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.)

Short-term missions just short

The results of the study Randy Friesen conducted (“The long-term impact of short-term missions,” July 23) cannot be refuted per se. However, he (or the study) does not take into account the perspective of those who are expected to benefit from short-term missions. Consequently, the perspective he provides is not balanced or complete.

The impact of short-term missions on those who go out must be a “function of” the impact on those for whom the service is intended – those who are seeking the Good News of Christ, and those who need the support of caring Christians in the context of a vast range of needs and serious issues.

“Short-term missions” often means “just short”: just short of in-depth relations with those who are expected to benefit and from whom we must also learn; just short of being fundamentally changed for life; just short of the point where one would rather stay than come back; just short of adapting to the culture of the people and understanding their ways; just short of affecting lasting change and addressing long-term systemic problems.

This is not to deny the importance of short-term missions, nor what the study confirmed, nor that for many participants it may be the beginning of a life-long journey of a service-oriented Christian lifestyle. In the one-year MCC SALT program, for example, participants get an effective introduction to long-term missions, choosing a career or making a career change. It addresses the extreme injustices and pain in this world, one of the purposes of the program. MCC has always intended to keep the SALT program in perspective and to keep the number of participants at a modest level, with the larger focus being long-term service in partnership with those who invite help.

One added concern is the cost–benefit ratio. Can the highly popular short-term missions justifiably be sustained financially, at the expense of losing the vision and support for long-term missions? Are short-term missions driven too much by the spirit of adventure and popularity, and not enough by the spirit of sacrificial service?

I suggest that a follow-up study be conducted which would draw on the perspective of the recipients.

Bill Thiessen,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Impressions of Gathering

I paged through the reports of Gathering 2004 (Aug. 13). Looking only at the pictures, three words came to mind:

Men

Men

Men.

Roger G. Thiessen,
Edmonton, Alta.

Watch the wedge

I am curious about the exegetical difficulties the symposium on Women In Ministry Leadership encountered in its study of 1 Timothy (“Ontario hosts first symposium on Women in Ministry Leadership,” June 11). Paul is concerned with false teaching and godliness. Paul implicates Eve in believing a satanic lie. He then describes a male leader who will presumably not be deceived but will hold to the deep truths of the faith. A somewhat wider survey of Scripture reveals Paul slotting men and women into various gender specific roles. The women are urged to marry, bear children, keep house and stay out of trouble.

In our society, which disregards Paul’s teachings regarding gender roles, we find an Anglican Church in schism due to doctrinal error, a suicidally low birthrate, and widespread false teaching on Christ’s divinity. It seems Paul’s message is indeed applicable to our times.

Perhaps the difficulties the symposium found were ones spilled over from the rising tide of liberal orthodoxy and its false egalitarianism. The world preaches an equality of sameness. Paul preaches an equality of depravity, of salvation, and of eternal inheritance. The world’s strategy is to drive a wedge between Christians and the Bible; this wedge is an astonishing ability to ignore certain passages through various farcical hermeneutical practices such as the claim that Paul’s words only applied to a specific social context.

Let us not be complacent about this issue, for surely other errors will slip in while we have the doctrinal door open. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to right teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).

Jonathan Epp,
Richmond, B.C.