HELLO CHURCH

BC churches band together for the cause of Christ

arch 2020 brought great change to

Malmost all Canadians due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses shut down, weddings and events cancelled, and churches moved their services to online platforms instead of meeting in person. Communities came face to face with the importance of supporting one another, and reaching out to those in need. For a group of churches in the

Surrey and Langley areas of British Columbia, the challenge of not meeting together brought way for a new idea to help the local community. Brad Sumner, pastor for 15 years at

Jericho Ridge Community Church in Surrey, was very interested in keeping his community together while reaching beyond the walls of the church and fulfilling the needs of others. “I thought, everybody is telling us what we can’t do. I’m not really interested in what we can’t do. I’m more interested in what we can do,” Sumner recalls. Sumner began to have conversations with his team. “We can do things like meet needs. How should we go about doing that now?” became the question on Jericho Ridge’s mind. The answer was quite literally right around the corner. Pastor Matthew Price of

North Langley Community Church was one of the first on board. “I quickly called Brad about an idea to bring all the churches in the area

I THOUGHT, together. The way that

EVERYBODY IS things immediately came TELLING US WHAT together was incredible,”

WE CAN’T DO. Price recalls.

I’M NOT REALLY Price presented the

INTERESTED IN idea to create an online

WHAT WE CAN’T portal to act as a doorway

DO. I’M MORE for all congregants and

INTERESTED IN community members to WHAT WE CAN DO. walk through when there was a need to be met. The – BRAD SUMNER idea was for churches to use their regular benevolence fund in a different way, though an online platform. This door became Hello Church. In total, sixteen churches in the local area joined the cause. They had maintained positive relationships with each other over the years, and were ready to join together to do community work.

“I was watching my email inbox explode with churches wanting to get involved. It was like a mini viral experience.” Price remembers, “It was the church unified.”

Let’s Get Going In the early stages, four of the churches in Hello Church invested and did research into how to get the message out to the public; one even donated their media, and graphics staff to get the ball rolling. Price also used his other connections to create a website and promote Hello Church on Instagram, Facebook and other social media by using geofencing technology in select areas that they wanted to get their message to. Their efforts were successful.

“It was so fun to watch the creativity happen!” Price says.

Hello Church was quickly becoming a recognized brand of its own. The community knew it was the church reaching, and people were paying close attention. Congregants living in the neighborhood surrounding the church put up signs in their yards that they were part of Hello Church, which matched signs on the church’s property.

Members of the churches were ready to spring into action.

“People were almost disappointed when there wasn’t a floodgate of need building up at first,” Sumner recalls, “There is still need, it’s just not coming to us in the same way.”

In the early stages of Hello Church, the program grew beyond fulfilling basic immediate needs like grocery deliveries, and shopping for others.

“We became engaged quite quickly in conversation with social services and the school district. The school district sent out a survey asking what the needs of families

were. The teachers received the surveys back and thought, “We can’t do all that, but who can?” So they came to Hello Church,” says Sumner.

In one circumstance, Hello Church was able to help a family who had experienced a fire in their apartment. One of the churches was able to donate over $10,000 to the family along with clothing, food, and other needs. The Hello Church community was relieved that this need was met!

Let’s Make it Work

IT WAS SO GREAT One of the pieces that

THAT NOT JUST make Hello Church work ONE CHURCH within the community

WAS THE HERO IN is that each church has a

THIS, IT WAS ALL certain amount of auton-

THESE CHURCHES omy within the program. TOGETHER If a church is particularly

THROUGH HELLO interested in one area of

CHURCH. IT WAS need, they can tend to it, A COOL WAY or if something is out of

TO BE UNIFIED its wheelhouse, another

WITH MULTIPLE church can step in and DENOMINATIONS... fill that gap. The power

WE DON’T AGREE of leaning on each other

ON EVERYTHING, as church families has BUT WE DO AGREE allowed Hello Church

ON ‘LOVE YOUR to become the force that

NEIGHBOR.’ it is to give people what they need. There is now – MATTHEW PRICE an impulse and response to look around for other helpers when a need arises, and work together to fill that need, regardless of church affiliation. The congregants of the churches involved in Hello

Church were already a giving community; this program gave action to it. “It created a condition of readiness to meet a needs that were unknown.” Sumner says, “There is a thread through our own story- an impulse that would move in that [helping] direction. We banded together for the cause of Christ to meet a need. It’s not weird that Mennonite Brethren churches would be thinking this way!” The unity of the church has been particularly touching for Price. “It was so great that not just one church was the hero in this, it was all these churches together through Hello Church. It was a cool way to be unified with multiple denominations, that’s what I love about it,” Price says. “We don’t agree on everything, but we do agree on ‘love your neighbor.’”

A New Season In more recent days, members of Hello Church have been sitting at the table to help resolve larger and more systemic issues in the Surrey and Langley area.

“Now we are in the thick of it. We looking into how we solve things like chronic homelessness and food insecurity. Hello Church has put us at the table with other people who want to solve problems in the city. It’s the harder piece to keep working at,” Sumner says. “It’s the harder work that’s not so glamorous, or as instantly gratifying as filling an immediate need.”

Hello Church has been able to move in a direction that brings the structure of the church into the forefront of the public minds. An area of need that has become apparent is youth needing positive mentors. The aforementioned school district was surprised and grateful to learn that within churches there are leaders who are trained to work with and mentor young people- Youth Pastors!

Sumner gleams, “We have the opportunity to provide more impact longer term, rather than filling need short term.”

Sumner hopes that this initiative inspires others in their neighbourhoods.

“I think people can do it anywhere. If a person has a helping impulse, just look around and see where the plug in is,” he says, “The important part is bringing the values of the Kingdom into that space.”

“We talk at Jericho about how we have a responsibility for what happens in our neighbourhood.” Sumner continued, “The hyper-localness of [Hello Church] collapsed the sense of ‘I can’t do that because only big churches do that.’ Together we are all the body of Christ, and together we have all the pieces of the puzzle. This is the time for all of us to jump in.”

KIMBERLY MCINTYRE enjoys writing stories of transformation, faith, and the human experience. She has a Communications and Media degree from Canadian Mennonite University.

Family news

Jason Krueger, President/CEO of CCMBC Legacy Fund & CCMBC Investments

Finish lines

The Board of CCMBC Legacy Fund, Inc. and CCMBC Investments Ltd. is pleased to announce the appointment of Jason Krueger as President/CEO effective November 16, 2020. Jason is a Chartered Financial Analyst and also has a Master of Arts in leadership. He has formerly served as the President of the Canadian Baptist of Western Canada Foundation. Jason lives in Calgary.

“I have a deep appreciation of how Legacy supports the ministry needs of CCMBC, its churches and pastors, to encourage Kingdom growth,” Krueger says. “I understand the regulatory environment and ministry considerations that led to the creation of the framework that Legacy operates within. The objectives and activities of the organization I recently led were comparable to those of Legacy; we went on a similar journey with our staff, board and denominational leadership. Prayer-filled collaboration is paramount to accomplishing the conference’s missional objectives. Our efforts are for His glory.”

ELFRIEDA DUERKSEN Elfrieda was born into a loving home. From her father, Elfrieda learned to delight at simple beauty. As the oldest, Elfrieda took on much responsibility during her mother’s extended illnesses. Elfrieda graduated as valedictorian from Mennonite Collegiate Institute, Gretna, Man., in 1943. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, she became a teacher and taught in the same two-room school with her father. David Duerksen, a young bachelor teacher, first saw Elfrieda at her graduation and predicted a future marriage. Ten years later, she received a letter from David indicating his interest as potential suitor. After some consideration on her part, she replied that there were possibilities. Many of their dates were at the hospital visiting her younger brother, Rudy; his death to cancer in his early 20s tested Elfrieda's faith and remained a point of sadness in her life. Elfrieda and David raised 4 children in East Kildonan, Winnipeg. Elfrieda's well-planned extended-family trips earned her the nickname “Mother Moses.” She was a proponent of good nutrition and warmed her family with memorable homemade chicken noodle soup and borscht. At River East MB Church, Elfrieda expressed her faith by serving in leadership in Morning out for Mothers and Pioneer Girls programs, participating in refugee sponsorship, and giving talks to various groups. Elfrieda was genuinely interested in people and their activities. At church, she maintained contact with individuals from all generations, encouraging wherever she could. Her encouragement also helped David through his darker days of depression. At 64, Elfrieda developed rheumatoid arthritis, which necessitated adjustments to her activities. Six months later, a stroke left David with weakness and difficulty speaking, writing, and swallowing. David was hospitalized for seven months and then returned home. In 1996, he broke his hip and moved to Bethania Personal Care Home, where Elfrieda became a daily fixture for the last 10 years of his life. In 2016, she too moved to Bethania. When her understanding and communication became muddled, she took much comfort in a warm smile. Despite many losses, her grateful essence didn’t change. On her 95th birthday, she ended her last meal with “That was very good,” and shortly afterward slipped from consciousness. Following a few days of family goodbyes at her bedside, she took her last breath.

Birth: June 8, 1925

Birthplace: Flowing Well, Saskatchewan

Death: June 26, 2020

Parents: Peter & Katherine Rempel

Married: David D. Duerksen, July 17, 1954 [Dec. 10, 2006]

Family: Joan (Bob Dueck), Carl (Cheryl Dyck), Donald (Janice Siemens), Mark (Kimberly); 8 grandchildren; 4 greatgrandchildren; 1 sister

Church: River East, Winnipeg

Baptism: South End MB (now Portage Avenue), Oct. 19, 1947

A DRAMATIC READING BASED ON PSALM 22

READER 1: (spoken loudly with anguish)

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.[b]

READER 2: (said in a whisper) Emmanuel

READER 1

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.[c] 4 In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

READER 2: (said slightly louder) Emmanuel

READER 1 (with anguish)

6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

READER 2: (said slightly louder) Emmanuel

READER 1

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. 10 From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. 12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 13 Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. READER 2: (said louder still) Emmanuel

READER 1 (in a gradually calmer tone)

19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. 20 Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. 21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

READER 1 (said with contentment gradually turning to joy)

22 I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

READER 1 & 2: (said loudly with joy in unison)

Emmanuel, God with us.

SANDRA REIMER

Glencairn Church, Kitchener, Ontario