JOHN JOHNSTONE
Digest SEPTEMBER MBHERALD.COM2022 More than sixty years of sharing the life & story of the Mennonite Brethren in Canada VOLUME 61, NO. 9 DELETE OR NOT TO DELETE, THAT IS THE QUESTION KEEPING ATTENTION AND MAKING AN IMPACT OPEN HANDS TO RECONCILIATION RECONCILIATIONAPPROACHINGTRUTHANDWITH LOVE IN OUR HEARTS Re e ing on the Pope’s apology
Q: How do you speak well about marriage with your neighbours, knowing that marriage can be difficult? A: Check out the Faith and Life online pamphlets about marriage and nflt-resourceswww.mennonitebrethren.ca/family.
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1MENNONITE BRETHREN HERALD SEPTEMBER 2022
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whole. Digest SEPTEMBER 2022 | VOLUME 61, NO. 9 EDITORIAL OFFICE 1310 Taylor Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba R3M 3Z6 Phone: 204-669-6575 Toll-free in Canada: 888-669-6575 MBHERALD@MBCHURCHES.CAWWW.MBHERALD.COM ISSN: 0025-9349 The Mennonite Brethren Herald is a publication of 6 8 18 14 12 KEEPING ATTENTION AND MAKING AN IMPACT Ken Esau OPEN HANDS RECONCILIATIONTO Holly Hannigan MB OFFERINGSEMINARYNEW MA PROGRAM Holly Hannigan DELETE OR NOT TO DELETE, THAT IS THE QUESTION Rev. Philip A. Gunther APPROACHING TRUTH AND HEARTSWITHRECONCILIATIONLOVEINOUR John Johnstone MBHERALD.COMSOUNDCLOUD.COM/MBHERALDTWITTER.COM/MB_HERALDFACEBOOK.COM/MBHERALD Connect Sharing the life and story of Mennonite Brethren in Canada Students take part in a weekend of education hosted by Willingdon Church (Burnaby, BC), one of the first teaching churches to partner with MB Seminary. Read more on page 1 2. CANADIAN CONFERENCE OF MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCHES CONFÉRENCE DES ÉGLISE DES FRÈRES MENNONITES
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In this issue, we speak to John Johnstone, part of the Leq’á:mel Nation and victim of the Sixties Scoop, about his thoughts on the Pope’s recent apology to the Indigenous people of Turtle Island (Canada) for the Catholic Church’s part in the residential school sys tem. Johnstone finds little comfort in the word ‘reconciliation’ if not used in the context of ‘truth.’ “If we don’t know the truth, if we’re not sharing the truth, if we’re not understanding the truth, if the truth is not part of reconciliation, then we don’t have reconciliation,” says Johnstone.Johnstone seeks a rightness of relationship between all people, guided by a Creator bigger than any one culture’s understanding of him. For John, rightness or relationship—reconciliation—only hap pens when we pray with love in our hearts.
’m sorry.” “Are you sorry for what you’ve done, or are you sorry you got caught?” Ever been on one end of that exchange? I’ve been on both sides myself.
It’s impossible to go through life without, at some point, a) hurt ing others or b) getting hurt by someone. Small debts are easy to erase, minor wrongdoings easy to overlook, and most hurts heal in time, but what happens when a transgression is so consequential that there is no reasonable restitution to match? How can you forgive when forgive ness seems unfathomable? And how do we know when an apology is authentic and from the heart? Remember that whole “sorry you got caught” thing? Again, I’m guilty of this myself. Our apologies are only genuine when we recog nize the harm we’ve done and are willing to make up for them.
On page 14, we highlight Selkirk Community Church (SCC), which has seen its new church building become a meeting place for Indigenous neighbours, a community “geared toward truth-telling.” says SCC pastor Ryan Galashan. “It’s not something we could have ever figured out on our own or planned, but it was cool that in our sanctu ary, we would have this group working on a project like this.”
The road to truth and reconciliation in Canada is one we’ve only begun to journey. We have far to go. Where are you on this journey, and what can you do to have rightness of relationship with your neigh bours? I believe the voices we need to hear most now are those of Turtle Island’s First Peoples. May we have the posture to receive them, the ears to listen to them, minds to understand them and the hearts to love Peace,them.
2 MBHERALD.COMSEPTEMBER 2022
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Carson CARSON SAMSON Communications director From the editor “I DEBTS ARE EASY TO ERASE, MINOR WRONGDOINGS EASY TO OVERLOOK, AND MOST HURTS HEAL IN TIME, BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A TRANSGRESSION IS SO
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The David and Katherine Friesen family is sponsoring 10 bursaries for young adults 18-35 to join the first two legs of the 2023 Memories of Migration: Russlaender 100 Tour. An additional 6 bursaries are available tour leg 3 from Saskatoon to Abbotsford. Successful applicants must have connections to the 1920s migration of Mennonites from Russia to Canada and demonstrate how they will advance understanding of Mennonite history. This 3-part cross-Canada train tour was planned by the Russlaender Centenary Committee, a subcommittee of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada. Young adults may apply for the tour bursaries by September 10, 2022 at: young-adults-russlaender-100https://ctms.uwinnipeg.ca/
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4 MBHERALD.COMSEPTEMBER 2022 HOMEPAGE
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6 MBHERALD.COMSEPTEMBER 2022 DELETE OR NOT TO DELETE, THAT IS THE QUESTION DISCIPLESHIP AND DIGITAL PERMANENCE: EXAMINING THE WITNESS OF YOUR ONLINE FOOTPRINT BY REV. PHILIP A GUNTHER “EACH PERSON’S WAYS ARE CLEARLY SEEN BY THE LORD, AND HE SURVEYS ALL HIS ACTIONS.” PROVERBS 5:21 GWB
JERRY BRIDGES
“GOD DESERVES MY MOST HONORABLE CONDUCT.”
“SOCIAL MEDIA MADE Y’ALL WAY TOO COMFORTABLE WITH DISRESPECTING PEOPLE AND NOT GETTING PUNCHED IN THE FACE FOR IT.” MIKE TYSON, PRO BOXING CHAMPION
There is debate over whether something you post on social media does in fact remain there forever. Social media scrubbing companies, for example, are earning record profits from clients seeking to wipe clean their past con tributions to the digital universe. These companies pride themselves on being able to completely sponge away your digital footprint. However, the fact that a growing num ber of past posts are coming home to roost, so-to-speak, even among the most prudent and discreet of our soci ety, tell a different story. Likely, what is closer to reality in the vast majority of cases is that once a contribution is made to the internet, it stays on the internet. As disciples, there is a much we can learn here, least of which is don’t post anything you will one day regret! I simply want to pursue one vein of thought. I’m wonder ing if in addition to our practice of the spiritual disciplines, we exercise the discipline of conducting an on-going per sonal social media audit? What testimony or witness are my uploads, emails, posts or tweets having? Are they in harmony with Jesus’ teaching: “Do to others as you as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31 NIV)? Do they align with the counsel of Paul: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value oth ers above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your
The self-proclaimed liberal fighter for racial rights and equality was given a near knock-out blow by hypocrisy. Although these in-house photos were likely never intended to be posted online, someone did post them. As a result, there was indeed a steep price to pay. Trudeau will for ever be remembered as prime minister ‘blackface’.
For those of you who follow the rich and famous of American society, consider how texts and other digital damaging posts impacted the outcome of the recent Johnny Depp – Amber Heard defamation trial. In front of millions of viewers their malicious interchange of dig ital vitriol was laid bare. Their online treatment of each other was utterly shameful. Although Johnny Depp was deemed the victor in the trial, in my view, both ended up losing an incalculable amount of respect.
In 2019 three photos of a young ‘blackface’ Justin Trudeau hit social media causing an incredible hullabaloo that hounded the prime minister for months. The photos were taken while he was teaching at West Point Gray Academy.
The Christian community has recently had its own share of believers employing social media for everything from throwing spiteful digital ‘rocks’ of criticism and judgement to engaging in morally corrupt, even crimi nal, practices. Disciples of Jesus are tempted like everyone else to either weaponize social media or harness its dark side for personal gratification. Indeed, there is much to be repented of. I routinely read of other beleaguered ministry col leagues whose lack of social media savvy was set aside and they posted some nefarious statement, photo or video. To their astonishment that same ill-advised action later reaped them everything from embarrassment to legal trouble. Had they understood digital permanence – once on the web, always on the web – maybe there would have been a fleeting moment of sober second thought. Maybe not.
REV. PHILIP A GUNTHER is director of ministry for the Saskatchewan Conference of MB Churches
YODA (STAR WARS)
“BE KIND ONLINE.” SASKTEL AD
For another level of discernment, consider the following rules of thumb: #1 – Never make a digital submission when you are emotionally compromised. #2 – If it’s a weighty matter, let is sit for a day. #3 – Again, if it’s a weighty matter, have a mature neutral party review it first.
My life experience has taught me that most everything of a highly inappropriate, immoral or illegal nature that is sent, tweeted, snapped or posted will one day come home to ‘roost’ – “Your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 KJV) warns Scripture. And when it does, like our prime minister, there will be a steep price to pay. I write this to counsel those who are toying with sending some thing online they know is unequivocally nefarious – don’t hit send, hit delete. And then, seek the help of wise confidants.
“WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE DARK SIDE, CAREFUL YOU MUST BE. FOR THE DARK SIDE LOOKS BACK.”
#4 – Ask yourself, Would a face-to-face meeting or phone call potentially have a better outcome? If so, do that instead. #5 – Think about how your tweet or email may impact the recipient. In light of that, is there something that could be communicated differently?
7MENNONITE BRETHREN HERALD SEPTEMBER 2022
We live in a time when the social media landmines and snares are literally everywhere. Interestingly, a part of my vocation is helping leaders and churches navigate these danger zones as they carry out the mission of mak ing disciples. The reality is that the vocabulary disciples used even five years ago can elicit a harsh response today. I have even sought the help of Christian social media experts to whelp craft public communications because each word would be scrutinized. Words matter and plac ing anything online means the whole world can forever see or read it. It reminds me of the old analogy: Once you squeeze toothpaste out of the tube…it’s out permanently. You can’t get it back in. Like a permanent marker used on a whiteboard leaves an indelible testimony, so to our digital footprint. What then are some helps for disciples seeking to be prudent about their engagement with social media? What is some good counsel around tweet ing, sending, posting, uploading, etc.? To begin with, I am assuming that read ers of this article will have a sound sense of what is inappropriate to send out into the digital cos mos. If not, here is a good principle to follow: If you would be ashamed if your mom, spouse, pastor, church, or Jesus read or saw your email, post, etc., hit delete relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:3-5 NIV)? Are they mir roring the high standard a disciple is to demonstrate: “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15 NIV)? I never tweet or snap; occasionally I post church vis its on Facebook and only upload ministry news and sermons on YouTube. My risk for communication eti quette ‘fails’ on those fronts is fairly marginal. However, I have made ginormous errors of judgement when it comes to sending emails. I once intentioned sending a venting–fueled email about a person to a colleague only to discover that I actually sent it to the person I was griping about! Yup, I spent the rest of the day making amends. I can’t count the number of emails I have sent that were misin terpreted or ended up painting me as unkind, insensitive or manipulative. I thank God that I have not posted or sent communications that have landed me on the unem ployment line or worse, jail.
instead of send. Having said that, there are some grey areas that may need some refined discernment about whether to delete or send. As I test my own digital sub missions, whatever form them may take, I want to ask myself the following fundamental basic questions: Is it reflectivetruthful?respectful?timely?wise?responsible?of1 Cor. 13 and Phil. 2:8?
#6 – Knowing that once you hit send it is a permanent record floating in the digital universe, does that change anything? #7 – When in doubt about a digital submission, pray for insight (Psalm 139:23-24).
John Johnstone and his wife Jenn work with Multiply in B.C. seeking to build and strengthen relationships between First Nations and the Church through education, prayer, and bridge-building encounters. Johnstone is part of the Leq’á:mel Nation, located about an hour away from where he and his wife live in the lower mainland.
RECONCILIATIONAPPROACHINGTRUTHANDWITH
LOVE IN OUR HEARTS e ing on the Pope’s apology
Holly Hannigan sat down with John to talk about the pope’s visit to Canada and apology for the Church’s role in residential schools. The following is some of what John shared in that conversation.
Re
JOHN JOHNSTONE
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good being to be absorbed into the body politic.
If we no longer know who we are as a first nation, then we don’t know our language. We don’t know our culture or we don’t know our connectedness to the land. We are no longer who we say we are and we are just absorbed. So for me, I never grew up with my culture. I never grew up with any of that. It’s not until the last 16 or maybe 18 years that I’ve been able to find my family.
9MENNONITE BRETHREN HERALD SEPTEMBER 2022
First you run into all the happy, shiny, smiley people and you’re like, man, these people are weird. But after you get past that and the preacher seems every once in a while that he’s just speaking right into your life and things that need to be touched and healed and blessed and lifted up and all those kinds of things. I started to enter into this kingdom and finally gave my heart to the Lord.
“GOD, CREATOR,THEIS SO MUCH BIGGER AND GRANDER THAN WHAT THE WHITE CHURCH IMAGINES HIM TO BE.”
WAS THE POPE’S VISIT AND APOLOGY SOMETHING YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION TO? DID IT MEAN SOMETHING FOR YOU TO HEAR HIS APOLOGY?
God, the Creator, is so much bigger and grander than what the white church imagines him to be. He is more than that. So the churches are completely and totally missing out when they don’t have the indigenous cultural understanding of who Creator is because he is so much more than the box he is put in. One people group can’t contain it, can’t know it, can’t present it. I was just really kind of blessed to be able to grow up and understand some of that white church understanding, but then also to be brought into some of the indigenous understanding of who the Creator is.
I’m part of the Sixties Scoop. I was stolen from the hospital, from my mother. My half sister tells me that the nuns came three times to have my mom sign the papers and give me up. And she said no all three times. And they took me anyways. I was fostered out to a white family in a white community over on Vancouver Island. And then after two years of being fostered, I was adopted into a white family in a white community over here on the mainland, where I’ve grown up for most of my life. I was fortunate enough that I didn’t get adopted really far away because that was usually the goal. Take the Indian out of the child so you could be left with a WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE NAVIGATING YOUR FAITH AND CULTURE?
Not until you had sent me the link did I pay any attention at all to it. It would be similar to Stephen Harper and his apology. Words spoken into existence can have great power. James five says that they can lift up or curse, condemn and put down, but they can also be very empty. Like the word reconciliation. For myself, the word reconciliation has become a useless word that is empty, shallow and hollow. It's been used so many times with no follow up or no fol low through that how can that words carry any kind of weightWordsanymore?spokeninto existence have the ability for great power. God spoke the world into existence. So words have great power and [the Pope] asking for forgiveness, that’s a big deal. But I'm sure every body is waiting for the what's behind it and how are the churches going to follow up with that? And not just how is the Catholic Church going to move for ward now that that speech has been given, because I have never heard the Bible speak in the language of Mennonite Brethren and Pentecostal, or any of these denominations. But I've heard it speak in the lan guage of every tribe, nation and tongue. We want to separate ourselves and say, oh, I wasn't there, it wasn't me, not my generation, not my denomination. But it’s not just what is going to hap pen with the Catholic Church after this, but what is going to happen with THE Church?
I’m starting to understand who I am is being connected to the land. I’m connected to all the things I am part of creation. I’m part of the created order. So I am in relation with all that is created. And so I start to learn that and understand that. But before that I had no idea who I was.
My wife got up one morning and said that she was going to church. She’s taking the kids and I can come or stay home. And I was just like, I’m not afraid of God. I’m not afraid of anybody. I’ll go to church. And it was a pretty snotty attitude, but it’s what got me through the door.
HOW DO YOU NAVIGATE SHARING THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN SO HURT BY THE CHURCH IN THE PAST?
“YOU, ANDIMPORTANTBROTHERSINDIGENOUSMYANDSISTERS,AREINTHEKINGDOMBECAUSEGODLOVESYOUWHOYOUARE.HOWYOUAREANDYOURCULTUREISBEAUTIFUL.”
How many First Nation people are out there that actually know who the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are, that are able to hang on to their culture and know that as an Indigenous person, the father who has created all things loves them? They are created in his image and his likeness and he is okay with their culture and thinks it’s beautiful. Yes there are some things in it that are troubling, just like there are things in the white man’s culture that are very troubling.
I’m done with the word reconciliation because even when I Google it, it says go back to right relation ship. The Indigenous people will tell you that there never was a right relationship to go back to. So why do you use the word reconciliation? Maybe let’s come together and figure out our past and start to move forward in a good way. My favorite term is ‘rightness of relationship.’ If you’re journeying with someone in a good way, that is good for you, good for me, good together. That’s rightness of relationship. But when I stand on your head so that I can further myself, it doesn’t seem like rightness of a relationship. It seems like that relation ship has greatly broken down and been fractured and destroyed.Myelders and our chiefs, they use the words truth and reconciliation, but they were smart enough to put that word truth at the beginning. So if we don’t know the truth, if we’re not sharing the truth, if we’re not understanding the truth, if the truth is not part of reconciliation then we don’t have reconciliation.WhenIask the Creator, what’s the whole thing, what’s the deal? It’s about salvation. It’s about sal vation for every tribe, nation, and tongue. It’s about salvation for mankind, not a people group. When we can get to the place where we are in rightness of rela tionship with those that are around us, salvation will begin to be birthed into existence because it’s rela tionship that birthed salvation into existence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
— Richard Twiss, One Church Many Tribes: Following Jesus the Way God Made You
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WHAT DOES RECONCILIATION LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU?
It’s difficult to have these conversations because not only have they been assimilated because our skin is too dark or our eyes are too dark, our hair is too long, our language is gibberish, and we’re savage and sub human. We’ve been told we’re not acceptable to God. So for us to be part of the kingdom, we need to change who we are. As the great late Richard Twiss would say, “we don’t need to leave our sin-stained culture and then enter into the white man’s sin-stained culture so that we can be known by God.”
“When we come to Christ as First Nations people, Jesus does not ask us to abandon our sin-stained culture in order to embrace someone else’s sin-stained culture. Nowhere in the New Testament is there any call to believers to form a separate culture from the world; we were created to be separate from the world but not to leave it. So many believers have misinterpreted 2 Corinthians 6:17 as a call to leave the world. But what Paul is talking about is internal, personal holiness, not a separate culture he wants us to create, as if simply living in it will make us holy. In forming our own Christian culture, all we have done is to leave the world without a witness from the inside, where we are supposed to be. When Native Christians reject the culture of the ancestors, Native people are left without a witness for Jesus Christ from within the cultural contexts of their spiritual, traditional and ceremonial life experiences.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
do you know if your heart’s not in the right place? It’s hard. Nobody wants to say ‘maybe my heart’s not full of love.’ That’s something that we have to ask the Holy Spirit to help revealed to us. When my church family begins to pray with love in their heart, then God will be able to do great and mighty things. Great and mighty things would be to reach out to my cousin and touch with the creator’s love that says, my son knows you, sees you and loves you. Please accept my spirit that you may be guided in helping to live life to its fullest. We thank John for sharing his heart with us, and reflect ing on the topic of truth and reconciliation and how the church can take part in those efforts.
JOHN JOHNSTONE serves among First Nations people groups in Western Canada through Multiply, alongside his wife Jenn.
Being educated in the true history and looking at the beginning of the story, knowing the truth, is a good thing. But if we don’t allow it to seep down into our heart and have a heart posture shift, we’re never going to get to the place where we are able to take a piece of that love that the father had for the son. The only way is for hearts to be changed. How do we do that? We don’t. God does. We become a part of that by praying.Butwhen we pray that prayer, are we praying that with love in our heart? Do we have compassion for the First Nation people whose land we’re on right now? Do we have love for them? Do we even know where they are? Their communities, their tiny little communities that we have stuck them on, do we even know where they are located around our churches?
WHAT ARE SOME NEXT STEPS FOR THE CHURCH TO MOVE FORWARD IN RIGHTNESS OF RELATIONSHIP?
The Bible is pretty clear on saying If you pray without love in your heart, then you’re just a clanging cymbal. Or if you do good deeds but don’t do these deeds with love in your heart, you’re just a resound ing gong.How
It’s difficult because how do you bring the word Bible into the conversation when the Bible was used as a weapon to oppress? How do you bring Jesus into it? Because as he was used as a weapon, the father was used as a weapon, the church was used as a weapon. How do you tell the story where it is good news, not news of assimilation, not news of coloni zation, not news of residential schools, not news of the Sixties Scoop, but brought in a way that it is good news of relationship. I do know that what the Creator’s given me to share, I can’t not share it. Just comes out. That rela tionship is important and if we’re not in relationship, then we’re not moving the kingdom forward. We’re advancing a people. We need to tell them, you my Indigenous broth ers and sisters, are important in the kingdom because God loves you and who you are. How you are and your culture is beautiful. We have to have the Indigenous brothers and sisters with us. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
We think the story starts when we were born and it just carries on from there. But without knowing the beginning, there’s going to be no love in our hearts. And if there’s no love in the heart, how do we expect things to change, things to move forward?
11MENNONITE BRETHREN HERALD SEPTEMBER 2022
BY HOLLY HANNIGAN
“With the assignments, we encourage students to con textualize what they are learning in the course to their church where they are learning or working,” said Wollf.
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MB Seminary is now offering a master’s degree in Trans formational Leadership. This is the first MA offered fully through the MB Seminary, although the course credits can be transferred to many of their partner schools.The Transformational Leadership program started as a four-class certificate but is quickly growing and adapting to work for a number of different educational pathways.“Wewere hearing from students, ‘this is great, can we do more?’ MB Seminary’s Academic Dean, Randy Wollf said. “Students can now do three certificates and an additional three courses and boom! They have a mas ter’sThedegree.”courses can be taken to work toward an MA, but the courses can also be used as undergraduate credit or for continuing education credit. It is even encour aged for those who are not students of MB Seminary to take the course for training and self-advancement in their own ministry. “When we talk accessibility we’re not just speaking location or cost, we want to serve anybody in the church, at any capacity, who needs theological training and leadership development,” shared MB Seminary Presi dent, Mark Wessner.
MB SEMINARY OFFERS NEW MA IN TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP WITH PATHWAYS FOR EVERY KIND OF STUDENT
All of the courses are taught from a Mennonite Brethren perspective, and MB Seminary has worked closely with local church leaders to make sure the courses are highly contextualized.
“That’s one of the strengths of this model,” said Wess ner. “The pastors and leaders of that [teaching church] know exactly how the content plays out in their local context. They know the issues, the topics, the culture.”
One of the topics that came up during their con versations with local leaders was the need to add more multicultural elements to the courses. Wollf said some of the textbooks were even changed to include books recommended by their pastoral liaisons.
“WHEN WE TALK ACCESSIBILITY WE’RE NOT JUST SPEAKING LOCATION OR COST, WE WANT TO SERVE ANYBODY IN THE CHURCH, AT ANY CAPACITY, WHO NEEDS THEOLOGICAL TRAINING AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT.”
Currently there are teaching churches set up in B.C., with plans in place to introduce another teaching church in Calgary very soon. Wollf says the hope is to continue building partnerships and expanding local options across all of Canada.
There is an online option for students living outside of B.C. to complete the first certificate and the online availability will grow. “It’s been exciting for us as we’re trying to create as many options for students as possible,” said Wollf. “We want to support their development as people and as lead ers. The online option will give us an opportunity to cover all of Canada and even internationally.”
Wessner explains that online access to the program
The program relies on partnerships with teaching churches. A local church hosts four courses through out the year that will give you one certificate, each course being taught over a weekend. Three certificates and a few extra credits and you have yourself a mas ter’s degree, without having to sacrifice work and ministry time.
“It’s a really manageable way for students to chip away at a master’s degree,” said Wollf.
“We are so excited to be able to tangibly come along side the church and serve. Not just talk about it but to actually come to churches and say what’s God doing in your context?” said Wessner. “We want to make some thing that works for you so God continues to work in and through you and your church.”
Students take part in a weekend class hosted by Willingdon Church (Burnaby, BC), one of the first teaching churches to partner with MB Seminary.
13MENNONITE BRETHREN HERALD SEPTEMBER 2022 is a priority but they’ve had to be intentional to main tain the community values of the school. “We want to stay true to the community-based teaching. So even with the online option, it’s very much mentor based,” explained Wessner. “The value of com munity is significant. So we’re trying to intentionally build community and have those [online] students still form some sort of cohort they follow throughout the certificate.”
“WE WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING THAT WORKS FOR YOU SO GOD CONTINUES TO WORK IN AND THROUGH YOU AND YOUR CHURCH.”
HOLLY HANNIGAN is communications and content management coordinator for CCMBC and staff writer for MB Herald. MB SEMINARY is the national seminary of the MB churches of Canada. Their main office is located on the campus of Trinity Western University in Langley, BC.
There is a path for your educational goals within this program. If you are interested in enrolling in any of these courses, whether it be to work toward an MA or simply for personal growth, you can find more infor mation on the MB Seminary website
elkirk Community Church (SCC) is a small congregation of about 50 – 60 people. The church recently built a brand new building with the intention of making it a space the entire com munity could benefit from. These were big plans for a small congregation, but God had even bigger plans for how he was going to use their building for opportuni ties of reconciliation with Indigenous people.
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“I don’t know how a small church that’s primarily Caucasian can say, now we’re going to do something appropriate for reconciliation,” said building facilita tor, Lisa Warkentine. “It’s simply a matter of letting God work.”The building wasn’t even built when God started putting in place important relationships.
“I DON’T KNOW HOW A SMALL CHURCH THAT’S PRIMARILY CAUCASIAN CAN SAY, NOW WE’RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING APPROPRIATE FOR RECONCILIATION,” SAID BUILDING FACILITATOR, LISA WARKENTINE. “IT’S SIMPLY A MATTER OF LETTING GOD WORK.” vice hours and looking for opportunities for work. Not only was this an opportunity for many of the church volunteers to work alongside these primarily Indigenous men, but it also was the start of a relation ship with Jeannie that would lead to more opportunities for the church to open up to the Indigenous commu nity. Jeannie is a member of a number of boards and projects, including the Interlake Arts Board. As the men were at the church working, Jeannie came to supervise and noticed an unfinished mezza nine above the gymnasium. She told Lisa it would be the perfect place to paint murals and she’d like to rent it out. The mezzanine was nowhere near complete and wasn’t expected to be done for a year or two, but with this opportunity the church rushed to finish the space. “It had no railing. It had no stairs going up.” Lisa recounted.ButJeannie could see the potential, and with a grant already in place she insisted the space would be perfect for her art group to paint murals for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. “We rushed to get that space finished and the next thing we knew, we had murals for Missing and S
Open Hands Reconciliationto
On the line was the coordinator for the Fine Option Program, Jeannie Red Eagle. There were a number of individuals who were required to do community ser
Lisa and her husband Gary were discussing the church’s need for workers to help with some smaller labour projects, but Lisa thought, ‘who could we hire for only two weeks?’ Just then the phone rang.
15 Murdered Indigenous Women being painted up there,” Lisa reflected. “It was this beautiful meshing together.” The building started to be used more and more for Indigenous programming, as well as just a space for people to meet. Lisa recalled one day driving up to the church to see a group of 20 Indigenous individuals out on the lawn. This was days after news broke that hun dreds of unmarked graves had been found at residential school“Theysites.were braiding sweetgrass and talking,” said Lisa. “That was the beautiful thing about it, this was just a safe space they were able to use.” There is also a group called the Turtle Island Proj ect who meets in the church sanctuary to prepare for a presentation they put together, similar to the blan ket exercise. It is an interactive retelling of Canadian history from an Indigenous perspective with the oppor tunity to play a role, and then share your thoughts of how it impacted you. “It is all geared toward truth telling, which is such a big part of reconciliation,” said SCC pastor, Ryan Galashan. “It’s not something we could have ever fig ured out on our own or planned, but it was cool that in our sanctuary we would have this group working on a project like this.”
“There is lots that we can agree on and finding com mon ground and building off that is important,” said Lisa. “We constantly walk that path and seek God’s guidance in that.”
“RECONCILIATION IS COMING AND WANTING TO LEARN. THE CHURCH IN CANADA HAD A HUGE ROLE IN A LOT OF THE HURT AND THE PAIN AND THE WRONG. WE NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT AND WE NEED TO HAVE THAT POSTURE AND ATTITUDE.”
HOLLY HANNIGAN is communications and content management coordinator for CCMBC and staff writer for MB Herald is a Mennonite Brethren church located in Selkirk, Manitoba. They recently built a new building with the desire to provide a place not only for the church but also for the community.
“I’ve always wondered if one day we might have an Indigenous drum as part of our worship for Jesus,” said Ryan. “Like Revelations talks about, every nation rep resented and worshipping before the throne.” Both Ryan and Lisa acknowledged that none of these partnerships were their own doing. The relation ships with Indigenous community members, specifically Jeannie Red Eagle, played a huge role in getting the church connected and opening up their doors to these opportunities of “Reconciliationreconciliation.iscomingand wanting to learn. The Church in Canada had a huge role in a lot of the hurt and the pain and the wrong. We need to acknowledge it and we need to have that posture and attitude.” said Ryan. “We want to be a church in our community that will not go around and not avoid, but go to and wel come these things with a posture of humility.”
Pastor Ryan said his wife is part Sioux, and with Selkirk having a high population of Indigenous and Metis people, she has felt at home. “She has always felt a little bit out of place wherever she’s lived. Until we moved to Selkirk,” said Ryan. “Here, she is not confused and no one wonders where she is from.”Despite a high population, when Ryan started attending SCC there were no Indigenous people in the congregation. That is starting to change. Ryan was excited that the church band now has a Metis mando lin player and a Metis fiddle player.
Lisa and Jeannie have had many conversations about what programs and events would make sense to partner on or provide space for, but they also recognize that coming from different cultures and spiritual under standings, sometimes the answer is no.
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REFLECTIONarena?QUESTIONS O Resilient Leadership
ENCOURAGEMENT TO THOSE IN THE ARENA
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BONITA EBY attends and is a former pastor at WMB Church in Waterloo, Ontario. She is a burnout prevention strategist, executive coach, and owner of Breakthrough Personal & Professional Development Inc. Connect with Bonita at bonita@break-through.ca
• How can you celebrate that you have survived the
It is easy for those on the outside to assume they understand the challenges leaders face, whether the leader's position is CEO, administrator, church planter or pastor. But only the leader knows all that they have given.Some of the greatest gifts we can offer a hurting world come from our own suffering. Walking the hard road, making tough decisions, and choosing the best path forward amid challenges polishes our hard edges. But let's be honest; those scars are marks of suffering. And each scar we carry can become a gift to others if we are willing to do the hard inner work of discipleship and self-reflection. Unfortunately, without attending to that work, our scars can make us hard, causing us to use battle wounds as weapons rather than gifts. We must choose daily to love rather than defend, to give grace rather than blame.
ne of my favourite quotes comes from Theo dore Roosevelt. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shor coming; but who does actu ally strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achieve ment, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
• To whom do you need to extend grace even if they do not understand what you've been through?
Wherever you find yourself today, whether you feel you've come through the past years battered and bruised or triumphant, know that you have dared greatly. You have survived. You have persevered.
A battle scar I continue to overcome is speaking openly about burnout. When I first experienced burn out, there was a lot of stigma around it, and I felt an incredible amount of embarrassment. However, choos ing to help others prevent and overcome burnout is liberating. But I’ll be honest, doing so forces me to over come fear and choose love over shame on a daily basis.
• As you continue to walk your journey and lead others, what scars do you need to attend to?
Over the last few years, leaders have known what it means to be in the arena. They've led through crises, created new models, and chosen to love those who criticize them.
• Where do you need to listen and learn more than speak and defend?
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BY KEN ESAU ’ve been teaching for 34 years so far. Three were in a big public high school trying to teach Social Studies (think French Revolution, Louis Riel, and Canadian politics), Geography, and Psychology. The past 31 have been in a Bible college teaching Old Testament and Theology. I still have so much to learn about teaching—and I am overjoyed to watch gifted teachers and preachers (especially young teachers and preachers) who are able to keep people’s attention while making a real and significant impact with their words.
1. Actually get the audience’s attention. One of my former bosses always cited Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, who apparently said that the first and the last bites are the most important. I’m not sure exactly how that works in the food business, but it is certainly true of public speak ing. Make sure that you actually get people’s attention. Let the first bite be engaging. In the first five minutes, the audience is making a decision about you and your presen tation. Will this be worth giving their attention to? If you
2. There are many ways to get people’s attention including taking new looks at old topics, asking new questions about seemingly obvious topics, or introducing interesting new informa tion. Cognitive dissonance is when we have new experiences or encounter new information that doesn’t fit per fectly into our settled understanding of the world. Our brains have a natural energy to try to resolve this dissonance. Creating a level of dissonance without producing instability or chaos is an art form worth working at.
Keeping Attention and Making an Impact
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3.“Listen” to the audience. All through your presentation, the audience is com municating to you through their eyes, their postures, their laughter, their
A few thoughts from an “old” teacher
aren’t successful in getting their atten tion at the beginning, it will be difficult to gain it later. But the caveat here is that you need to get their attention in a way that fits your purpose. If you use a gimmick only loosely connected to your purpose, the audience might remember the gimmick but have no idea what your presentation was about. I LET THE FIRST BITE BE ENGAGING. IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES, THE AUDIENCE IS MAKING A DECISION ABOUT YOU AND YOUR PRESENTATION.
I have also watched others who have worked so hard pre paring well but it seems their impact is blunted—at least from what I can see as I watch them. To use a not very Anabaptist metaphor, it is like trying to shoot at a bear with a shotgun at 200 yards. There might be a loud sound, but the little pellets scatter here and there with only a few grazing the bear with littleIfeffect.there is anything I’ve learned about teaching/present ing/preaching, it is that you need to first get and keep people’s attention if you want to make any positive impact at all. I’ve also learned that unless we make a real impact, our presen tations will be like a loud shotgun blast. We notice it but not muchSohappens.hereare a few thoughts for those of us who are called to this kind of work. While many people think that presenters are in a monologue with their audience, every good speaker knows that it is actually a dialogue. Public speaking is like like playing catch with someone, but if all you do is throw a ball without receiving it back, you will (or rather should) stop throwing it. So here are a few suggestions about getting and keeping audience attention:
5. Let the audience impact your presentation—but not too much. Public speaking is like trying to lead people on a hike. If all you do is stare at your map and run up the trail to the destination without looking back, you will get to the top of the mountain mostly alone. But if you actually turn around and look at the hikers you’re trying to lead, you will find that some of them are with you, while others are not anywhere in sight because they stopped to drink water, check their phones, or rest at the side of the trail. Most often the leader of a hike needs to stop regularly along the way, check in with the hikers, and make decisions about how far we can all go today. If not, a bunch of hikers will check out and not re-engage with you next time. This is the same principle for speaking. Check in with your audience by looking up at them, varying your physical posture by taking some steps to the right or left, leaning forward, and/ or creating some natural “rest” or “refocusing” breaks. Peo ple’s ability to listen intensely is limited just like people cannot hike intensely for too long. They need to stop for water, an energy bar, and to hear some brief encouragement about why they should keep going. However, we cannot end the hike after the first big hill and the first complaint from someone in the group about being tired. We carry a vision for the hike. We have been given
19MENNONITE BRETHREN HERALD SEPTEMBER 2022 solemn silence, and so on. If you are listening for these cues, you can tell when they are right with you, when they have checked out, when you need to slow down, speed up, or get them to say something out loud. Notice the signals— or ignore them to your own peril.
4. Encourage responses. While it is difficult to find ways for listeners to respond in the midst of spoken presenta tions, if you make no effort here, you will fall victim to our ever-decreasing attention spans. Personal involvement re-sets all of us as listeners to lean in. Have listeners read part of the text out loud together. Invite listeners to actu ally speak out loud at points. Have listeners give a brief response to the person beside them about what they find new, interesting, or challenging in the text. Repeat key phrases together. Say “Amen!” Now, there are some lis teners who prefer sitting quietly and are uncomfortable chatting with those beside them, but we become commu nity together when we talk to others and when we listen to others. As a church, we are a worshipping community, a learning community, a caring community, and a missional community. Even a (mostly) one-way presentation that invites listener responses can encourage growth in multi ple areas. We need to make the most of this opportunity.
UNTIL YOU FIND SOMETHING WORTH SAYING, YOU ARE AT BEST BEING AN ENTERTAINER.
a task. We are here to encourage and bless, but we also want to instill fortitude and resilience, so our hikers can go beyond what they feel capable of. While we might be dis couraged because a listener in the back row closed their eyes, we carry on. Someone asked me once how long a ser mon or a one-way teaching talk should be. My response was: “You should only talk as long as most people are actively listening.” There is no point in planning a 15-kilome tre hike with hikers whose capacity is only 5 kilometres. However, with careful plan ning and listening to the group, people can often hike a bit further than they expected. However, there is a point when even with our best efforts, people will stop actively lis tening and we need to realize that pushing further will actually undermine the joy and accomplishments already achieved. If we just push on further and further, our hik ers/listeners might make it today, but they will likely tune out next time. Our second goal is to actually have an impact on the audience. Here are a few tips to more likely meet this goal: 1. Have something important to say. When it comes to presenting for impact, the key thing is not your charismatic style, your super interesting and funny stories, or your jumping up on a chair— but actually having something worth saying. Until you find something worth saying, you are at best being an enter tainer. Everything depends on this—do you have something worth saying that could truly impact people? The listener will still have to decide to listen, engage, and live into this new possibility—but they are giving you their valuable time. Again, honour everyone’s time by bring ing something worth saying.
WE BECOME COMMUNITY TOGETHER WHEN WE TALK TO OTHERS AND WHEN WE LISTEN TO OTHERS.
4. Bring honest passion to the presentation. I once was lis tening to a teacher complaining about how the students hated a certain course because the material was so boring. I asked him what he thought of the material and he said he found it super boring as well. I’m not sure what I said in response, but I do know that normally people will be no more excited about a topic than you are. Unless you can bring honest passion to the topic, it will be hard to keep anyone’s attention. If the leader of a hike is not honestly excited about the hike, it is hard to imagine the group being excited. Passion is a sort of energy drink that helps overcome hardship and the suffering involved in the jour ney. The less passion, the less energy there is to overcome these hardships.
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5. Finish well. We come back now to Dave Thomas’ words about the first and last bites being the most important. I often find myself rushing to finish—but the research says STOP and BREATHE here. Take in the view. Finish well. Don’t introduce new things. Circle back to the introduc tion and how you got their attention in the first place. Try to bring a sense of both completion and non-completion. The hike is over. You’ve walked up the hill (or at least to a key viewpoint). But at the same time, we should leave with one thing in our heads and hearts that we will carry forward and think more about because it is not yet com plete. We have received something to ponder. That is what Jesus so often modeled in his teaching, and there’s no bet ter example than that.
2. Don’t have too many important things to say: There are limits to people’s capacities to engage deeply. If a hik ing guide stops too many times on a hike for pictures, the group will remember the hike as a blur rather than a deeply embedded memory. Most often one beautiful view will have much more impact than five that we have raced past. Now if our presentation is a sermon, that one beau tiful and enduring view should come directly out of the biblical text. We shouldn’t decide on the beautiful view we want to share and then find a biblical text to support it. Most effective sermons have one significant thing at the centre—one thing truly important enough to ponder and reflect on. 3. Structure your talk for maximum impact. While people who teach semester-long courses have some extra free dom here, those of us making single presentations in front of an audience need to plan our presentations carefully. Once we have something worth saying (a beautiful view worth sharing), that view has to be front facing all the way through our presentation. If we are preaching on a biblical text, we also need to make sure that the text itself is fronted. If our personal illustrations or some peripheral information is more engaging and interesting than the text itself, we have placed something else in front of the text. The text itself (and the ultimate author of that text!) should captivate our attention.
So to conclude, every speaker wants to capture attention and make an impact. What is listed here is all about our human efforts—and we are responsible to do our best in this area. However, for those of us preaching and teaching the Bible, we know that all of our efforts are meaningless with out the Holy Spirit illuminating the minds and hearts of our listeners. We do every thing we can, but everything begins and ends with that Holy Spirit working both in us and in the listeners. While we plan, pre pare, and speak as well as we are able, we also pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us—and then for the Holy Spirit to work in the listen ers. That will ultimately be what makes the greatest eternal impact!
KEN ESAU is the Interim National Faith and Life Director for CCMBC. He is presently on an unpaid leave from Columbia Bible College where he has been privileged to teach for 31 years. He and Karen attend The Life Centre in Abbotsford, BC.
Betty was a community-minded person who enjoyed taking on volunteer assignments that included the Bakerview Church library, chairing the B.C. chapter of the Church and Synagogue Library Association and the Abbotsford Parkinson’s Support Group, as well as involvement in refugee sponsorships through her church. After her children left home to pursue their own careers, there was rarely a time when she did not welcome foreign students or friends needing a place to stay. Betty was known for her warm hospitality, resulting in many rich conversations with friends over an evening meal.
Since settling in Abbotsford in 1974, she enjoyed participation in small home groups and a readers group. She loved flowers, especially dahlias and orchids, which were perpetually on display in her home. After a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, Betty passed away peacefully, forever freed of the symptoms which had robbed her of independence, but not of her gentle personality.
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Finish lines
OBITUARIES
ELIZABETH (BETTY) MARGARET GIESBRECHT Betty was born to pioneer Sumas Prairie farmers. After high school, Betty spent a year studying at MB Bible Institute before enrolling in Home Economics at University of B.C. Following her teacher training, she enjoyed a productive career. She and her husband David took on several overseas assignments, including teaching in Nigeria and Jamaica. However, most of her professional work was invested at Abbotsford Junior Secondary School.
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Birth: May 30, 1939 Birthplace: Sumas Prairie, B.C. Death: July 12, 2022 Parents: Henry & Tina Dahl Married: David Giesbrecht Family: David; children Clarence, Karen; granddaughters Elli, Belle Church: Clearbrook, Abbotsford, B.C.
Courtesy of the Mennonite Archival Information Database in time
A moment
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ROME, 1979 Canadian minister, Steve E. Paproski visits Rome for an audience with Pope John Paul II. See The Ukrainian News story on the next page.
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RECONCILIATIONAPPROACHINGTRUTHANDWITH
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LOVE IN OUR HEARTS Re e ing on the Pope’s apology