Council of Church Leaders affirms B.C. Conference minister

Steve Berg launched his work as conference minister of the B.C. Mennonite Brethren Conference Oct. 1 by taking to the road.

He and Conference staff logged some 6000 kilometres over five weeks, meeting with the leadership in every church but two outside the Lower Mainland. They visited over 30 churches, as far north as Prince Rupert, in the Okanagan Valley, in southern B.C. and on the Island. Regional Council of Church Leaders (COCL) meetings were held in Prince George (Oct. 15), Kelowna (Oct. 21), and Nanaimo (Nov. 2).

Prayer for Steve Berg

At the fourth COCL, Nov. 9 in Ross Road Community Church, Abbotsford, Berg reflected on the experience. “I’ve been energized by it,” he said. The intention was simply to “be present.” Because of distance and the high number of churches in the Lower Mainland, churches outside the area often see the Conference as being in the Fraser Valley, he said.

Berg said he is also “energized” to meet with the remaining 70 churches of the B.C. Conference situated in the Lower Mainland over the coming eight months. (There are 107 MB churches in B.C.) The vision beginning to emerge as Berg gets into his work includes, he said, a focus on the local church, better communication, working together in mission, and an emphasis on process rather than program.

The only business decision at the meeting – intended for pastors, moderators and others in leadership in churches – was affirming Berg as Conference minister. This affirmation was gladly provided and, although he will be officially installed at the B.C. Conference convention (April 29–30), those in attendance gathered around him to pray for him in his new role.

Bob Friesen, assistant conference minister, presented a PowerPoint overview of the B.C. Conference. It’s a diverse conference of churches, he said, with many ethnicities. (“We look like the people of B.C.”) Together the churches run four camps, assist churches through the Boards of Church Ministries and Pastoral Ministries, support Columbia Bible College (CBC), and promote church planting through the Board of Church Extension.

Friesen also reported that Conference administrator Marilyn Hiebert, who “likes to help churches do the business side of things” (and who was not able to be at the meeting), has been working on a risk management manual for churches.

Geoff Neufeld, in his third year as executive director of the Board of Church Extension (BOCE), said it’s a challenge to overcome the assumption that it’s the B.C. Conference that plants churches. “We want churches to become reproductive,” he said. Churches planted by churches grow faster than other types of starts, he said.

Neufeld’s report highlighted new work in the Vernon area, Vintage 242 (a new church emerging in northeast Abbotsford in partnership with Highland MB Church), as well as satellite churches being developed from several centres.

CBC president Paul Wartman, also in his third year in his position, told the gathering of his passion for education. But, education “is falling off the radar screen of the church,” he said. He also described a unique program at Columbia in which seniors are being partnered with students to pray for them. “We’re partnering seniors,” he said, “because they know how to shake the heavens.”

Little was said at the Abbotsford COCL about finances, but moderator Ron van Akker’s message in the written reports distributed at the meeting indicated that to date B.C. churches are “significantly behind” in their giving to the Conference. “Central to our future,” he wrote, “is the issue of commitment to one another as a Conference.”

In his spoken remarks, van Akker urged that people attend the upcoming study conference on the question of women in ministry leadership, Feb. 4–5. “I’d love to see 200 to 250 people attend,” he said. The format will be somewhat different from that in other provinces; John Neufeld will be presenting as well as Doug Heidebrecht.

Since the study conference has “potential to be divisive,” van Akker urged prayer for these days of discerning what the Scriptures say on the matter.

Van Akker closed the Abbotsford COCL by reiterating two themes of the gathering: that “we are stronger together than we are alone” and that “we have a province God is calling us to reach.”

The fifth and last of the Council of Church Leaders events was scheduled for Nov. 18 at Burnaby Pacific Grace Church, Vancouver.

—Dora Dueck