From the editor

Over the last few weeks, my son and I have been rehearsing our parts in our church’s Good Friday (Easter) cantata. By the time you read this, the cantata will be in our rearview, and we can get back to whatever else we do with our spare time. At 19, he doesn’t hang out with his dad as much as he once did. So I am grateful for the evenings we spent in biblical costumes and fake facial hair. Even more thankful for the times he helped me sharpen my lines and how he brought insight into what language best conveys the Easter messages of hope, salvation and grace.

How deliberate are we in choosing words of hope and affirmation? How often do we take inspiration from Jesus in framing our conversations or self-talk? In her devotional, on page 29, Ontario pastor Connie Maier shares how her mother’s passing and the following grief causes her to rethink how words can bring comfort amid the turmoil.

In his essay entitled “All in the family?” MB Seminary’s Brian Cooper unpacks how our perception of an MB Church family has developed and challenges us to be, first and foremost, a spiritual family “united not simply in a common commitment to Jesus, but in a common understanding of what that commitment entails.”

This issue is rich with content, one of the lengthiest issues I’ve worked on. There’s so much to take in, but I do not want you to miss Dan Chook Reid’s testimony starting on page 15. In “Jesus shines through brokenness,” Dan shares how the Ontario Conference of MB Churches and his family at Bytown Community Church sustained and supported him through a church plant interrupted by his multiple cancer diagnoses.

I am more than impacted—I’m downright gut-punched sometimes by the depth of human suffering I read in the pages of this magazine. And then, a turn of the page reveals a story of reconciliation and healing, lives renewed through the grace of Jesus.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the April issue of MB Herald Digest Thanks to the readers and churches who support us by reading and sharing the MB story daily. It’s an honour to serve this community of churches.

God bless.

CARSON SAMSON Communications director

2023 Provincial Assemblies And Conventions

ONMB Convention

February 24-25

MBCM Assembly

March 3-4

AEFMQ Convention

March 21 & 25

SKMB Assembly

March 24-25

ABMB Convention

April 14-15

BCMB Convention

April 28-29

Pastors Credentialing Orientation

THE MEETING PLACE •WINNIPEG Register at pco.mennonitebrethren.ca