door blowing out on an airplane, he asked, “What do you do when a hole gets ripped in the church and the integrity of the body is threatened?” Such a crisis needs to be handled with both spirituality and competence, and it is too late to start to develop spirituality once the crisis has started. He talked of the danger of church leaders getting so busy competently running the church that they become spiritually shallow. The answer, he suggested is devotional study of the Bible, constant prayer and the assistance of a spiritual director or mentor.

The day also included reports from two Mennonite Brethren churches which have implemented a gift-based ministry strategy (resourced by Canadian MB Conference staff member Bruce Elwood). Ray Hanson, leader of the equipping team at Gospel Chapel in Grand Forks, B.C., talked of the joy of finding some gifted people to fill key ministry roles. Merle Smith, volunteer director of development at Willow Park Church in Kelowna, B.C., reported that his team had personally interviewed 140 people regarding their gifts and passions; most of them are now working in the church.

A panel of the day’s major presenters drew animated discussion by the 140 pastors and other church leaders who participated, a good indication that the day’s teaching had been helpful and relevant.

Convention

The B.C. Conference convention took the theme “Everyday Heroes Among Us”. Conference minister Ike Bergen gave gold medallions (chocolate filled) to various individuals as representative of the many people serving in MB churches. The first went to Dorothea Bergen of Peace Arch Fellowship in Surrey.

Vernon Armitage

The main address of the convention was given Friday evening by Vernon Armitage on the topic “Equipping Strong and Healthy Churches”. He said that churches may appear healthy and growing when they are not; a crowd is not a church. He said that church leaders should take responsibility for equipping God’s people to do His work; that people should be motivated to work by love, rather than fear or manipulation; and that people should serve where they fit because then they will serve with joy and creativity.

Seven churches (five new churches and two “restarts”) were welcomed into the B.C. Conference with prayer and a standing ovation:

• Christian Fellowship in Penticton, led by Monty and Carolyn Scott.
• HOPE (House Of Prayer for Everyone) in Nelson, led by Jeff and Marilyn Zak.
• Imago Dei in Vancouver, led by Rob and Ruth Des Cotes.
• Esperanza Multicultural Church, which grew out of Willingdon Church in Burnaby, led by Rob and Silvia Brynjolfson.
• Abbotsford Korean, a sub-congregation of Central Heights Church in Abbotsford, led by Seong Han and Gi Sook Park.
• New Hope Christian Church in Delta, a reorganization of Cornerstone Community Church and some members of Kennedy Heights MB Church in the former Kennedy Heights building, led by Cornerstone pastor Michael and Lois Brown.
• Cedar Mountain Community Church, a restart of Valleycliffe Christian Fellowship in Squamish, led by Rick and Debbie Janzen.

Wayne and Suzanne Driedger (new church planters)

The Board of Church Extension then showed a video of people who had come to Christ through recent church plants. BOCE director Geoff Neufeld introduced Wayne and Suzanne Driedger, who have been appointed to plant a new church in Cloverdale. An offering of $4190 was received to help get this church started.

Saturday morning

Saturday morning began with the Executive Board report. Associate conference minister Bob Friesen reported that the B.C. Conference now has 17,628 members, giving it just over 50% of the Canadian Conference membership. The Conference has averaged growth of 2.5% over the past decade, but growth has slowed more recently. Of 102 churches, 34 are declining or appear to be declining; 34 are stagnant; and 34 appear to be growing, are growing, or are growing rapidly.

Conference minister Ike Bergen described six principles that should characterize every church: 1. There should be a balance between worship and evangelism. 2. Leaders should be called out and also nurtured. 3. The congregation should submit to leaders (Hebrews 13:17), but the leaders should not “lord it over the people” (1 Peter 5:2–4). 4. There should be a balance between personal preference and submission to the task. 5. The people should enjoy God’s blessings but also give sacrificially. 6. The church should be in the world but not of the world. He concluded that the church still has much land left to conquer “for the glory of God” (Joshua 13:1, 1 Corinthians 10:31).

The rest of the morning was taken up with one set of teaching workshops and two sets of Board workshops, where the work of the Boards was discussed in smaller groups.

Saturday afternoon

The convention business was conducted in about two hours on Saturday afternoon.

The Conference has moved from a nomination process to a discernment process. Only one candidate was presented for each vacant position, but all needed to be affirmed by at least 80% in a ballot vote (of 180 ballots cast, all candidates received at least 95%). Chris Douglas of Central Heights is in the middle of a term and remains moderator. Reg Toews of Greendale MB Church was reaffirmed as secretary. Ron Van Akker of Willingdon Church was affirmed as the new assistant moderator, and Steve Berg of South Abbotsford MB Church was affirmed as a member at large on the Executive Committee, joining Arnie Peters of Willow Park Church.

During discussion of the Board of Pastoral Ministries report, questions arose over the baptism and membership issue which would be discussed three weeks later at the Canadian MB Conference study conference in Winnipeg. Canadian Conference Board of Faith and Life chair Walter Unger suggested that it might be helpful for the Board of Pastoral Ministries to write an official letter re the matter to the Board of Faith and Life. From the floor, John H. Redekop of Bakerview MB Church made a motion that the B.C. Conference affirm the present Conference policy on baptism and membership. Moderator Chris Douglas ruled that it would be unwise to take such a position before the study conference does its work. It was decided that the Board of Pastoral Ministries could write a letter “expressing its considered opinion on this matter” while not claiming to speak for the B.C. Conference as a whole.

The Conference’s camps are in building mode. Gardom Lake Camp near Armstrong is completing a new gymnasium, has added a small conference room and hopes to build a new tuck shop and first aid building. Pines Bible Camp near Grand Forks wants to add a new dining hall and lodge so that the camp can be used all year round instead of just seasonally. Stillwood Camp and Conference Centre is completing its new kitchen and dining hall, new swimming pool and new administration office and gatekeeper’s residence. Camp Bob, a tenting camp on Vancouver Island, is constructing new tent platforms and a picnic shelter. The Board of Camp Ministries has also added a wake board camp, to be operated from a houseboat on Shuswap Lake.

The Board of Church Extension gave a powerpoint presentation on its “2010 Plan” to “double in a decade” (planting 100 new churches) and reported that it is working with Associated Canadian Theological Schools to develop a church planter training program.

The Columbia Bible College report included videos highlighting the Quest (outdoor education/discipleship) program and a student mission trip to Costa Rica in conjunction with Youth Mission International. A question from the floor asked if there were any theological concerns arising from the fact that the school is jointly owned with Mennonite Church B.C.; assurances were given that there were no theological problems.

The Board of Management is still working on a recommendation regarding B.C. MB churches registering as societies separately from their registration as part of the MB Conference, so there was no discussion of this issue this year. The Board reported that the Conference finished the 2002 year in the black, even though contributions from the churches decreased slightly. The Conference’s fiscal year coincides with the calendar year, and the budget for the 2003 year (totaling $1,393,000, a considerable increase over the 2002 actual) had been approved at the 2002 convention. The 2004 budget presented at this year’s convention, had been reduced to $1,343,000. This budget aroused considerable discussion. Columbia Bible College president Paul Wartman expressed concern that the Conference had reduced the College’s subsidy from $355,000 to $335,000 without properly consulting the College. After considerable discussion, a motion from the floor was made to restore the $20,000 cut. It passed by a wide margin. It was then mentioned that there had been a practice of giving the Board of Church Extension the same subsidy as the College, so another motion was made and that budget was also increased by $20,000.

The convention finished with a presentation of a plaque and flowers to conference minister Ike and Shirley Bergen, who will be retiring in the fall.

Retreat

Both the resource day and the convention were ably hosted by Central Heights Church in Abbotsford. The annual pastors’ and spouses’ retreat was moved to a new location this year – the Executive Plaza Hotel in Coquitlam. The retreat has outgrown most camp settings (243 people registered for this year’s retreat), and because of bulk discounts the costs were not much higher. The retreat focused around fellowship, worship and prayer, but also included four teaching sessions.

The theme of the retreat was “Whale Done”, based on the book by Ken Blanchard which says that churches, like whales, perform better when they receive positive reinforcement. On Sunday evening, Charlene Armitage talked about having a born-again experience of encountering Jesus when she was already in her 20s and a pastor’s wife. She talked about how to have a heart like Jesus and to love and see people as Jesus did, authentically serving and encouraging them.

On Monday morning, Charlene elaborated on how to encourage, support and praise people, giving those present an assignment to intentionally encourage 10 specific people over the next six months.

On Monday evening, Ike Bergen spoke on “The Agony and Ecstasy” of pastoring, using the example of Jeremiah, who was discouraged because his preaching was having no effect and the opposition was so great that he was imprisoned. God used Jeremiah to call the Jewish people to repentance, and they have survived to this day. Bergen called pastors to submit again to the call of God in the midst of the agony because “our brokenness, anointed by God, will be a powerful thing to bring the world to Himself. . . . One day the bride of Christ will be perfect, and we will have had a hand in that.”

That theme was picked up at the concluding session Tuesday morning by Paul Wartman. He talked about searing experiences of failure and conflict which leave an imprint on the heart and mind, such as those experienced by the apostle Paul and by David in 1 Samuel 30. He stated that those moments are “subject to change”; they are only momentary light affliction (2 Corinthians 4:17) and will not last. Therefore, it is important to keep the focus on the unseen and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18) and strengthen oneself in the Lord because God will find a way (Psalm 34) and the worst moments may soon be followed by the greatest victories.

—jc