Spring 2007 by Free Methodist Church In Canada

The Free Methodist Church in Canada | Spring 2007 – Volume 4 Issue 2

Reflecting the diversity of ministry expression within the Free Methodist family.

COVER Live Generously by Bishop Keith Elford PAGE 2 Editor’s Desk Emerging Church: to pastors who join our movement in Sri Lanka, character is still the most important thing by Alan Retzman PAGE 3 Opening doors in the community by Doug Dawson PAGE 4-5 Thinking about the future of the church today by Jordon Cooper PAGE 6 Norm Bull Retires: Tributes Dennis Camplin Brian C. Cooke Lloyd Eyre Generous Steward: Website unveiled by Joanne Bell PAGE 7 Passages Regional Gatherings Locations and dates Thoughts and concerns about emerging by Paul Millar PAGE 8 Killing Fields become Harvest Fields by Dan Sheffield Thai-Cambodian experience: A Journal by Joseph Moreau

f you were asked to strike the theme of the next General Conference, what would you choose? We’ve had some great General Conferences in the past with some wonderful themes – “Called to declare Jesus—anywhere, any time, in all kinds of ways” [2005]; “Our Passion: Jesus and Those He Loves” [2002]; “Empowered by Christ: Growing His Kingdom” [1999], etc. – but now it’s time to get focused on General Conference 2008. Here is what we have come up with for its theme: “You’ve been treated generously so live generously….That’s so like Jesus.”

I like those reasons for a meeting! The General Conference Planning Committee and the National Leadership Team have been trusting God to help us in our planning so that when General Conference 2008 is over, pastors and local church leaders from all across Canada will go back to their congregations and communities committed to live generously – like Jesus did when he walked among us. [Generosity of spirit is actually a theme that we find all through the scriptures. Every time they speak of grace, they describe what we are talking about – generosity of spirit.]

“So it’s about money, eh? And what fundraiser came up with that ‘ditty’?,” you may ask.

To work with these reasons for meeting seriously meant that the General Conference Planning Committee needed to propose some adjustments to how the General Conference will function when it meets. We realized that if we were going to have time for “teaching sessions,” we couldn’t have as many Study Teams. This brought about a crisis of setting priorities. If time is limited, what are the essential topics that a General Conference needs to discuss if The Free Methodist Church in Canada is going to be a healthy movement of God? Here are the Study Teams that the Board of Administration has approved:

Actually, it’s not about money. It’s about Jesus and what he said in his closing comments to the twelve disciples when he sent them out on their first foray. The story is in Matthew 10 and the key verse that the General Conference theme focuses on is Matthew 10:8b. You may know it as “Freely you have received, freely give.” [NIV] When you read the phrase in context in Eugene Peterson’s The Message, it reads, “Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge: ‘Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.’” So you can see that our focus will have little to do with money and a lot to do with a passionate generosity of spirit that is preoccupied with what preoccupied Jesus. When we struck the theme, we chose

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• Healthy Churches – Here and Beyond • Developing Godly, Competent Leaders for Today and Tomorrow [Ministerial Education, Guidance and Placement Committee]

• Generosity – A Way of Life • Careful Thinking about God’s Truth [Study Commission on Doctrine]

With this change in the number of Study Teams, there will be more room in the schedule for extended teaching times. Rev. Bruxy Cavey, the Teaching Pastor of The Meeting House, a multiple-site Brethren in Christ church in the greater Toronto area, has agreed to come as our guest speaker. If you have not heard of him, he is a Canadian communicator that the Lord is using on university campuses, in high schools, at church leadership conferences, and churches throughout North America. He has also been a guest on various television and radio programs where he ably speaks to topics that are challenging and controversial— always with the conviction that the message of Jesus is uniquely relevant, relational and transforming. He is the author of a book entitled The End of Religion.

the phrase, “You’ve been treated generously, so live generously” and then we added the comment, “That’s so like Jesus!” to ensure that our understanding of generosity centred on the One who best exemplifies “generosity of spirit.”

We also hope to have a time for general questions and answers in the Conference agenda. Of course, one of the ways this can be set in motion is through Resolutions sent in by local churches or individual members prior to the Conference.

This all got started last Fall when the Board of Administration [BOA] took time to wrestle with this question: Why do we have General Conferences? They came up with the following six goals for the 2008 General Conference:

For more information, please go to the General Conference website: www.fmc-canada.org/gen_conf/conference_index.html. There you will find more information about the General Conference as it becomes available. The dates are May 16-19, 2008 and the location is the Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel.

• To worship and pray together as leaders • To inspire involvement and build momentum in our movement • To teach leaders and influencers • To build relationships • To celebrate our diversity and what God has accomplished • To attend to matters of the Corporation V I S I T

O U R

W E B I S T E

I invite you to join us in praying that God’s generous presence will be upon everything that has to do with this important event. Rev. Keith Elford is Bishop of The Free Methodist Church in Canada.

< < W W W . F M C - C A N A D A . O R G > >

MOSAIC

What do living generously and dandelions have in common? One of my responsibilities at the Ministry Centre is to provide design support as needed. So when I first heard the theme for our next General Conference in 2008, [You’ve been treated generously, so live generously – that’s so like Jesus.] my thoughts jumped immediately to the best way it could be graphically explained. I thought about it . . . and then I thought about it some more - what image(s) could I use to express “living generously”? I had a few ideas, but to be honest, I was not excited about any of them. That’s when I started thinking about the dandelion. Now, I know what you are thinking, “Lisa! Dandelions are weeds popping up in our nicely manicured lawns and gardens!” But does that not reflect something in us as Christians? Isn’t that “popping up” behaviour exactly the kind of life that Jesus calls us to lead? We are not part of the mainstream . . . we swim against the flow . . . we are “not of this world”. Doesn’t the world often see us as different? Shouldn’t they? The dandelion is one of the first flowers to appear when the sun begins to warm the earth. After a time of maturation, when the season is right, it is transformed and releases its influence through seeds as far as the wind will carry them. When I think about living generously, this is the imagery that becomes most vivid to me. There is a resiliency that dandelions possess that I quite admire – their ability to grow and flourish in adverse conditions reminds me of brothers and sisters living in countries generously sharing the Gospel at great personal sacrifice. Generous living is not a quality that is readily adopted by society – the pursuit of personal success and achievement; bigger homes and better cars are the sought after items – the new status symbols. Recently, “The Real Estate & Wealth Expo” with keynote speaker Donald Trump took place in Toronto and was completely sold out. Individuals who have “arrived” materially are viewed as leaders to emulate. By contrast, living generously is about reaching out to others in practical ways to bring about change. It is a conscious decision that we need to make everyday. Sometimes I fear that I may fill my days with so much “stuff” that I miss the opportunities God has placed before me – I’m simply too preoccupied to see them. Living simply, investing in people and projects that will allow me to give myself away – I think that is generous living. Lisa Howden Managing Editor

Matthew 7:15-16. “Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma: look for character.” The Message II Peter 1:5. “So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character….” The Message Sri Lanka, February-March 2007

We drove 3,000 kilometers, visited 14 churches, preached or taught daily. Pastor Sritharan Jeyarajah, [“Jey”] of Mississauga Tamil Church and I traveled for 12 days and then we were joined by Rev. Ben Gomez, from Christian Horizons, who attends Wesley Chapel Free Methodist Church. This is a story about the character of one young pastor in Sri Lanka, Michael Ligory. Character and Money

Character is the key trait that attracts candidates for ministry to our movement in Sri Lanka. Our discernment process and the relationships we have built with pastors there helps us to know who is coming into the movement for the right reasons. Character is displayed in the everyday life particularly when money is involved. How pastors procure money reveals character. In February, 2006, one pastor got very angry with me for not giving him money now that he was ordained in our movement. Caution lights came on. February 2007, we found out he had been ordained a second time, in a different denomination. He was after more money than we were giving him. This pastor is no longer with our movement. The issue was his character not his need for money. But, this pastor used deception to get more money. A little from Canada goes a long way in Sri Lanka

Frequently individuals from Canada send small financial gifts with us to Sri Lanka and instructed us to, “use this wherever it is needed, you decide.” These are gifts of $200-$400 Can. [Canadian Funds.] That amount may supply the needs of a pastor with a family for 2-3 months. Michael Ligory is the pastor at Oruthota Gospel Church, in the Kandy Province. He has just become a Ministerial Candidate [MC] and his church has received Fellowship Status through the FMC-SL BOA. [Free Methodist Church Sri Lanka, Board of Administration]

As an MC he is not eligible for submitting a small project [up to $500 CDN] until August 2007 and would receive it, if we can raise the money, in February 2008. Michael has good character, and money is needed right now to help him, but he accepted the policies and would wait. A divinely appointed gift

Near the end of our trip, Jey, Ben and myself decided to give Michael a small gift from one of these individuals who said, “use it where you think best.” We could see Michael at the Bible school the next day and give him $100 CDN. The next day, we saw him as planned at the Bible school. Pastor Jey met with him privately and gave him the gift and made it clear, “This is not from the FMC-SL BOA, because you are not eligible for a project yet. It is a gift from a person back in Canada who wants to help a pastor.” I was in the classroom of the school taking pictures after class when Michael came over to me. It looked like he had been crying. He said, “Thank you, thank you very much.” He repeated those words again, we embraced, and I said, “You are welcome.” I was glad he was so thankful but didn’t know much else. Pastor Jey told me, “Michael said that it was God who had been speaking to us. He said that last night he had no money for milk for their baby. He had no money for lunch at school today.” Michael has two young children and has adopted two orphans, as well. I had no idea of just how immediate was his need for a blessing, but God knew. That wasn’t all. Pastor Jey was at Michael’s church for the service the previous day. Jey reported to me that Michael’s offering from the congregation was very low, RS 350 [Sri Lankan rupees,] about $3.15 CDN. Jey said, “He gave RS 150 to his assistant pastor for bus fare to travel to a village where natives live a primitive lifestyle and a ministry has begun. He put RS 100 towards church expenses and kept RS 100 for his family for the week.” It is not often in my life that the timing of knowing a need and meeting a need came so divinely close together. Money in God’s Plan

Our team decided to give him another $100 CDN once we found out how desperate was his need. Pastor Jey’s church tries to help relatives, friends, and orphans every time he goes to visit Sri Lanka. The needs are greater than we can meet. God’s plan is for us to be generous in every way that we can, though we are faced with more needs than we can possibly handle. Character in Action

Pastor Michael Ligory and family

Question 9

In the MC interview every candidate is asked Question 9: “Do you realize that the FMC-SL does not pay pastors a salary?” And the follow-up question in #9, “Are you still wanting to become part of us?” Michael answered yes to both questions. Michael, as with all candidates, must build relationship with us by coming to at least 3 of our retreats, which means almost two years. He talked with his congregation as well as his board about affiliating with us. They all received training in their church from Pastor Jeyarajah.

This is character in action. Michael had a great need. He did not get angry with the BOA or with us from Canada. He did not keep the offering for himself, though he could have without any question. Instead he made sure his assistant could get to the unreached natives 120 kms away. He did not lie or deceive to get money. What we gave him would be enough to get him through for a couple of months. Normally his offerings are bigger, but some busses, the main public transportation in Sri Lanka, were unable to deliver many church members that day which complicated his financial need. We can build a strong foundation for a church if we can continue to attract, train, and educate pastors like Michael. Character is built over a lifetime. It starts early, and as Peter wrote in his letter to those growing in faith, “complement your basic faith,” your life changing faith, “with good character.” God is forming character in us, and it’s key to building his church. Rev. Alan Retzman is the Director of Personnel for The Free Methodist Church in Canada.

MOSAIC

It’s a small world after all. Living in Canada you often don’t have to look any farther than your own street to reach out and touch the other side of the whole world. The small world phenomenon is no longer just an urban reality but true for small towns and tiny communities as well. This story Doug Dawson is about to share proves we no longer have to get on a plane to go on a “missions trip”. Jared Siebert, Director of Growth Ministries for The Free Methodist Church in Canada

hen God closes one door He often opens another. When the door to the Dominican Republic was closed to Canadian short term missions, another door seemed to open up. That door was right here in Tillsonburg. A group of likeminded people came together from areas of South Western Ontario and began dreaming and planning for an outreach to the Spanish speaking migrant workers who come to this area in the summer and fall. In the summer of 2005 the Dawson family in Tillsonburg, the Peterson family from Sarnia, the Gurrola family from Durango, Mexico along with a few others from the New Horizons Church in Sarnia were involved in Friday afternoon street evangelism in Tillsonburg. We were somewhat overwhelmed at the positive response from the migrant workers, most of whom were from Mexico. As the cold weather came in October, the street ministry came to a close and ideas and plans were made for this past summer and fall. How could we be more effective? Could we find a “permanent” location on the main street of Tillsonburg? Who was going to pay for rent, Bibles, tracts, etc. How could we connect workers with churches in Mexico? How could we make a lasting difference in the lives of those who came to our community?

[above] Celebrating Mexican Independance Day [top right] A guest shows us where he lives [bottom right] Pastor Barb Peterson and Sergio

Over the winter of 2005/2006 a committee called the South Western Ontario Spanish-Initiative was formed and work began. A couple of churches began to catch the vision and supported the work financially. God began to weave together a wonderful plan. Spanish speaking volunteers were needed. We contacted a man in the Dominican Republic who expressed a desire to come and help us. We interceded on his behalf to the Canadian Embassy , but after three failed attempts he was denied the opportunity to come to Canada. No particular reason was given. Around the same time God opened some more doors. A new pastor from a Spanish speaking church in Aylmer, about 30 minutes from Tillsonburg, heard about us and contacted us. Through an interpreter we found that he had just arrived from Cuba and was looking for opportunities to evangelize. He volunteered to help us out. The interpreter and her husband were excited by what they heard and they also came on board. Three Spanish speaking people from the Tillsonburg area contacted us and wanted to help. Along with Barb and Lloyd Peterson we were developing a good core of Spanish speaking volunteers. Next came a place to meet. The migrant workers from the area farms usually only have from 4pm to 8pm on Fridays to come to town and shop, eat, etc. A place had to be found that was located on the main street, was easily accessible, had cheap rent and utilities and was available from August through to the end of October. After walking the main street and praying I called a number that was displayed in a vacant window and found myself speaking to a familiar voice. My friend Peter owned the building and was willing to let us rent it for less than half the usual price, utilites included. Praise God. We cleaned out the building, prepared signs and ordered Spanish Bibles. We were given a good refrigerator and stocked it with cold pop. We ordered a temporary phone line so that the Mexicans could call home with calling cards to speak to their families with some degree of privacy. The phone was paid for by the Tillsonburg Ministerial Association. We came up with the name: Brazos Abiertos, Centro de Hositalidad: “Open Arms Hospitality Centre”. A church in Tillsonburg which seldom connected with other churches approached us and offered to supply all of the Spanish tracts we needed. They even bought a beautiful rotating display rack for the Centre. The grand opening, complete with ribbon cutting, cake and reporters came on the second Friday of August. Over the next three months hundreds of migrant workers walked through the doors. We served coffee, pop, lots of homemade cookies and tortillas. We

even celebrated Mexican Independence Day with a beautifully decorated cake and music. We were even able to rent a bus each Friday to pick up workers and transport them to and from the Centre. Each visitor who came to the Centre used a pushpin to locate his home in Mexico. We were then able to arrange follow-up contacts with pastors/missionaries in Mexico. After we were accepted by the Mexicans, after all, “who are these gringos who are doing all of this for us?” God began to open hearts. There was a demand to meet more often so we started having Sunday afternoon services in Spanish. Did any of this make a difference? I think Sergio’s story will answer that question. Sergio was walking along Broadway St. in Tillsonburg and saw a man holding a sign written in his native language. It was an invitation to come to Brazos Abiertos. Curiosity and a warm greeting in Spanish compelled Sergio to come in. He stayed for a while, spoke to some of the volunteers, enjoyed a Coke and some cookies and left a while later with a Spanish New Testament and a tract. When I walked down the street later I saw Sergio sitting on a bench reading his new Bible. The next Friday Sergio came back to the Centre. He was smiling. He shared with us that he had read the four Gospels that week, read the tract and had given his life to Jesus. We rejoiced with him, prayed with him and began answering questions that he had. The following week Sergio was bringing new people with him to hear the Good News and experience hospitality and unconditional love. Each week Sergio came back and continued to grow spiritually. When Sergio Muniz Murga, was returning to Mexico, he asked for someone who could help him to grow spiritually. Since he was returning to Durango, we referred him to Victor Gurrola a leader and local pastor in the evangelical church in Durango. Sergio had an address for the bank where Victor was a manager and a phone number for Victor’s home. One Thursday afternoon, Victor was about a half hour late leaving for his lunch break at home with his family. Sergio entered the bank and asked for Victor, saying, “You don’t know me but I was told to look for you when I arrived in Durango”. Sergio had arrived in Durango early that morning and in the afternoon sought out Victor. First he discovered that Victor was now working in a different bank but he was directed to the correct branch. Then Victor was late leaving. Lloyd Peterson who was visiting Mexico and who first invited Sergio to enter the drop in hospitality centre in Tillsonburg arrived at the same time to drive Victor and Sergio to Victor’s home. Was it just a coincidence that Victor left work late that day, or that Sergio actually arrived at the right branch of the bank or that he arrived the week that Lloyd and Barb Peterson were in Durango as part of their mission trip to Mexico? No! As Sergio joined Victor’s family for the noon meal, and as Victor answered his questions about the relationship between Jesus and God, it was clear that God had directed all of the events that brought Sergio to a mentor like Victor. The first day Sergio was in his country even before connecting with his wife and children he learned of a service and congregation in the area where he and his family would relocate. Once Sergio had a small map for Sector 1, he left for his hotel room, showered and changed and came to the service. Before preaching about God’s love and our need to share that love, Barb Peterson spoke to the congregation outlining the ministry in Canada and indicating that Sergio was a product of that ministry who might soon be a member of the congregation. Sergio arrived and shared testimony of God working in his life while in Canada. People from the congregation welcomed him eagerly and looked forward to meeting his wife and two daughters. While the Petersons were in Mexico they hoped to meet Sergio’s family. On a Saturday morning they set out for El Salto about 1-1/2 hours from Durango. It was easy for them to find 16th of September Street; it was the main street, but the house number was a real challenge. Houses and businesses on the street did not have numbers. Finally someone asked who they were lookling for and they went up three flight of stairs to a small apartment. There they met Petita, Sergio’s wife. She was shy and quiet but open to their visit and had prepared a hot drink and bananas. She could see a difference in spirit in Sergio and they had a long talk about the change in him. She seemed receptive as they spent a little more than an hour with her. They prayed twice for the family and Sergio said he would be in touch with Victor as soon as he was back to Durango for work. Yes, the work in Tillsonburg and similar works in Forest and other small communities in Southern Ontario are having an impact. Lives are being reached and changed for Christ. So where do we go from here? Well, in Tillsonburg we have started Spanish classes for us gringos so that next summer we will be better prepared. We would still love to have Angelo from the Dominican Republic come so that we will have someone available every day to help us reach out to the workers on the farms. What can you do? You can come and help us in Tillsonburg. You can pray that many more like Sergio will be changed by the Good News. You can pray that we will be able to set up a good network of contacts in Mexico who can follow up with the work that is done here. You can give financially so that we can have a location next summer, a bus, Bibles, a full time helper and more. You can be willing to open your hearts so that when a missions opportunity arises in your community you too will be ready to open the doors to those who are seeking. Rev. Doug Dawson is Pastor of Open Door Church in Tillsonburg, ON

MOSAIC

or Lent this year, I decided to give up politics. In the past I had given up caffeine, chocolate, television, and even NHL hockey playoffs but this year I decided to step back from following politics; which is something I spend too much time thinking and reading about. Of course this meant trying to ignore the Quebec election of which I had some success in doing. On Monday, March 27th, I was agonizing over the final edits of this article, which was supposed to be about the future of the church. I decided to take a brief television break and was confronted with some really boring choices. While surfing channels, I found myself watching CTV Newsnet and seeing what the talking heads were saying about the Quebec election. Before I caught myself, I heard the panel chortling to themselves over the comment, “Who could have predicted that this result was going to happen to Jean Charest?” I remember the exact same comment being said during former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow’s final election when he was handed a minority. A couple of hours before that I remember a well known political commentator leading off his networks coverage with, “Is there anything that will stand between the NDP and another strong majority? No there isn’t”. Well the prognosticators were wrong that evening as well. The phrase made me think about a book I had read a couple of years ago by Canadian political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon called The Ingenuity Gap. One of the book’s recurring themes is that we live in a world with a tremendous amount of variables which are overwhelming and make it very difficult to predict the outcome of our decisions. The book goes to show how complex our inter-connected world is and how poorly we understand how it works despite our proclamations to the opposite. From the food chain in the English Channel, to water planning in Las Vegas, to international markets during the Asian currency crisis; time and time again experts missed something that invalidated all their calculations for the future. Not only is it hard to know all of the variables that will influence our future, we are constantly hit by fads that while they seem important, really aren’t [like election news stories over which tie color resonates best with voters]. As I returned to edit my article for Mosaic, I realized that I was probably making the exact same mistake. There are too many variables, too many things that can change. If the all knowing pollsters and Mike Duff y can’t forecast a 40 day election, how do we talk about the future of the church farther than that? All of the variables of culture plus the complexities of denominations and local church dynamics make it hard to predict any future.

non-Christian people fitting the same demographic description--the people within their cultural reach. That is, the church does not have to cross any significant cultural barriers in order to communicate the gospel to that cultural context. [pg 35]

In the United States, the number attracted to the idea of church may be as high as 35%. Canadian polls suggest that about 20 - 30% of Canadians may share values that would be open to going to church [approximately 20% of people say they attend church regularly but that number may be inflated]. That number is both a blessing and a curse. It shows that at least six to seven million Canadians are open to the values articulated by the church which do provide a large pool of Canadians for the church to draw on. But even that is difficult as pollster George Barna sees the family values segment of the population falling by half in approximately fifteen years. Nothing is wrong with those within that segment – most of us as Free Methodists would be there – and really, we are not an offensive people group. Six million Canadians is nothing to sneeze at and does provide a significant opportunity for the church, but that is only part of the story. Of course what do we make of the people outside of that family values segment? Depending on how one looks at the numbers, anywhere from 65% to 85% of Canadians are removed by various degrees from that category and from those values. They make up the vast bulk of Canadians that have to overcome some obstacles to come to our churches as the church is not even on their radar. According to what Alan Hirsch writes in The Forgotten Ways, in addition to not being on the radar for most people, a large percentage are at some level alienated by the church. From bad experiences, to strong preconceived ideas about Christianity or from a cultural context that is hostile to Christianity, it would be as hard for them to be a part of a church as it would be many Free Methodists to join a non-Christian religion. Doing “church” better; PowerPoint, better music, wittier or more theologically astute sermons probably won’t make any impact on those that are outside the church because they are unlikely to bother entering the doors in the first place.

So what can we talk about? Instead of talking about the future, it may be helpful to discuss the factors that are happening now that will impact the future. Too often organizations live in the past, as it is easier to understand, and don’t have the needed conversations on what is happening in the present that will shape their future.

Another factor in society is that there has been a breakdown in the mass markets. Where at one point a church used to pick a neighborhood and then put down its roots and if church was “done right”, it had a good chance to reach their area for Christ. Depending on the church, property values actually rose if you were closer to a church. A middle class neighborhood would have middle class people in it with middle class values. Today that is changing where traditional people groups have segmented and segmented again. The mass market is shrinking and those neighborhoods are made up of a variety of sub-groups.

Post-Christian Canada and the West

What does that mean for The Future of the Church?

In a couple of books I have read in the last year, they have referenced some recent studies that point out that by 2040, under 5% of people in England may be Christian [only 9.4% are attending church now] According to church statistics, the four main UK denominations, the Church of England, the Roman Catholic, the Methodist, and United Reformed Churches, are all suffering from a long-term decline in attendance figures. The good thing is that they realize this and are trying new ideas to reverse the decline. The Anglican and Methodist Churches have started their Fresh Expressions initiative[www. freshexpressions.org.uk] which encourages new expressions of church, like alternative worship, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury plans to be broadcasting his sermons on YouTube [www.youtube.com/lambethpress] in an acknowledgment that more and more Anglicans just aren’t in church on Sundays. While some of the initiatives talked about as other “Fresh Initiatives” seemed a little off the mark, it is encouraging that the Church of England and the Methodist Church in England are acknowledging that something has to change.

While it is popular to lament the loss of the Christian fabric in Canadian culture and condemn those that don’t share our values, that probably won’t do anything to reverse the change. Complaining that people don’t go to church anymore won’t change anything.

In Australia, things aren’t that much more encouraging but in a recent book called The Forgotten Ways [www.theforgottenways.org], missiologist Alan Hirsch sees it this way: A combination of recent research in Australia indicates that about 10-15 percent of that population is attracted to what we call the contemporary church growth model. In other words, this model has significant “market appeal” to about 12 percent of our population. The more successful forms of this model tend to be large, highly professionalized, and overwhelmingly middle class, and express themselves culturally using contemporary, “seeker friendly” language and middle-of-the-road music forms. They structure themselves around “family ministry” and therefore offer multigenerational services. Demographically speaking, they tend to cater largely to what might be called the “family-values-segment”--good, solid, well-educated citizens who don’t abuse their kids, who pay their taxes, and who live largely, what can be called a suburban lifestyle. Not only is this type of church largely made up of Christian people who fit this profile, the research indicates that these churches can also be very effective in reaching

When Anglican Bishop and missionary, Leslie Newbiggin came back to England at the age of 65 after spending most of his career in India, this is what he found. Ministry in England, he discovered, “is much harder than anything I met in India. There is a cold contempt for the Gospel which is harder to face than opposition. . . . England is a pagan society and the development of a truly missionary encounter with this very tough form of paganism is the greatest intellectual and practical task facing the Church” [Unfinished Agenda]. It is hard, Newbiggin knew, for a Hindu or a Muslim to come to worship Christ. For an Englishman, it would seem, it had become even harder. What is life for the church going to be like in a post-Christian Canada. A world in which we are seen as more and more irrelevant? There isn’t a definite roadmap or program to follow and I think the mass segmentation will force the church for the first time in a long time to chart their own paths as we enter into new territory. That being said, there are some that have been at this for a little longer and have adjusted to their own contexts. •

The Freeway [www.frwy.ca] in downtown Hamilton is both a church community and coffee shop serving both those looking for coffee and a place to connect online as well as the urban poor.

•

Three Nails in Pittsburgh [www.threenails.org] is an Episcopal church plant that has embedded itself into the community by meeting a need that I never would have thought of; making really good New York City-style hot dogs. They helped open a restaurant that used to be called Hot Dogma but was sued over the name so now they are called Franktuary. [http://franktuary.com/] Their motto in case you are wondering is “And the meat shall inherit the earth.”

5 •

Harambee in Pasadena, California [www.harambee.org]. Back in 1982, Navarro Avenue in Pasadena, California had the highest daytime crime rate in Southern California. Believing that the only way they could make a difference was to move into the neighborhood, Dr. John Perkins started a ministry on “blood corner” [named because of the drive by shootings]. Twenty five years later it had largely changed the neighborhood and curbed the violence. It had prepared two generations of church leaders on a campus that is essentially four small houses with a common backyard. It doesn’t take much to change the world.

•

The same can be said about emerging congregations and church plants in the Free Methodist Church. Ecclesiax [www.ecclesiax.com] and ThirdSpace [www. thethirdspace.net] reach artists and creative types in different ways because their local contexts are different.

•

Some Anglican churches in London, England empowered and nurtured new faith communities who met in their own buildings. Often with no staff or clergy, these communities formed what is now called alternative worship and are engaging a portion of England’s population that would never enter into a traditional worship context. At the same time they give new life to traditional congregations.

•

Some churches in urban areas are looking at what Paragraph NY [www.paragraphny. com] did, which is create a place that is essentially a gym, into a place for writers and creative types to work. They looked at a lot of unused space, got a good coffee maker, and wireless Internet, opened up the doors and people came in.

At the end of the day, the church is going to have to learn to reconnect with their community as opposed to relying on the community to come to them. Whether or not churches can do that will largely determine how long a future they have.

MOSAIC

In his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Ron Sider points out that evangelicals do a rather poor job of living out what we preach. In fact in some areas that evangelicals profess to care about, we tend to live worse then those we profess to want to “save”. Robert Webber writes on this topic in his book, Ancient Future Evangelism where he suggests that discipleship is a forgotten practice in many churches, a theme which is echoed in Dallas Willard’s book which is aptly named, The Great Omission. Duke University’s, Stanley Hauerwas suggests that we have confused North American values with Christianity and reduced being a Christian to being a good neighbor and good American [or Canadian]. Eugene Peterson simply asks “How can we know so much and live so badly?” Both Eugene Peterson and Dallas Willard talk about church services. Eugene Peterson says this, The operating biblical metaphor regarding worship is sacrifice. We bring ourselves to the altar and let God do to us what God will. We bring ourselves to the eucharistic table, entering into that grand fourfold shape of the liturgy that shapes us: taking, blessing, breaking, giving—the life of Jesus taken and blessed, broken and distributed; and that eucharistic life now shapes our lives as we give ourselves, Christ in us, to be taken, blessed, broken and distributed in lives of witness and service, justice and healing.

But this is not the American way. The major American innovation in the congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise. Americans have developed a culture of acquisition, an economy that is dependent on wanting and requiring more. We have a huge advertising industry designed to stir up appetites we didn’t even know we had. We are insatiable. It didn’t take long for some of our colleagues to develop consumer congregations. If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and

The Future of Theological Education

I remember being at a conference years ago when the comparison was made between the average income of baby boomers measured against things like education, mortgage, and transportation. Then they compared my generation. Everything was more expensive but especially education and at that moment I realized that the Freedom 55 commercials were not targeted at me. The presenter forecasted what it meant for the church. To go to seminaries like Wheaton or Fuller, it meant that you either had to be older and saved up some money, come from a wealthy family, or willing to take on a large amount of student loan debt. This has affected even smaller Bible Colleges who are faced with an aging donor base and less contributions resulting in higher tuitions. The costs associated with education keep many interested learners at arm’s length. A building costs money; faculty need to be paid and they expect certain privileges associated with their position. Beyond that, the physical space of education limits the number of students who can participate [those who can get to the location, those who can fit into the facilities]. After a while the school’s priorities shift toward the necessities of taking care of the building and faculty, and these begin to displace the original educational goals. This starts to impact the wider church in a couple of ways as it also influences students. As I heard one seminary faculty member say it, whether the student or his family is footing the expensive cost of seminary education, it makes students less inclined or less able to enter the mission field or enter into a ministry context that does not provide a certain amount of money or safety. The long term consequences of that happening to more church leaders is easy to see. Only wealthy churches have access to quality theological thinkers and the church may have to withdraw from areas that cannot afford a certain level of compensation. There have been others who have seen this happening and are working to create an alternative future. City Seminary of New York [www.cityseminaryny.org] is a collaborative project of churches across New York City that brings in theologians and speakers to help church leaders in their local contexts. Fees are as low as $10 [to cover meals]. The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia is developing training materials and offering classes for those that can not afford it. Closer to home, in Kingston there is the Invisible College [www.invisiblecollege.ca] which tackles big issues from a Christian worldview. Topics like globalization and how technology impacts our lives have been past topics. Resonate has hosted several local discussions with theologians and thinkers over the last three years in Toronto and Hamilton, all for free. While seminaries and many local churches have been slower to adopt this model in favor of selling content, more and more universities are giving away their lectures, course work, and even tests for free over the Internet. M.I.T.’s OpenCourseWare allows you to tap into M.I.T.’s vast teaching resources as a teacher or self-learner for free. It doesn’t grant you a degree or credits but it does share the wisdom. TED, a world leading conference of big thinkers has recently used Google Video to make their entire conference available for free online. While I questioned the Archbishop of Canterbury’s use of YouTube when the idea was floated, almost 8000 people have watched his latest video in three weeks, far more than what would have heard him speaking in a church and that number will keep climbing. While the Free Methodist Church in Canada’s Foundational Courses and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s efforts come from a denomination, many of the other alternative forms of theological education are coming from the grassroots of the church. Motivated local church leaders striving to make a difference in their communities. Whether that will be online or offline in churches and third spaces, in partnership with existing educational institutions or creating new ones, how it shapes up and how we decide to view new forms of education will go a long way in shaping how we see church. The Future of Discipleship

This is related to the discussion on theological education but we can’t ignore the issue of discipleship or lack of it in local churches.

V I S I T

O U R

W E B I S T E

< < W W W . F M C - C A N A D A .

most effective way to get them into our churches is to identify what they want and offer it to them. Satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel into consumer terms—entertainment, satisfaction, excitement and adventure, problemsolving, whatever. We are the world’s champion consumers, so why shouldn’t we have state-of-the-art consumer churches? Dallas Willard says something similar but in just three sentences, We must flatly say that one of the greatest contemporary barriers to meaningful spiritual formation in Christlikeness is overconfidence in the spiritual efficacy of ‘regular church services,’ of whatever kind they may be. Though they are vital, they are not enough. It is that simple.

Even if we get every other aspect of church right and people do engage with us again, what do they get when they get here? An entire “discipleship industry” has formed within the church trying to sell me an answer to that question and there are a lot of different opinions. As technology and culture change, it changes the world in which we learn in. What would have been considered deviant behaviour a generation ago isn’t questioned today as being abnormal. I remember reading a book on how young Christians needed to act and it concentrated on issues like how long should your hair be and if sideburns are okay. It was as funny to read then as it is today but it does go a long way in determining what we saw as important issues back then. Today, things have changed. A friend showed me his high school son’s instant messenger buddy list. Every single one of them was a sexual reference. While we were talking about that, a song came over by an underage artist talking about sex acts with her boyfriend. What does the church look like in a culture that is changing, materialistic, confused, and intolerant of how it sees the church being intolerant? While much of the discussion centers on the forms we use for discipling, statements from many theologians suggest that we may have to rethink what a Christian is in today’s world. If there is good news in all of this, it is that many Free Methodists are having these kinds of discussions all over the place, both formally [like at last years Ecclesiology Study Commission] and informally. Many of those voices will go into papers and ideas to presented at the next General Conference and of course are being discussed in local churches. As I told a colleague not that long ago, some of us are too young to have experienced the “good old days” of the church but this is the time that God wanted us to be here for and there is something exciting about that.

Jordon Cooper is on the leadership team of the Church of the Exiles, a church plant in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Jordon spent over a decade as the pastor of Lakeland Community Church in Spiritwood, Saskatchewan and has also served on the staff of Lakeview Church in Saskatoon. He is a founding member of Resonate, a network of emerging church leaders across Canada and a member of the Emergent Co-ordinating Group. He is married to Wendy and they have a son. O R G > >

MOSAIC

Norm Bull retires Having served as Director of Administrative Services for over a decade.

hen I think of Norm Bull’s retirement from the responsibilities of Administrative Services in The Free Methodist Church in Canada my mind goes back to those years when we worked together on the National Leadership Team. During the latter half of the 90s during the changes that were happening at that time, two words that were tossed around a lot were “effective” and “efficient.” Norm Bull, with his background in financial institutions brought meaning to both of these words in his work in Administrative Services. With his no-nonsense conscientious approach to his work Norm always helped to keep the standard high in the stewardship of time, money and other resources. The record stands as evidence. As a team member Norm added a neat sense of humor and personal warmth that kept us sane through difficult times. While he worked hard and long, he modeled balance through his involvement in his church, curling, golf, running and an occasional time of vacation. In addition to these the quality of his commitment to family continues to be an inspiration to anyone who notices. From what I can tell at this distance Norm’s commitment to serve his Lord and the church continues into his days of retirement. Rev. Dennis Camplin

orm Bull arrived at The Free Methodist Church in Canada Ministry Centre in 1994 during a period of transition. Over the next number of years he did an exceptional job of redeveloping the ‘business’ functions of The Free Methodist Church in Canada. Norm’s expertise with and knowledge of The Free Methodist Church in Canada was invaluable as Director of Administrative Services. Whether reporting to the Board of Administration or responding to inquiries from treasurers, pastors or lay persons of local congregations, Norm was always prompt, efficient and thorough. Everyone with whom he dealt respected him. It was always a pleasure to work with Norm from a Board of Administration and Management Committee perspective. His knowledge on pensions, investments, legal and financial matters, audits, and general administrative functions and procedures was exceptional. I appreciate Norm for his strong Christian faith, his commitment to his local church and his valued friendship, and wish him a blessed retirement.

or the past 13 years, Norm Bull has given careful and conscientious oversight to the administrative aspect of the ministry of The Free Methodist Church in Canada. Pastors and local congregations have appreciated his efficient, helpful and thorough responses to their questions regarding payroll, church mortgages, pension and many other administrative matters. Lorne Park Foundation has appreciated his assistance and his service to the Board of Directors. The Free Methodist Foundation in Canada relied heavily on his knowledge of the legal and investment aspect of its ministry. But more than that, every conversation with Norm revealed his genuine interest and concern for you as a person and your ministry. We thank Norm for his life and ministry and wish him a long and happy retirement with thanksgiving to God for his faithful stewardship to The Free Methodist Church in Canada as Director of Administrative Services.

Rev. Lloyd R. Eyre, Lead Pastor at Peterborough FMC

Brian R. Cooke

Someone once said, “When some people retire, it’s going to be mighty hard to be able to tell the difference.” That will certainly NOT be the case with Norm Bull. At the Ministry Cetnre we have all experienced Norm’s very dry sense of humour - he would often make us laugh recounting stories of working at the bank, playing on his curling team and growing up as a pastor’s kid in rural Ontario. He also took great pleasure in teasing newcomers to the staff, announcing, “I’m going out for a smoke.” It took little persuading to assure them that he was, in fact, joking! Congratulations Norm! We are so very happy for you and pray that your next steps will be full and blessed. We miss you already, so don’t forget about us! Lisa Howden

generoussteward.org unveiled!

information on how to develop and implement a stewardship ministry in their local church. Whether you are looking for resources for children or adults, you will find it here… and so much more. Individuals and families will also find generoussteward.org a valuable source of information. Most importantly, you will learn what God wants for you in the area of stewardship of time, talent and treasure. We have practical resources to help you begin to budget and how to stay on track. Parents will find useful information for teaching their children and teens how to manage money. For those of you who are interested in finding out ways to give back to God utilizing methods other than cash, we are compiling information on various planned giving options including bequests, gifts of life insurance, securities and other assets as well annuities and charitable remainder trusts. The website will also have a section where we can celebrate generosity. We are looking for your stories – stories of generosity. Perhaps you were the recipient of an unexpected gift. We want to hear how it impacted you. When we experience the generosity of others – whether its time, talents or money – it can change our lives. The sharing of stories is for the purpose of encouragement – encouraging each other towards greater generosity. When Jesus recounted the story of the widow’s mite in Luke 21:1-4, he did so to make a point, to encourage others to live and give like her.

nformation – it can be a blessing and a curse. In today’s information age, we have the ability to find out just about anything using a variety of ways. And while having access to information is wonderful, it can sometimes be so overwhelming. We often find ourselves spending time dealing with the information itself rather than putting what we’ve learned into practice. Downloading, printing, reading, filing… you know the drill. One of the goals of our stewardship ministry is to provide you with relevant, reliable information to help you on your journey to becoming a faithful steward. We are constantly searching for information, sifting through the myriad of available sources and bringing you the best. To help disseminate this information in an effective, cost efficient way, we have launched our new Generous Steward website at www.generoussteward.org. This site is still in the preliminary stages and will continue to grow as we have the resources to do so. We’ve designed the website to provide pastors and ministry leaders with valuable

Remember to bookmark generoussteward.org in your internet browser and visit it often. We will be adding information on a regular basis. Please feel free to send us your comments and suggestions for information you would like to see. Joanne Bell is the Stewardship Ministries Director for The Free Methodist Church in Canada

MOSAIC

PASSAGES APPOINTMENTS Ira Carty – Associate Pastor at Wesley Chapel Toronto, effective April 1, 2007 Darryl Dozlaw – Interim Lead Pastor at Northview

Community Church, Regina, effective April 13, 2007

Patrick Lashley – Pastor at Edmonton FMC, effective March 22, 2007. Joe Manafo – Church Planter at The Story,

Sarnia, ON, effective February 19, 2007

Vikki Marrs – Pastor at Lakeland Community

Church, Spiritwood, SK, effective March 4, 2007

Sandrah Mashingaidze – Assis’t Pastor at Malvern

Methodist Church, Toronto, effective January 5, 2007

Fred Merritt – Minister of Discipleship at Caistor Centre [ON] FMC, effective March 15, 2007. Kathy Stephenson – Associate Pastor at Ridgeway

[ON] Community Church, effective April 20, 2007

Sherry Thomas – Pastor at Wyevale FMC, Wyevale,

ON, effective March 6, 2007

Mary-Elsie Wolfe – Assoc. Pastor-Children & Prayer

hese are some thoughts that I, a 30 year old youth pastor, have been thinking about in terms of the emerging church. I hesitate to dip my toe into the deep waters, but I might as well jump in head first. The following are my thoughts and concerns that come out of my desire to grasp how God is moving in our world. If there is an indictment here it is of myself – because I have, at one point or another, ascribed my thinking to all the issues that follow. Revisiting the past

FMC, Toronto

I hear from emerging church leaders that the key to our future will be found in revisiting the past. If we would only look to what the “ancient” church did we will see a window into Jesus’ intent for what we really should be as a community. It is an “ancient-future” mindset. Basically, it is a wholesale rejection of the modern form of church and a desire to pick up where the Renaissance left off.

Pierre Sanambe – May 13, 2007 at Source d’eau Vive, Sherbrooke, QC

Revisiting ancient worship

Ministry, St. Catharines, ON, effective March 1, 2007 Abraham Yonas – Chaplain, Fenbrook Correctional

Centre, Gravenhurst, Ontario, effective April 1, 2007 ORDINATIONS

Hilkka Aavasalmi – May 6 at 4 pm at Kingsview

Abraham Yonas – March 18, 2007 at Gospel of

Love Church, Toronto

MINISTERIAL CANDIDATES APPROVED Felix [Wing Kong] Chow Shanthikumar Kantharatnam Matthew Larson Isaac Nizigama Terri Payk Richard Venne Wesley Wood Jennifer Wright CHANGE OF STATUS

Adam Beach - Leave of Absence-Secular

Employment, effective April 1, 2007

Don Miller – change of status to “Released for

Service beyond the Denomination - Interim District Director for the Canadian Bible Society [Eastern Ontario region],” effective April 20, 2007

Certificate of Standing issued to Rev. Mary Nwagbugbo as she transfers to the Methodist

Church, The Gambia, Africa.

CHURCHES IN TRANSITION Athens FMC, Athens, ON Avonlea FMC, Avonlea, SK Campbell’s Bay FMC, Campbell’s Bay, QC Crossroads FMC, Salmon Arm, BC New Hope FMC, Bracebridge, ON Northview Community Church, Regina, SK O’Connor FMC, Kakabeka Falls, ON Richmond Hill Chinese FMC, Richmond Hill, ON Roblin & Grandview FMC, Roblin & Grandview, MB Warkworth FMC, Warkworth, ON PASTORS IN TRANSITION Glenn Dixon Harold Fox David MacPherson Don Miller Dale Vinkle

REGIONAL GATHERING LOCATIONS AND DATES Saskatchewan/Manitoba

Arlington Beach Camp on April 14 Central Ontario – Wesley Chapel on April 21 Northern Ontario – Val Caron on April 28 South/Southwest Ontario – Brantford on May 5 East Ontario/Quebec – Smiths Falls on May 12 Northwestern Ontario/Winnipeg

Dryden on May 26 Alberta – Ellice on June 2 British Columbia

Merritt, Evangelical Free Church on June 16 FALL MINISTERS CONFERENCE Wesley Acres – October 2-4, 2007 Calgary – September 18-20, 2007

Some seek to connect our current culture with “ancient” worship experiences. This often provides the participant with a profound mystical worship experience. It is an otherworldly retreat from the hectic pace of our North American culture.

Revisiting Art

There was a time, not so long ago, when I bought into the phrase “O for the days when the church was the greatest patron of the arts.” It didn’t take a long look at church history to see that those were the days when the church became so focused on attaining beauty and wealth for themselves that they completely disengaged from doing the ministry that Jesus modelled. How many were starving and dying when the church was pouring their resources into paintings, sculpture and music? Don’t get me wrong, I like and appreciate art. I just hope that if it comes to having a new piece of art or feeding the homeless guy on the church steps, that I will always, always choose the latter. If our churches are about art, music, or anything other than the mission that God has called us to we will cease to be a church and instead become a storehouse of earthly treasure. We will become like the great big beautiful ancient churches of Europe where the insides are adorned with every kind of priceless artifact. They lack nothing but the most priceless artifact of all, people.

It may be dangerous to assume that we can have a concept today of the reality of ancient forms of worship. At best we have our own self constructed feeling of what it was like. We also have no idea if those forms of worship served to focus the church on mission, or simply contributed to a growing sense of disengagement and separation of the laity from the form and function of Church ministry. Secondly, the desire to recreate ancient forms of worship can tend towards the desire to find integrity and authenticity out of a seeming participation in an ancient faith, rather than a church that seeks after the reality of God’s current movements within our own culture. It is a playing at older forms of dress, language and movement. If our authenticity is found in what we do, as opposed to who we truly are, then worship becomes theatre as we seek to act in ways that make us appear to have travelled through time to call the church back to “the way it was.” Thirdly, we may be placing the reality of Christian experience in a constructed ancient culture which may constrain our faith to a separate constructed reality. If our worship and faith experience is founded in a culture that no longer exists, then we have a faith that gets lost in the grind of daily life in the 21st century. The problem that the emerging church is attempting to avoid – a modern church disconnected from current cultural realities – is compounded by an even more culturally distant and self-created expression of divine encounter. This expression of ancient in modern is typified by a recent emerging church video that I saw in which someone played the U2 video “Vertigo.” For the first ¾ of the video they had included frenetic images of our current reality [downtown New York, Iraq war images, smog, cars on a freeway, etc.] The last ¼ was overlaid with images from some Jesus movie with Jesus slowly walking through the desert saying nice things, all the while U2 playing heavy in the background. This was presented as a great “post-modern” expression connecting Jesus with today’s reality. The problem was that Jesus could not have seemed any more disconnected from the loud, industrialized frenzy of modern society. How could someone caught in the midst of all the chaos see a white guy walking the desert 2000 years ago as someone who understands and empathizes with them? Where is our modern reality of Jesus? Where is the Jesus who drives a car? Where is the Jesus who knows what it is to be “downsized” by a faceless corporation? If we don’t a have a reality of Jesus in this culture, then this culture will never embrace the reality of Jesus. Sorry for the bumper sticker formulation of the last statement. I believe in a Jesus who 2000 years ago died on a cross and rose from the dead, but that can’t be the end of it. To truly be the church we need to believe in a Jesus who is manifested here and now. If we can’t see him now, we will never effectively communicate him now.

Function or Form?

I have a feeling that the “emerging church” is not as far from the mega-church model as it tends to think. I am concerned, in talking to many emerging church planters, that there is a very modern church response to the question “What does your church do?” I hear responses like: “We are a house church.” “We are a pub church.” “We are music driven.” “We never do music.”

“We are an arts church.” “We use a lectionary.” “We don’t use a lectionary.” “We don’t preach.”

My concern is that the “emerging church” is leaning heavily towards form over function. The search for relevancy is being found in the externals. Willow Creek Church is often used as an example for the emerging church of a “customer” driven, all flash and little substance type of church. If the emerging church focuses its energy on doing Sunday differently to draw people in our culture, then they are doing that which they denigrate. I feel strongly that God is calling young men and women to be Christ to a community and let that community organically find their expression of worship to God. I do not believe that God calls us to worship him in a set way and then see if anyone comes. Jesus’ function in the world was not to worship God as ministry, but to worship God in ministry. If God’s desire was for us to solely worship Him, he would make us do it. God desires men and women who, out of a transforming relationship with Him, seek to love and serve the world. That is our greatest act of worship. Our form should never dictate our function, it’s the other way around. A new church plant should invest every bit of their time into who God is calling them to and how God is calling them to reach those people. A church plant that discusses Sunday morning before it discusses Sunday afternoon to Saturday night is looking to cater to its own personal liturgical preferences. It is more a reaction to modern Christianity than it is a theology for a given culture. Paul Millar is the Youth Pastor at Arlington Woods FMC in Ottawa, Ontario. More on Emerging Churches? Visit “Are We An Emerging Church?” by Dr. Phil Zylla Are there shifts occurring in your church toward an Emerging Church profile?

http://christianity.ca/church/leadership/2007/04.001.html

Killing Fields

become Harvest Fields

astor Sok Em in Kampong Chnang, Cambodia recently sent a report from the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia. The General Secretary stated that there are over 2000 churches in Cambodia [15 million] and 235 churches in Phnom Penh, the capital [1.7 million]. That’s roughly one church for every 7-8,000 people. This is phenomenal growth when you consider there were probably only a handful of churches in 1990 when Cambodia first began to open up to the outside world. For comparison, Quebec has one evangelical church for every 10,000 people; Ontario has one church for 3,500, while the rest of Canada is roughly one church for 2,000. Rev. Heng Cheng, the General Secretary went on to say that less than 2% of those churches are able to support a full-time pastor, and that of all the persons identified as pastors of these congregations, at least 80% would have to be regarded as inadequate Christian leaders. He mentions a pastor who came to register his church with the EFC. When interviewed it was apparent that the man had very little knowledge of God or the Bible. Rev. Heng asked him how he came to be a pastor. The man replied, because there was no one to lead this particular group of people and so he stepped up and everyone in the group appointed him as pastor. In the same report Rev.Heng told another story about a particular church in Kampong Som province. There was a lady in that church who was sick and the pastor and other leaders thought that she was demon-possessed. They tied her arms and legs and whipped her to drive the demon out of her. Somehow the woman escaped and reported to the authorities that her pastor and elders had whipped her. Serious problems ensued for that church.

and individuals who have a desire to see this kind of training contribute to the growth of the kingdom of God in Cambodia. In light of our long-term involvement with Pastor Sok Em and the FM work in Cambodia we are approving him and Savy as short-term missionaries of The Free Methodist Church in Canada. You will find information about them and their ministry needs on our website. [www.fmc-canada.org] In November 2006, Pastor Em conducted a weeklong course with 10 Free Methodist pastors and leaders on “Pastoral Ministry Practices.” The course was taught in Prek Thei, Sok’s home village and the location of the first Free Methodist church he planted in Cambodia. Joel Margin, the FM team leader, reported that having a mature Christian leader teach a course like that in the Khmer language and cultural framework is a tremendous asset for their leaders. This leadership development partnership between Sok Em and The Free Methodist Church in Cambodia promises well for the future. Rev. Dan Sheffield is the Director of Global and Intercultural Ministries for The Free Methodist Church in Canada

Thai-Cambodia Experience: A Journal [Thursday January 11] Some people have wondered why in the world would I head to

Thailand and Cambodia? What does that have to do with Ecclesiax? Short answer… people. Other part of that answer: Ecclesiax is not the centre of the universe God loves ALL people…

[Sunday January 14] Attended a sister, Thai church in Bangkok. These people are exuberant and they pay a significant price to live as Christians in a Buddhist majority. The church asked me to step forward and say a few words through a translator. I smiled and said: Ecclesiax in Ottawa sends you much love and greetings! I also requested that they pray for their sister church in Ottawa, Canada which is praying blessings upon them right now. [Monday January 15] Spent the morning discussing Thailand and

the church here with Dan, Greg and Erin Elford. The four of us then went out on one of the main streets for lunch. A real culinary adventure there.You can eat a large lunch for less than a dollar, drink included!

[Tuesday January 16] Wanted to go for a walk and get some

fresh air, which is impossible to do in Bangkok. There is no fresh air. Walked around the 30 or so market stalls that set up right in front of the church building. Raw pig’s heads being chopped up, all kinds of fish flopping around, unusual vegetables I have never seen before. Crowds of people doing their shopping. Trucks, hundreds of motor scooters, cars, bicycles, all whizzing past on the street next to this spontaneous market. People eeking out a living in a poorer section of Bangkok away from the tourist areas, and this is where the church is. I see the sense of it. [Wednesday January 17] Meeting for day long sessions with

above: Pastor Sok and Savy Em - Cambodia Rev. Joseph Moreau of Ecclesiax FMC [Ottawa] near the killing fields memorial in Cambodia.

top:

Dan teaches a one day course on “Engaging your community” in Cambodia

This is the context of a recent visit to Cambodia by myself and Pastor Joseph Moreau from Ecclesiax FMC in Ottawa. We were spending a few days becoming acquainted with the current ministry of the Free Methodist Church in Cambodia. In conferring with Rev. Joel Margin, the FM team leader, an experienced pastor from the Philippines who has lived in Cambodia for the last eight years, he confirmed the above report. There are more Christians and churches than there are trained leaders to disciple them – and it is resulting in serious concerns. Enter Pastor Sok and Savy Em. It was Pastor Sok who began the Free Methodist church planting work in Cambodia in the early 90s, while still living and pastoring in Canada. He and his wife Savy have recently left their grown children behind in Canada and moved to the city of Kampong Chnang, about two hours north of Phnom Penh. Working with other mature Christian leaders they are establishing a modular training program for lay pastors. A high-quality, three-year, interdenominational, residential bible college program in Phnom Penh is graduating a steady flow of trained pastors, but the flow is just not adequate for the number of churches that need trained leaders. The Tahas Bible Institute, on the other hand, is designed to offer 2-3 week practical programs in bible knowledge and pastoral skills at the training centre in Kampong Chnang, every couple of months. Lay pastors will continue working in their home villages, sustaining their personal needs. Pastor Sok Em will go out to visit these pastors in the surrounding region providing coaching in their own ministry situations. Sok Em’s role and ministry plan is a bit unconventional but it is addressing the specific situation in Cambodia at this present time. Although an Ordained Minister in The Free Methodist Church in Canada, he is released for ministry to work with Mission to Unreached Peoples [MUP] in Cambodia, a small para-church mission organization. This is the organization to whom he is accountable for his finances and ministry objectives. The support of the Ems’ ministry assignment in Cambodia will be through churches

the Thai church leaders. The Thai leaders said they were so happy we were there showing solidarity with them. It feels lonely at times, they said. Discouragement can come - they struggle. At the end of the day, we all prayed together and then one Thai leader asked me to share my greatest difficulty and joy in planting Ecclesiax. I answered that my difficulty was often imagining that my ideas were great without talking to God. Then I shared my greatest joy. Seeing people who had zero church background embracing faith in God. This resonated with the Thai leaders. They all nodded with smiles as the words were translated for them. They then asked me how they could pray for me and Ecclesiax? Got a lump in my throat at that one. How humbled I was at that very moment. That is going to be a highlight of Bangkok for me.

[Thursday January 18] Heading to Bangkok international airport 5:30 am to board our charter flight to Cambodia - they tell me it is like going back in time 50 or 60 years. Got ready to head out to the actual Killing Fields memorial. Nothing could prepare me for the vibe that was there. Mass graves with plaques explaining what each section of the death camp did 30 years ago. I walked around it all slowly. Even now I am having trouble with this. It has left a mark on me. I went back outside and stood alone for a few minutes and just breathed. Had dinner with Dan and we talked about the day. About Cambodia. About God. About what God might be saying to us? Walked back down the main street with thousands of people rushing here and there. I tried laying in one of the traditional Cambodian hammocks . The rocking motion is nice, but my body feels like it is being shaped into a curved banana. Instead I try sleeping on a traditional Cambodian floor mat - it’s a little hard, but my body is not being molded into a new shape. The room is nowhere near as hot as I had thought it would be. It is actually pleasant. [Saturday January 20] Was asked to lead the group of 40+ Cambodian church leaders in a

lesson from the Bible. That brought back memories from 20 years ago, of teaching Cambodian refugees English in Hamilton. I stood up front and bowed with my hands clasped together as a sign of respect and greeting, they bowed back to me. Big smiles as I spoke. Dan teaches on urban church planting…

[Sunday January 21] Back in Phnom Penh proper we head over to the Khmer church. Dan is asked to share the God story. Meet a young church planter, also named Daniel, who tells a wild story about his neighbour trying to shoot him because he intervened in the beating the neighbour gave his wife. Daniel is able to stop that, but the husband a soldier, pulls out his service pistol and says: “What is this to you? Now I am going to kill you!” Daniel tells this story like it is normal. My jaw hits the ground. I look at him wide eyed and say: “I have no stories about planting a church that sound like that.” Rev. Joseph Moreau is Lead Pastor at Ecclesiax FMC in Ottawa, Ontario